Two major Australian newspapers, The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age are planning to reduce workforce and take several steps to revamp their business setup.

The media publications ware likely to move to a tabloid format and start charging for online content. Some believe that the two companies might stop paper publishing altogether in a major revamp of the country's media industry.

The move came after, Gina Rinehart, the world's wealthiest woman planned to take over Fairfax Media, which owns the two publications. Rinehart, who is a Perth-based iron ore tycoon, is already the single largest shareholder in the country and is looking for the right to hire and fire editors in the company.

It is believed that her conservative political views contradict the belief system behind Fairfax's newspapers. Fairfax announced on Monday that it will let go 1,900 of its staff members, which is about a fifth of the company's total workforce. The Sydney Morning Herald started publishing in 1831, and The Age, which began in 1854. The two will move to a tabloid next March. The newspapers will also start charging for online content.

Greg Hywood, the company's chief executive said, "Readers' behaviors have changed and will not change back. The days of the huge printing plants, built for our legacy print classified business, are well and truly over."