Chief executive of News Corp Robert Thomson (Image: AAP/David Crosling)

If we are to believe the self-congratulatory gush that poured from News Corp’s CEO Robert Thomson at last Friday’s results briefing — “We had the most profitable year since we created the new News Corp” — why is the company sacking dozens of journalists this week? 

Thomson said: “It is clear that there has been a strong improvement in the profitability of the news media businesses with News Corp UK, News Corp Australia and The New York Post all performing admirably and contributing to News Corp’s overall enhanced profitability”.

Now, three days after that gush, 25 journalists’ positions have been wiped out across News Corp Australia, adding to 50 back office workers who were flicked in July. 

That announcement was made via a memo to staff on Monday, even though Australian executive chairman Michael Miller’s crew at Holt Street must have known of the retrenchment plans on Friday.

Why are you sacking so many staff when your company is booming? At least News Corp’s 2020 bloodbath had an obvious driver: the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on sales and ad revenues. Hundreds of jobs were lost across the company in that purge, about 100 papers closed and positions simply vanished — not to mention the hundreds of jobs that were blown up at Foxtel.

According to an email memo quoted in Nine media yesterday The Australian will lose 10 positions, six from NSW and four from Victoria, Sydney’s The Daily Telegraph will lose two positions, and the company’s news network will lose three. Ten jobs will go from the regional and community divisions, including in Geelong, Hobart, regional Queensland, northern NSW and South Australia. 

It was only three months ago that Miller boasted that 100 editorial positions would be created after the company’s revenue-sharing agreements with Facebook and Google — deals which Thomson suggests will bring in $100 million or more for News Corp.

If one of News Corp’s own erstwhile publications was covering a story about any other company that announced booming profits one day and a tranche of sackings two days later, it would probably run under a headline like: “Record profits, then the cruel axe comes down on struggling workers”.

Or maybe: “Man bites dog”.