Under the change, The Australian’s editor-in-chief, Michelle Gunn, will retain control of the national daily and assumes editorial responsibility for Vogue and other prestige publications.

Lilian Saleh, the national editor of the national news network, will keep her job but report directly to English. NCA Newswire, News Corp’s wire service will be housed in the same division as news.com.au.

A senior executive, familiar with the changes but not authorised to speak publicly about them, said the new restructure recognised that different parts of the publishing empire, which operate on difficult financial models, needed greater autonomy to serve their existing readers and develop future strategies.

It will also give masthead editors, and particularly English, greater direct control over the work of journalists and producers assigned to the National News Network.

The restructure, shaped by PwC consultants, removes the last remnants of the state-based fiefdoms that once ran the Murdoch empire under all-powerful former masthead editors.

In effect, Australia’s largest employer of journalists has adopted a national model, which it hopes will enable it to complete the transition from a print to a fully digital media company.

A decade ago, former chief executive, Kim Williams – now chairman of the ABC – tried to dismantle the state-based fiefdoms but met resistance from state executives and editors before he resigned from the company.

Managers and executives had known for months of the impending restructure, with some taking redundancies as early as February. Others learnt their fate this week.

The full impact of the restructure on newsrooms will become clear once staffing decisions are made by the new bosses on how best to meet their budgets.

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“I suspect a bunch of people over the next couple of weeks will learn that they haven’t got a job,” a senior company figure said.

The cuts follow a global budget meeting at the company’s Holt Street headquarters in Sydney last week, attended by News UK boss Rebekah Brooks, global chief executive Robert Thomson and chairman Lachlan Murdoch, who took over from Rupert Murdoch last year. They have now left the country.

On Tuesday, News staff pushed through a 12-month extension of their current Enterprise Bargaining Agreement, offering a 3.5 per cent pay rise, in order to focus on the impending job cuts.

“The company came and offered a 12-month roll-over deal of full EBA negotiations and members have resolved to accept the deal,” Media, Entertainment & Arts Alliance (MEAA) director Michelle Rae said.

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MEAA members have endorsed the deal, which will soon be put to a formal vote of endorsement by all News Corp staff.

The restructure comes as the company moves to form relationships with artificial intelligence companies. Last week, the company secured a significant deal with ChatGPT’s parent company, OpenAI.

The global deal for an undisclosed sum will result in OpenAI using content from more than a dozen of News Corp’s publications for its generative AI products.

Miller will address the National Press Club next month on the topic of “Australia and Global tech: time for a reset”.

He is expected to continue the company’s strident campaign against perceived dangers of social media and holding global tech platforms including Meta, owner of Facebook and also Instagram, to account.

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