Fairfax chief executive Greg Hywood has refused to answer questions about his salary at a Senate inquiry into the media, saying it is all on the record.

Earlier this month, Fairfax announced its plans to slash more than 100 editorial jobs across the country to save $30 million.

Giving evidence to a Senate inquiry into the future of journalism, Mr Hywood said reports he made $7 million in the past financial year thanks to generous bonuses were wrong.

"I have a base of $1.6 million which is a very, very healthy income, there's no doubt about that," he said.

"The way it works is that there are short-term and long-term incentives; the short-term I get in shares if I achieve it — which sometimes I do — [though] in recent years I have not."

Senator Scott Ludlam asked Mr Hywood to give his correct salary figure, but the Fairfax boss told him he could check the annual report.

"You're in a position to help settle the speculation," Senator Ludlam said.

"I think I'll just leave it. Frankly, I thought we were to talk about the future of journalism," Mr Hywood responded.

Mr Hywood told the inquiry that despite the job cuts of recent years, Fairfax still employed hundreds more journalists than it did in the 1960s and 1970s.

ABC 'aggressively competing': Hywood

He also criticised the ABC, arguing its online content had created additional pressure "by aggressively competing for the same audience that commercial media rely on by providing online content for free, undermining our ability to create a sustainable model".

"The ABC also pays Google out of taxpayers' money — who pay negligible tax and spend nothing on local content provision — for search engine marketing," Mr Hywood said.

"That means that the ABC stories appear higher on key search terms such as 'national news', 'international news', et cetera, and restricts our ability to generate revenue from our audience."

The inquiry also heard from the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance (MEAA) which said the industry had lost 2,500 editorial jobs since 2011.

'Normal marketing' says ABC

An ABC spokesman confirmed the public broadcaster used money to bid on keyword search engine terms and described it as "the most cost effective way" to reach digital audiences.

"This is normal marketing behaviour in the digital space and is critical to ensuring audiences find relevant content," the ABC spokesman said.

"It is used by other public broadcasters like the BBC and CBC, and other government departments who need to ensure the correct information finds the right audience.

"In the same way a television guide provides information for television audiences, keyword searches help audiences find content in an increasingly fragmented market."

The ABC said this was a way of combating the "proliferation of fake news on digital channels", especially for youth audience.

Industry struggling

MEAA chief executive Paul Murphy said the industry was at a crossroads.

"Remaining staff have to work harder, previously core activities are being abandoned and everyone just appears to be keeping their heads above water," he said.

Mr Murphy said previous employees were now working freelance.

"Freelancers are competing among themselves for increasingly declining rates of pay," Mr Murphy said.

"I'd say that in an increasing number of cases the arrangements we're seeing being put in place amount in our view to little more than sham contracting."

Paul Murphy said some organisations were booming, telling the inquiry of the $59 billion spent on digital advertising in 2015 — $38 billion went to Google, Facebook, Yahoo, Microsoft and Twitter.

"At the same time of course many of these corporations are paying virtually no tax at all," he said.