Industry at risk: striking Fairfax journos

Fairfax Media journalists are conflicted about not covering the federal budget but say their week-long strike against proposed job cuts is warranted because the future of the industry is at stake.

About 60 staff from the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age gathered outside Parliament House in Canberra on Monday, warning Fairfax's budget coverage would be limited.

Staff have demanded management revisit a decision to cut 125 positions, which they say will fundamentally undermine their ability to scrutinise key issues such as federal spending.

The Age associate editor Tony Wright, who would have been covering his 30th budget this week, admitted many Fairfax journalists were conflicted about missing the event.

"The reason somebody who's been in journalism for as long as I have is doing this (striking), really, is in the interests of those who will follow me and my older colleagues - the younger journalists," he told AAP on Monday.

"We want a future for them, we want a future for journalism in Australia."

Wright said management would send a small team into Tuesday's budget lockup.

But without the usual array of political and economic editors, commentators and specialised reporters, readers would notice the difference, he said.

Crossbench senator Derryn Hinch described striking Fairfax staff as "stupid".

A symbolic one-day strike would have been good but their decision to miss the budget was "irresponsible", he said.

"The company is broke, they've got some shark group trying to buy them out in New York and you're on strike for a week?" he told ABC radio.

"You may be protesting about losing 25 per cent of your staff, you could lose 100 per cent of your staff if it all goes down the gurgler."

Herald journalist Matthew O'Sullivan said Australia was at a crossroads with the media industry on its knees.

"This is about the removal of the fourth estate, an essential pillar to what we all take for granted - democracy," he told the protest in Canberra.

Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance union chief executive Paul Murphy said the "extraordinary" strike shows how much Fairfax reporters believed in "fearless and independent journalism".

"It's simply the wrong call to make, to keep cutting and cutting at the core of journalism," he told the rally.

Fairfax management says the job losses are necessary to find savings but staff are demanding the company find other ways to improve the bottom line.

Fairfax Media shares jumped to a five-week high on Monday after the struggling company's board said it was considering an unsolicited $2.2 billion proposal to split up its businesses.