The national capital's daily newspaper The Canberra Times will adopt a fresh new design as it makes the historic switch to a compact print format seven days a week as part of plans to modernise Fairfax Media's ACT publishing operations.
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The redesigned compact weekday, Saturday and Sunday Canberra Times editions will be introduced in the second half of 2016, with pages to be the same size as Fairfax stablemates The Australian Financial Review, The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.
The Canberra-based editorial director of Fairfax's Australian Community Media (ACM) division, Rod Quinn, a former editor-in-chief of The Canberra Times, said readers would find the new size easier to handle and navigate than the present broadsheet.
"The Canberra Times is changing to a more convenient shape but it will continue to deliver the same quality, independent journalism and agenda-setting local news coverage that has earned the respect and trust of Canberra readers for 90 years," he said.
Under the plan presented to Canberra staff on Thursday, The Canberra Times newsroom would be restructured, involving a proposal to call for voluntary redundancies of about 12 full-time equivalent positions, mostly from editorial. Fairfax's federal Parliamentary bureau in Canberra is not affected.
Director of ACM John Angilley said consultation with employees was now under way.
"We are committed to providing local coverage for Canberra readers by embracing change to ensure The Canberra Times remains the most trusted source of news and information in the community," Mr Angilley said.
"By better focusing our resources we are strengthening The Canberra Times for the future."
Fairfax has been transforming ACM newspapers and websites since 2014 to build a stronger, more sustainable and modern media network serving the ACT and regional, rural and suburban communities around Australia.
Staff in the ACT publishing group, which includes the NSW Southern Inland region, were also briefed on separate plans for mastheads including The Goulburn Post, Yass Tribune and Southern Highland News to move to a new digital-first publishing system, with more online content, redesigned print editions and new training and equipment for journalists and sales teams.
Under the plan The Queanbeyan Age would be merged with the Queanbeyan edition of The Chronicle and relaunched as a new-look free weekly newspaper, and the Cooma-Monaro Express and the Summit Sun at Jindabyne would no longer be published.
No final decisions have been made about the restructuring proposal, Mr Angilley said.
"Our full focus and attention in the weeks ahead is on consulting with our staff to ensure everyone fully understands the proposal and has the opportunity to share their feedback with us."
Fairfax's business manager for the ACT region, Corinne Whiteman, said the changes proposed were based on a detailed assessment of the needs of the business.
"We must adapt and evolve our business in response to how our audiences are consuming news and information - and the new ways advertisers want to connect with our valuable audiences," Ms Whiteman said.
ACT publishing's group managing editor John-Paul Moloney and group sales manager Maree Neale would lead the restructured editorial and sales teams, respectively.
The Canberra Times, celebrating 90 years of publishing in Canberra this year, has been produced as a broadsheet for 50 years.
It was previously published in the smaller page format between 1956 and 1964, and has presented its weekday Comment, Arts, Business and Sport sections on compact pages since 2013.
The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age moved to compact formats three years ago.
Canberra Times editor Grant Newton said changing the newspaper's format would be a milestone in the proud history of the masthead.
"In print, we are moving to the size that suits the modern reader and provides a more user-friendly experience," he said. "But the editorial tone and quality standards we set for our local journalism will be unchanged."
The original pledge of The Canberra Times, still stated daily atop the paper's editorial page, remained as relevant as ever.
"Whether it's breaking news online or an exclusive investigation in print, Canberra Times journalists take very seriously our mission to serve the national city and through it the nation," Newton said.
The Canberra Times and its breaking-news website canberratimes.com.au had a total masthead readership across all platforms of 911,000 people in January, up 25 per cent year-on-year - the masthead's biggest combined audience on record according to Enhanced Media Metrics Australia (emma) data.
Audiences accessing canberratimes.com.au on desktop reached 633,000 over the month, with mobile and tablet audiences up 28 per cent year-on-year to 187,000.
Digital audience growth has more than offset a 9 per cent fall in print readership, with net weekly readership Monday-to-Sunday at 160,000 in January.
