July 21, 2026, (Inside AI) — Nine Entertainment, Australia’s largest locally owned media company, will cut around 30 newsroom jobs at The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, citing what its publishing managing director Tory Maguire called the “extreme state of disruption” from artificial intelligence.
The redundancies, a mix of voluntary and targeted cuts, were announced to staff on Tuesday. Maguire framed the move not merely as cost reduction but as an “evolution” toward a digital-first, data-informed newsroom structure.
Maguire told staff the Australian Financial Review, which has operated behind a paywall since 2007, is more advanced in digital transformation and will not be affected. The cuts come two years after Nine slashed 200 roles, including 90 from its legacy mastheads.
“In the last 12 months, as we have discussed many, many times at the publishing town halls, we are in an extreme state of disruption because of AI,” Maguire said. She added that the company plans to retrain existing staff and hire for “digital-first, reader-savvy, data-informed roles.”
The announcement underscores a deepening crisis for news publishers worldwide as generative AI reshapes how audiences discover and consume information. Maguire stressed that AI’s impact exceeds that of the internet and social media. “The internet and social media did not disrupt us as much as ... AI,” she said.
Data from the Reuters Institute’s Digital News Report 2026 shows 10% of global news consumers now use AI chatbots for news, rising to 16% among those under 35. Meanwhile, Google’s AI-generated summaries are reducing click-through rates to publisher websites, directly threatening subscription and advertising revenue.
Research from the University of Sydney found Australian journalism was largely “invisible” in AI-generated news summaries from Microsoft Copilot, which overwhelmingly favor US or European media. This algorithmic erasure compounds the financial strain on local outlets.
Nine’s digital subscription revenue fell 6% last year, with reader revenue stalling for the first time in three years. Maguire attributed the stagnation partly to the popularity of AI search results, which bypass traditional article links.
The job cuts follow a turbulent period for Nine. In 2024, layoffs sparked industrial action and saw dozens of senior journalists take voluntary redundancies after Meta exited the news media bargaining code. Later that year, CEO Matt Stanton warned of $100 million in cuts over two years. The 2018 merger with Fairfax Media had already eliminated 144 positions.
Industry observers note that Nine’s strategy—hiring for digital-savvy roles while cutting legacy positions—mirrors a global trend. However, critics argue that without robust regulatory frameworks, such as mandated compensation from AI platforms, journalism’s public-interest function remains at risk.
