I ... entered the poem of life, whose purpose is ... simply to witness the beauties of the world, to discover the many forms that love can take. (Barabara Blackman in 'Glass After Glass')

These poems are works in progress and may be updated without notice. Nevertheless copyright applies to all writings here and all photos (which are either my own or used with permission). Thank you for your comments. I read and appreciate them all, and reply here to specific points that seem to need it — or as I have the leisure. Otherwise I reciprocate by reading and commenting on your blog posts as much as possible.

5 May 2017

The Decline of Print

(a found prose-poem)

Headline: Fairfax journalists face axe!
Journalists at Fairfax Media are bracing themselves 
for big job losses at the publisher’s news­papers
in a fresh attack on costs.

Journalists have said the drastic industrial action 
is them saying "enough" to the cutting of jobs and instead
finding a way to invest in journalism.

Headline: Fairfax journalists miss budget!
It means staff will not cover the federal budget, 

which will be handed down on Tuesday.

Headline: Fairfax to publish as usual!
Fairfax Media says it is "disappointed" 

journalists from three of its mastheads have voted
to strike for a week in response to job cuts, but
will continue to publish its newspapers as usual.

The protests come …in response to the company’s decision to cut
125 staff in a bid to save $30 million. That figure is reported to be
approximately the same amount that Fairfax executives –
including [the] chief … could claim in recent bonuses.

Irony, un-headlined:
Fairfax journalists announced via Twitter 
that they will be on strike 
for seven days from Wednesday.

Personal cop-out:
I’m not taking sides here; 
I’m just reporting.

Created in response to Poets United's Midweek Motif  ~ News Media. 

Notes:

This unprecedented situation is going on in Australia right now. Fairfax is Australia's leading media company.

The first headline is an example of irony in itself. I haven't put a link there because, in the short time of writing the poem, I can no longer get access to this article; the rival media chain which published it now urges me to subscribe online to keep seeing the content.

Another irony is that the job cuts were announced on World Press Freedom Day.

10 comments:

  1. Brilliant. I wish it was fiction, but you can't really make this stuff up. Thank you!

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  2. Ha!The medium and the consumer both are changing so rapidly, many things will be sacrificed along the way! Like the irony here.

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  3. Sadly, many small town papers are being cut and replaced with wire service reports, to fill them, in Canada. All, in the pursuit of the all mighty bottom line. Wish the Fairfax reporters luck, in their fight.

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    Replies
    1. Even more alarming here, in that Fairfax is our leading media company!

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    2. (So for those national newspapers not to be reporting on the national Budget is a very big deal.)

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  4. ah..today I read about the plight of some journalist of a local newspaper here...the changing scenarios and all...so stories repeat across the globe...nice take on the prompt!

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  5. Wow, classic to cut jobs as the execs pad their wallets. As an old newspaper reporter, this is all very sad. Capitalism is choking to death on its own excess - something I remember reading Russia was predicting back in the 70's.

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  6. Oh this is such a brilliant response to the prompt, Rosemary!

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  7. Ah...a sad scenario indeed! Journalism faces crisis world-wide!Thanks for sharing...
    Rosemary.
    I had some internet issues this time, hence got delayed this time...sorry!

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  8. Ouch, job cuts are a nightmare haunting almost all sectors. A cut of 125 staff is a big number for a newspaper, one wonders what'll be left of the newspaper.

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