Disgruntled SMH staff are planning to send a letter to
Fairfax shareholders to ask them to vote against the board’s
remuneration resolutions and to “demand people with media experience on
the board,” SMH journalist and Federal President of the Media, Entertainment &
Arts Alliance, Alan Kennedy has told Crikey.

And the latest reverberations from the jobs cuts announcement are coming out of the SMH photographic department, with news that a third
of the SMH‘s photo department have been offered redundancies.

In an email to colleagues, SMH photographer Andrew Meares
has confirmed that 5-8 photographers in Sydney
have been offered the packages and warned colleagues that when the
redundancies take effect in three weeks time, it will be
“unlikely” their photo requirements will be able to be met. “We have
serious concerns about the ramifications of this decision. No
alternative photo coverage plans have been presented,” he said.

Our insider told Crikey that The Age editor Andrew Jaspan
addressed the board on Friday about future plans after last week’s
redundancies announcement, but Jaspan travelled to Sydney without Fairfax Victorian Manager Director Don
Churchill, “much to Churchill’s
chagrin.”

Another stop-work meeting has been planned to review whether
the company will agree to roll over the current enterprise agreement so
that all staff conditions such as holidays, parental leave, penalty rates and
redundancy provisions are preserved. News Ltd agreed to this provision
for its staff a few months ago, but rumours are rife that
Fairfax may not agree to it.