Journalists at The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age will strike for one week after their owners, Fairfax Media, announced the axing of 125 jobs.

Fairfax staff were told via email and in a meeting on Wednesday that the equivalent of 125 full-time jobs — around one quarter of its metropolitan journalists — would be axed to help save $30 million across The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald, The Australian Financial Review and WA Today.

“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,” the company said in an internal note.

Fairfax journalists said the company was offering voluntary redundancies at both The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.

Age staff after the vote on Wednesday. Photo: Twitter/Rohan Connolly

In addition to slashing staff numbers, Fairfax will also cap rates for freelance contributors and cut payments to casuals, aimed at cutting $3 million from the budget.

Management also signalled a change in editorial focus with the The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, Brisbane Times and WA Today to publish fewer state-based stories.

But the media company has previously denied the cuts herald the death of the newspapers’ print editions.

Announcing the $30 million savings target last month, director of Australian metro publishing Chris Janz said Fairfax was still committed to print publishing “for many years … so long as our newspapers have an audience and advertise”.

News revenue and print circulation have long been in decline, but the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance – the union representing journalists – slammed the move, saying it is “appalled” and the decision will weaken Fairfax’s business.

“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,” MEAA chief executive Paul Murphy said.

“This will only undermine and damage its mastheads further, alienating its audience and leaving the remaining editorial staff having to work harder and harder to fill the gaps.

“This is a dumb decision.”

Fairfax moves follows savage News Corp cuts

The announcement comes only weeks after Fairfax rival and Australia’s largest media organisation, News Corp, flagged cuts to frontline editorial staff nationwide in a bid to save $40 million.

The News Corp cuts will reportedly target photographers and production staff, with some suggestions that up to two-thirds of photographic staff will be cut.

An MEAA spokesman told The New Daily the union was still discussing the extent of the News Corp cuts, with exact numbers still unconfirmed.

Staff were told that photographers made redundant will be able to freelance back to News Corp, and/or provide content as freelancers via photographic agencies Getty and AAP.

As part of the News Corp announcement, management also signalled earlier deadlines, more copy-sharing across cities and mastheads and journalists taking on more production elements including proof-reading their own work.

Fairfax has set staff a deadline of Tuesday for expressions of interest in voluntary redundancy, with a decision to be made by May 12.

– with AAP