Following my previous post about Michael Short leaving as Age business editor, I understand that some kind of merger between The Age and Sydney Morning Herald business desks is on the cards and will be announced shortly – but I am told that it will be short of a full merger. Indeed it is hard to see how such a thing could work in practice.
Rather, there will be more cooperation between the two cities over what gets covered and who covers it, and more sharing of copy. However, there will still be both a Melbourne and a Sydney based business editor.
More as it comes to hand.
UPDATE: Since writing this, I have received a little more information.
Some kind of restructure of the Age and Sydney Morning Herald business sections is scheduled for announcement tomorrow, but exactly how it will work is far from clear even to senior people in the organisation.
What is clear is that things are moving very, very fast indeed at Fairfax, apparently in the attempt to cut costs. The decision to restructure business coverage and grant Short’s oft expressed wish to move on is, at most, days old.
It seems Age editor Paul Ramadge was speaking the truth, so far as he knew it, when he told the House Committee last week that there would be no mergers of sections.
But then, it was only a week ago that Fairfax was saying it did not need to raise capital – and it has now done so.
