by: Kirsty Simpson | The Sydney Morning Herald

FAIRFAX Media will axe 1900 jobs, close printing presses in Melbourne and Sydney, and convert The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald into smaller tabloid newspaper formats under radical changes designed to cut costs as readers and advertising move online.

 After an 85 per cent collapse in the Fairfax share price in five years - and the transfer of formerly lucrative newspaper ads for jobs, homes and cars to the internet - chief executive Greg Hywood announced what he called a ''historic'' overhaul of the company's business model.