nine-fairfax

The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age’s shift from Fairfax to Nine was always going to see a few new hires (perhaps due to Nine’s much more impressive budget). But, since the merger was announced in July last year, the most surprising development is just how many of the new hires come directly from News Corp.

Arguably, a lot of the moves started with the appointment in March of James Chessell — who’d previously worked for Fairfax before posts with News and then-employment minister Joe Hockey — as group executive editor of Fairfax’s metropolitan newspapers, a few months ahead of the merge.

After diving into some of the politics around The Oz’s recent exodus, here’s an updated list of journalists and editors who’ve made the move from News Corp to Fairfax under Chessell:

  • David King, current Victorian editor for The Australian, was yesterday announced as the new Sunday Age editor
  • Anthony Galloway, Herald Sun federal political reporter will join The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald next month as foreign affairs and national security correspondent in Canberra
  • Chip Le Grand, The Australian’s former chief Melbourne reporter, started at The Age in August
  • Rob Harris, former political reporter at The Herald Sun, moved to national affairs editor at The Age in July
  • Kylar Loussikian, former Daily Telegraph political reporter, joined The Age and the SMH as a CBD columnist in June 2018
  • Samantha Hutchinson, former Victorian political reporter at the Oz, joined Loussikian to co-write the CBD column in December 2018
  • Dana McCauley, former Oz media writer, moved to federal political reporter at The Age and the SMH in July 2018, and
  • David Crowe, former political reporter for the Oz, became chief political correspondent of The Age and the SMH in January 2018 — back when Chessell was national editor.

On a related note, The Age also nabbed Private Media’s own Dominic Powell in July. And we are just fine with that!

Have we missed anyone? Please let us know at boss@crikey.com.au.