Fairfax Media announced it is cutting 120 editorial jobs from three mastheads in Sydney and Melbourne.  Staff at the Sydney Morning Herald, the Age in Melbourne, and the Australian Financial Review walked out in protest and will stay on strike until Monday.

"Change is a permanent part of our industry," wrote Fairfax editorial director Sean Aylmerin an email to staff.  "It is a reflection of what we know about the ways our readers are consuming our stories.  We must continue to evolve with them," he added.

In a series of emergency stop-work meetings, staffers voted to strike until the first shift on Monday.  This is a significant length of time for a staff walkout and covers the most important parts of the business.  The job action will encompass workers at Fairfax's online editions, and the Friday, Saturday, and Sunday editions of its newspapers.  This will include 14 members of staff at the Age and SMH parliamentary assigned to the bureau in Canberra. 

"It's the staff on the newsroom floor who have driven the transition to digital and through all the challenges continued to produce high quality independent journalism,” said Paul Murphy, CEO of the journalists union Media, Entertainment & Arts Alliance (MEAA).  "And this is the reward.  Yet another savage cut to editorial.  We will be fighting for every job."