Senior journalists leave Sydney Morning Herald, Age and AFR in huge talent exodus

Striking Nine journalists outside their office in Melbourne last month. Up to 85 staff have taken voluntary redundancy from the Age, the Sydney Morning Herald and the Australian Financial Review. Photograph: Diego Fedele/EPA

Up to 85 journalists, most of them senior, have taken a voluntary redundancy from mastheads including the Sydney Morning Herald, the Age and the Australian Financial Review in the second exodus of editorial talent since the company formerly known as Fairfax Media shed more than 150 journalists in 2012. More than 100 staff left in another huge clearout in 2017.

The departures bookend a period of upheaval at Nine Entertainment during which 500 journalists at its publishing arm took industrial action over pay negotiations and the announcement of big cuts across the media business.