Fairfax sub-editors face the chop

Another blow to print media as Fairfax cuts 40 sub-editing jobs from its New Zealand group.

190 sub-editors are employed across the group and Fairfax Media have suggested that 40 of these will be made redundant in a move to create "national centres of excellence" for the world, features and business pages of its nine daily newspapers. The company also flagged the possibility that generic pages for weather and television were possible.

In a statement, Fairfax Media's executive editor, Paul Thompson, said that editors would remain in control of everything printed in their newspapers.

"Feature pages and world and business pages require an expertise that is not always available at individual newspapers and, through this proposal, we can ensure that all our readers will have the same consistent standard of editing excellence."

A spokesman from Fairfax Australia was unable to comment as to whether a similar situation would occur for sub-editors working in Australia.