The presence of the Nine TV personality Scott Cam in Paris to promote The Block was the final provocation for print journalists contemplating strike action on the eve of the Paris Olympic Games.

“How many jobs at Nine publishing could have been saved if a TV personality with nothing to do with the Olympics was not going to bed right now in luxury hotels in Paris?” the Age reporter Broede Carmody told ABC Radio ahead of journalists striking for five days.

There was always going to be a culture clash between Channel Nine and the print mastheads once owned by Fairfax. The Olympics has been the spark for the biggest fallout since Nine merged with Fairfax in 2018.

Commercial TV networks have traditionally used the Olympics as a platform to promote upcoming shows and the 18th season of The Block, a major success for the network, is no exception. But for journalists facing the loss of 90 jobs the expenditure on TV stars in Paris seemed unreasonable.

It didn’t help that Nine’s chief executive, Mike Sneesby, took part in the torch relay hours after the strike was announced.

The anger in newsrooms at the Age, the Sydney Morning Herald, the Australian Financial Review, Brisbane Times and WAtoday has been described as “white hot” after several months of tense enterprise bargaining negotiations were interrupted by news of a substantial cut to editorial resources.

Nothing that Nine’s managing director of publishing, Tory Maguire, offered at tense crisis meetings in Melbourne and Sydney on Thursday was enough to call off the strike. An improved pay offer was rejected.

Staff at Nine’s Melbourne headquarters protesting over a pay dispute while holding Olympic torches and criticising CEO Mike Sneesby who ran with the torch in France this week, @australian. pic.twitter.com/gtIvVcgEkD

“It’s just not good enough,” Carmody said. “We’re struggling during this cost-of-living crisis, and we can’t take a real wage cut. And at the same time as we were seeking greater protections so that AI........

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