Local Federal Members, Sharon Bird and Stephen Jones, today voiced their support for the campaign by local Fairfax journalists at the Illawarra Mercury, Wollongong Advertiser, Lake Times and Kiama Independent who are fighting to stop further cuts to editorial staff.

The editorial team at the Mercury has been halved since 2012 and sub-editing has been outsourced to New Zealand which has affected the quality of our local content.

Our local Fairfax staff here in Wollongong have great local knowledge, they are part of our community and, where required, fight for local people and issues in our community, Sharon Bird said.

Further cuts to the team here in Wollongong will result in less local content and will greatly affect our local community.

Stephen Jones said that job cuts would impact on the standard of print journalism in the region.

If Fairfax decides to axe photographers, online editors and editorial production staff the task of putting together the days news will become that much tougher.

I think that the people of the Illawarra value quality journalism. The Mercury has produced a number of Walkley Award winners, but their ability to produce more will be compromised if further cuts are made.

Sharon Bird and Stephen Jones support the local Fairfax team in the Illawarra in their fight to retain quality, informative and community-based local newspapers.