Nine Entertainment, Australia's largest media company, has announced it will cut approximately 30 newsroom positions at the Sydney Morning Herald and the Age, attributing the decision to what it describes as an 'extreme state of disruption' caused by artificial intelligence (AI).
Voluntary and targeted redundancies
On Tuesday, Nine's managing director of publishing, Tory Maguire, informed staff that the cuts would be achieved through a combination of voluntary and targeted redundancies. Maguire emphasized that the move is not merely a cost-cutting exercise but an 'evolution' to adapt to structural changes in the industry.
'In the last 12 months, as we have discussed many, many times at the publishing town halls, we are in an extreme state of disruption because of AI,' Maguire said.
Digital-first retraining and hiring
The company plans to retrain existing staff and hire new employees for what Maguire described as 'digital-first, reader-savvy, data-informed roles.' She noted that the Australian Financial Review (AFR), which will not be affected by the restructure, is more evolved in its digital-first approach, having implemented a paywall in 2007.
Industry-wide AI impact
According to the Reuters Institute's Digital News Report 2026, 10% of news consumers globally use AI chatbots to access news, a figure that rises to 16% among those under 35. Research from the University of Sydney indicates that Australian journalism is largely 'invisible' in AI-generated news summaries from Microsoft Copilot, which predominantly features US and European media.
Financial pressures
Nine's digital subscription revenue declined by 6% last year. Maguire stated that reader revenue stalled for the first time in three years, placing the division under 'enormous pressure,' partly due to the popularity of AI-generated search results that reduce click-through rates to news articles.
Previous job cuts and industrial action
The announcement follows a series of job reductions at Nine. In 2024, the company cut 200 jobs, including 90 positions from its legacy mastheads and the AFR. Those cuts sparked industrial action and led to dozens of senior journalists accepting voluntary redundancies. At the time, Nine cited Meta's withdrawal from the news media bargaining code as a key reason for the cost-cutting.
Later in 2024, Nine's chief executive, Matt Stanton, revealed that the company faced $100 million in cuts over the following two years. When Nine merged with Fairfax Media in 2018, a total of 144 jobs were eliminated.
