The strangulation of the Thursday edition of The Sydney Morning Herald continues with this morning’s business section reduced to just three editorial pages, plus a page of sharemarket and finance tables in this morning’s 40-page paper. Monday’s 44-page paper had six editorial pages, and no tables.

Tuesday’s 44-page paper had six editorial pages, but no share or finance tables. Wednesday’s edition had five editorial pages and a page of sharemarket and finance tables (which must make it hard for anyone following the sharemarket and reading the print edition of the SMH). What is notable is that the business section in the SMH no long appears as a standalone liftout, but is now just in the paper as a whole.

The dropping of the finance tables on some days is a sign of confusion at the SMH about the planning of each day’s paper. With Thursday’s SMH the lowest-selling edition of the week (with just over 95,000 copies), the future is definitely finite.

As Crikey pointed out last week, the moving of the popular columnist Elizabeth Farrelly from Thursday’s paper to Saturday’s bigger-selling edition (around 191,000 copies), was the first sign Fairfax is starting to prepare to close the Thursday paper. The confusion over the inclusion of the finance tables is another sign of the lack of interest in meeting what readers want in their paper. Fairfax management just don’t care as they slash costs. Fairafax is limiting the Monday-to-Friday papers to a maximum of 44 pages (and the Financial Review as well).