Independent Australia has a story on more empty desks in the tree killer’s lair:
Approximately a dozen call centre staff and 20-30 classifieds staff will be outsourced in the coming months; as well as a number of positions in accounts and pre-press getting cut altogether.
It is understood that similar positions in The Age and the Sydney Morning Herald will share the same fate soon after the Canberra transition has been completed.
The services will be taken over by TeleTech, an American-based Business Process Outsourcing company operating in 24 countries including Canada, Costa Rica and The Philippines. As yet it is unknown where the jobs will be moved to.
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Plenty of freelance work and jobs out out here in the bush 😉
– sacked Pirate Party media officer Myles Peterson
The CT is going tabloid, just a few month after the others.
Roundhead89 said :
The Canberra Times is *not* becoming a tabloid. Both The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age published front page stories today giving details about the new format. The CT today did not have a similar story. Apparently the CT is happy with the old broadsheet format because – unlike Sydney and Melbourne – the CT’s major sales are by home delivery where people read it over breakfast, and there are very few people who buy the paper to read while commuting on public transport where the smaller page size is a plus.
zippyzippy said :
There wasn’t an official announcement from the CT that they are going tabloid but the word is that it will happen on March 4 along with the SMH and The Age. The Old English masthead will go and be replaced by a variation of the Sunday masthead.
And the SMH is about to reinvent itself in tabloid size. Wonder if the Canberra times is going to do that soon too? Like the Sunday paper every day.
the broadsheet obsession was always a sign they were antiquated dinosaurs.
What matters is the content of the words, not what they’re printed on.
Perhaps, some time down the track, the ACT government might consider making the current seemingly amicable relationship between it and the CT more official, and provide some funding for “journal of record” purposes. I realise many would howl at the thought of that, and any such funding should probably be up for grabs by tender, but when I think of all the other things that the local government spends public money on, allocating a modest amount of money to keep alive some form of community record is surely a priority at least worth considering.
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This is a joke, surely? Or, as Private Eye would say, Shurley Shome Mishtake?
You can always tell when an industry is on its last legs – when it starts asking taxpayers to keep it alive. In what way is the print version of the CT as a ‘journal of record’ any more valuable than the numerous online media, including the CT online?
As a ratepayer who is already furious about the waste of my money on hideous public art and handouts to ‘community groups’ that benefit no-one but the immediate recipients, how about setting up a privately funded enterprise called “The Canberra Times” to do this? It could record for the benefit of history such front-page stories as the prediction of the recent local elections, and the leadership of the Liberal Party.
LSWCHP said :
Just fill this beret with coins…(-:
c_c™ said :
That’s actually a good point, which I had in mind when I made my comment about a somewhat reduced printed version.
Perhaps, some time down the track, the ACT government might consider making the current seemingly amicable relationship between it and the CT more official, and provide some funding for “journal of record” purposes. I realise many would howl at the thought of that, and any such funding should probably be up for grabs by tender, but when I think of all the other things that the local government spends public money on, allocating a modest amount of money to keep alive some form of community record is surely a priority at least worth considering.
poetix said :
Is that a cross-lingual play on words I spy there? If so, my hat is off to you. 🙂
Robertson said :
It was pointed out to me the other day that in recently refurbished cafés in inner Melbourne and Sydney they are making the space each person has just big enough for a meal and a small computer such as an iPad. No room for a large newspaper, certainly. Even a tabloid would be difficult. (A small book of poetry would be perfect, of course…)
I had a moment of revelation the other day when I dropped some asparagus from my panini on my iPad…Definition of middle class?
Sammy, they must be setting them in hot-metal type. Of course, on a pro-rata basis, the SMH must have had tens of thousands of classifieds staff in its heyday … (scratches head)
They have “20-30 classifieds staff”? Gobsmacked. What do they all do? There are currently about 250 classified ads listed on the Canberra Times website. Assuming that not all of them were taken in a single day, lets imagine that they take 150 new classified ads per day. That means each worker is processing as little as five classifieds per day?
Catty said :
Of course you can.
A touch screen above the breakfast bar is ideal, but a laptop on the kitchen table will do.
Can’t read an online version over the cornflakes…
I actually buy a Times most working weekdays, to read at lunchtime, but can’t remember when I last looked at a classified. Zero interest in subscribing. So how do I access it online in the future?
If I can’t, I’ll probably stop buying it.
c_c™ said :
Schady characters?
Barcham said :
You know what they say about people who derive satisfaction from the downfall of others.
I’m rather pleased.
Jazz said :
There’s something people are forgetting though, to my knowledge, RiotACT isn’t archived (because the law has yet to figure out print is on the way out and legal deposit needs to expand online). In another hundreds year, what will future Canberrans use to look back on Canberra’s day to day history?
We’ll love it when all CT’s advertisers see the writing on the wall and come and see what we have to offer.