Fairfax journalists and union representatives are meeting the head of the media company's regional division in Sydney over a decision to send dozens of sub-editing jobs to New Zealand.

Journalists from the Newcastle Herald, The Illawarra Mercury and The Sydney Morning Herald are in discussions with Fairfax Regional Media chief executive Allan Brown to appeal for a consultation period before production at the Newcastle and Illawarra mastheads is relocated to New Zealand.

Rosemarie Milsom, a senior journalist with the Newcastle Herald, said the delegation, together with representative from the Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance (MEAA), will request a consultation period of at least a week.

"This will be the first consultation we've had.

"They just dropped a huge bombshell and no one saw it coming."

Fairfax Media announced on May 29 that 66 production jobs from regional papers and associated community titles would be taken over by Fairfax Editorial Services in New Zealand.

Ms Milsom said 41 jobs - half the paper's entire staff - would go from the Newcastle Herald.

Staff from The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald, The Australian Financial Review and The Canberra Times walked off the job for 36 hours last week to protest against the plan.

Ms Milsom said Monday's meeting comes after 1000 people attended public rallies in Newcastle and Wollongong on Saturday to condemn the announcement.