Fairfax Media will cut 1,900 jobs over the next three years as it makes moves to become a digital media company.

Fairfax announced the job cuts amid a raft of new measures today, including the closure of two printing facilities, changes to the format of The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age newspapers, and the introduction of digital subscriptions.

“Readers’ behaviours have changed and will not change back,” chief executive Greg Hywood said in a statement.

“As a result, we are taking decisive actions to fundamentally change the way we do business.”

Hywood said Fairfax devised the changes after considering the merits of a full range of structural alternatives, including a demerger.

“The package of strategic initiatives is bold, and several are difficult, particularly as they will impact on some of our people,” he said.

“However, we believe that they are in the best interest of Fairfax, our shareholders, and ultimately the majority of our people. They’re necessary to ensure Fairfax retains its position as a leading independent media company and a key voice in our markets,” he added.

Fairfax will introduce subscriptions for its Sydney Morning Herald and The Age websites in early 2013, although free access will be available for some parts of those sites.

The printed versions of those two mastheads are also to be made more compact, similar to the size of its Australian Financial Review newspaper, from March 4, 2013.

Fairfax will also close printing facilities at Chullora in Sydney and Tullamarine in Melbourne by June 2014.

Both sites have printing presses with significant surplus capacity which is no longer required, Fairfax said.

The changes, in conjunction with measures already undertaken, will result in 1,900 job losses in the next three years, Fairfax said.

The measures will have a one-off cost of about A$248 million (RM789.4 million), and result in annual savings of A$235 million (RM748 million) from June 2014.

- Bernama