YESTERDAY the reality of the Fairfax redundancy scythe was felt across the troubled media group’s three metropolitan titles in Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra.

At the “Sydney Morning Herald”, around 70 editorial staffers have been accepted for voluntary redundancy and another 60 will leave “The Age”.

News website crikey.com reports that the atmosphere in “The Canberra Times” newsroom was sombre as those who had applied for redundancy were summoned into editor Rod Quinn’s office. The offer is believed to have been oversubscribed.

“One staff member approved for redundancy is long-term and much-respected cartoonist Ian Sharpe, whose graceful daubings have featured in the paper for decades,” says crikey.com.

Sharpe told them: “The Canberra Times has been my life for the past 24 years, I leave with mixed feelings. Yes, it will be a bit of a wrench.”

Many of those summoned to meet Quinn yesterday were told they would not receive a redundancy (the program has been oversubscribed) and morale at Fyshwick is said to be low.

“It’s been absolutely miserable, people are despondent, I’ve never known anything like it,” one newsroom source told Crikey. Another said: “Everyone’s just hating what’s going on.”

Apparently almost all of the night sub-editorial desk (11 journalists) applied for redundancy, although some were knocked back yesterday.

Apart from Sharpe, the only other known departees at this stage are: Diana Streak (arts editor) and Rossyln Beeby (environment reporter).