Steger among staff to leave Age/SMH

The books editor at the Age and Sydney Morning Herald, Jason Steger, is among dozens of journalists leaving the newspapers, reports the Guardian.

The Guardian stated that up to 85 journalists, most of them senior, had taken a voluntary redundancy from Nine-owned mastheads including the Sydney Morning Herald, the Age and the Australian Financial Review.

‘Journalists with dozens of years of experience to walk from Melbourne’s Age include the Walkley Award–winning social affairs editor, Jewel Topsfield, the senior writer Royce Millar, the North American correspondent, Farrah Tomazin, the books editor, Jason Steger, the Birpai man and Indigenous affairs journalist Jack Latimore, the culture editor, Osman Faruqi, and the music writer and editor Martin Boulton,’ the Guardian reported.

Discussing his departure with Books+Publishing, Steger said: ‘I have been very lucky to have had what I consider the best job in journalism, and would like to thank my colleagues at the Age/SMH and every author, publisher, bookseller, publicist and reviewer for making my work so enjoyable.’

Nine Entertainment said it had been ‘working with our people in reshaping the publishing business to ensure a sustainable future in response to the challenging advertising market and collapse of the Meta deal’, referring to the deals struck by Facebook owner Meta to pay Australian news companies compensation for the sharing of their news on the company’s platforms—deals which Meta will not renew.

‘We have now concluded this process, with around 85 people from our newsrooms, print operations and audience and commercial growth divisions regrettably leaving the business over coming months,’ said Nine.

Category: Local news