News Corp Closes Papers, Cuts Salaries. Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp is closing 36 of its local and regional newspapers in Australia by July and moving another 76 online, ending their print editions.
The company did not disclose how many employees would lose their jobs but said 375 staffers among the papers would be kept on, most in the state of Queensland in the country’s northeast.
News Corp stopped printing several of the papers last month, citing the loss of ad revenue forced by the economic lockdown. At the time, it said the suspensions were temporary.
Although the company has touted growing online readership of its Dow Jones subsidiary’s website, it has laid off hundreds of workers across its media properties this year, at its Move Inc. real estate business, and at Foxtel, an Australian cable TV service.
Last month, the company announced Murdoch would refuse his annual bonus and CEO Robert Thomson would forego 75 percent of his. Board members are reducing their compensation and executive salaries are being trimmed by 25 percent.
News Corp is the descendant of News Corporation, founded by Murdoch in Adelaide, Australia, in 1980.
TRENDPOST: The “Death of Journalism” trend has been extensively covered in the Trends Journal over the past decade and a half.
Bureaus have been closed across the globe and throughout nations. With fewer and fewer reliable sources of information covering government, corporate and social incidences occurring daily, as the saying goes, both ignorance and corruption flourish in the dark.
At the Trends Journal, we are unrelenting in the pursuit of truth and are dedicated in providing you the facts, analysis, and forecasts of the current events forming future trends.