Fairfax Media plans to eliminate 125 newsroom jobs representing about a quarter of its editorial staff.  Journos at the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age in Melbourne promptly voted to go on strike for a week.

Staff learned of the cuts at a meeting on Wednesday morning.  They'll be given until next Tuesday to volunteer for redundancy.  Fairfax also plans to slash $3 Million out of the budget by capping rates offered to freelance contributors and slashing payments to casuals.

"While we will be looking across all parts of the newsroom, at the end of the redundancy program we expect there will be significantly fewer editorial management, video, presentation and section-writer roles," said editorial director Sean Aylmer.

The result of the cuts for readers will be less coverage of state issues in The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, Brisbane Times, and WA Today.  But the strike means no coverage of the federal budget.

This brought a swift rebuke from the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance (MEAA) which represents Fairfax journos.

"The decision indicates that, yet again, Fairfax is opting for savage cuts that will only weaken its business further rather than investing in its products and working to achieve smarter outcomes," said MEAA chief executive Paul Murphy.  "None of the other parts of the Fairfax business are worth anything without the journalism and yet it is the journalism that Fairfax always cuts.  This will only undermine and damage its mastheads further, alienating its audience and leaving the editorial staff remaining to have to work harder and harder to fill the gaps."

About a year ago, Fairfax cut 120 jobs from The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, and Australian Financial Review.