Fairfax Media CEO Greg Hywood accused of fostering 'culture of executive neglect'

People leave the Fairfax offices in Sydney last week after the job cuts announcement. Photo / AP

Fairfax Media chief executive Greg Hywood has been accused of presiding over a "culture of executive neglect" in a no-confidence motion passed by journalists returning to work after a week-long strike.

Staff at the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age picked up their pens again on Wednesday as management warned that inappropriate use of social media could lead to their dismissal.

Journalists - who are facing the loss of 125 positions - suggested in their feisty resolution that Mr Hywood was paid as much as $7.2 million in 2016.

That was enough to employ 57 journalists, they said. "Greg Hywood, you have presided over a pernicious culture of executive neglect," The Age house committee member Miki Perkins said when reading out the no- confidence motion in Melbourne.

Greg Hywood was officially appointed CEO of Fairfax Holdings Ltd in Australia in 2011.

"Our 150-year-old mastheads are on their knees after years of cost-cutting and private equity companies are circling."

The no-confidence motion further accused Mr Hywood of allowing quality journalism to "wither" when he should have been seeking "ingenious ways" to sustain it.

Some of the most senior writers in Australia were absent from covering Tuesday's federal budget due to the strike.

Many Fairfax employees took to Twitter on Wednesday to urge readers to subscribe and help secure the mastheads' future.

But in an internal email, staff were told they could be fired if their use of social media breached company policies.

The email warned against belittling colleagues who chose to work during the strike. Fairfax also said it wouldn't tolerate employees "encouraging members of the public, including subscribers, to boycott Fairfax Media products during industrial action".

More than 10,000 people have signed a petition to save Fairfax jobs.

Hywood last week told investors the company would push ahead with the cuts to get Fairfax on a sustainable footing.

The Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance union said the strike had placed the future of journalism firmly in the spotlight and resulted in a Senate inquiry.

"Public-interest journalism is vital for a healthy democracy," MEAA chief executive Paul Murphy said.

The Senate committee will report by December and investigate factors including the role of government in ensuring a viable, independent and diverse media as well as "fake news" and its circulation on social media.

Greens Senator Scott Ludlam is concerned about the commercial imperatives "taking over" Fairfax, which he said was "effectively being asset-stripped".

"That's a disaster not just for Fairfax but for the rest of the country," he told reporters in Canberra on Wednesday.

The strike also drummed up support in the NSW upper house, which has passed a motion declaring "a properly funded media supports the operation of government and democracy in NSW".

Fairfax declined to comment when contacted by AAP.