Today FM’s latest ‘consultation’ meeting: Journalists, newsreaders told to reapply for jobs

Today FM’s news team have been left “exhausted” and “over it”, after the one-week consultation on proposed role disestablishments wrapped up yesterday, allegedly without changes to the company’s restructuring plans.

One staff member, spoken to by the Herald, said all reporters and newsreaders were being made redundant but could reapply for a position.

“We have to go through applying for jobs we were already doing, and go through an interview process.”

The station abruptly went off air on March 30, with senior hosts such as Tova O’Brien and Duncan Garner losing their jobs virtually immediately.

While their teams were given just three hours to give feedback, Today FM journalists, newsreaders and subeditors continued working, supplying news on the hour for the company’s music stations.

Last Tuesday, however, they were taken through a separate process and given a one-week consultation period.

Under the change, as reported in last week’s Herald Media Insider column, four newsreaders would lose their jobs and nine journalists were also told their roles were being disestablished.

A staffer today also confirmed two subeditors and the news boss have been kept on.

“We feel exhausted and some of us went through this previously with MediaWorks so not sure who to trust any more. It’s all been very badly handled and cold.”

The worker told the Herald they were unsure how many people would lose their jobs as the deadline for accepting redundancies was Monday.

They said the team felt “over it” at the meeting with management and human resources representatives yesterday, which they said was “short and sharp”.

“We’ve really been put through the wringer but kept turning up at all hours to professionally do our jobs.”

A spokesperson for MediaWorks told the Herald the company was retaining a news team.

“We have been in consultation with our current news team and proposed a new structure to suit the changing needs of the business.

“The majority of our news team will be retained, while some have opted to take redundancy.”

On whether any of the news team’s proposals during the consultation had been picked up, the spokesperson said they were “still working through” the new structure of the news team.

“Our priority is our people while we implement these changes.”

When questioned about the news team having to reapply for their jobs, allegations that staff recommendations during the consultation were not taken up and staff sentiments, the spokesperson said they had “nothing further to add”.