TURMOIL AT FAIRFAX MEDIA, AUSTRALIA’S MAJOR QUALITY NEWSPAPER PUBLISHER
December 5th 2008 06:18
Australia’s media industry is in turmoil following instability and share price plummets at Fairfax media, the country’s leading quality broadsheet publisher.
Announcements of staff layouts of about 550 people were followed by the departure of the editors of both Fairfax’s flagship newspapers, The Melbourne Age and the Sydney Morning Herald.
On Thursday, the ceo David Kirk has resigned as chief executive of Fairfax Media after more than three years at the helm.
Speculation mounted in recent days about Kirk's position as the media company battles declining advertising revenue amid an economic slowdown.
Fairfax's deputy ceo Brian McCarthy will act as interim ceo until the company's board meets on December 10, chairman Ron Walker said in a statement to staff.
Eric Beecher, publisher of irreverent Aussie website Crikey. Com said, “…the problems at Fairfax will get worse, not better, unless and until someone sacks the company's board of directors.
“Fairfax Media is suffering from an almost total absence of direction, strategy, comprehension of its problems or understanding of its business.
Of course, David Kirk was way out of his depth and added substantially to the Fairfax malaise. The same is true of his predecessor, Fred Hilmer. But don't blame Kirk or Hilmer. They are not the culprits. They did not appoint themselves, and they did not endorse their own strategies.
The culpability for the smoking mess at Fairfax, and for the death-by-a-thousand-cuts of Australia's best journalism at The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, lies entirely with the board.
A board made up of a former retailer, a former property developer, a financier, a former luxury goods executive, a former IT executive, a former TV executive and two members of the founding Fairfax family.
“A board that does not understand the basic DNA of its own industry.
“A board that has demonstrated appalling misjudgement in nearly all its key decisions for a decade.
“A board that is as far out of its depth as a toddler without floaties in the deep end of an Olympic pool.”
Crikey’s Margaret Simons wrote, “The chaos at Fairfax, the exposure of the grand plans and upbeat statements as just so much spin, is more than just a sad story about a newspaper company. It is a generational moment in Australian journalism and public life -- the moment when it became crystal clear that newspapers were no longer going to be the main, or most important, forum for serious journalism and public debate.
“That does not mean that journalism and public debate will die. It does mean we are in the middle of a profound paradigm shift with implications for every aspect of our democracy. Things are still playing out, and will do for another decade or so, but the depth of the crisis is clear.”
“I am an optimist. I believe there is catharsis. But for now, let's talk newspapers.
“I am not saying they will die. And I know they still employ some fo the nation's most talented journalists. But anyone who has been kidding themselves that everything would somehow be okay in the long run now needs to face up to the fact that we are looking at enormous change. “Newspapers, if they survive at all, will be less important, smaller in circulation and more limited in purpose. We will need something else as well of and instead of newspapers.”
Announcements of staff layouts of about 550 people were followed by the departure of the editors of both Fairfax’s flagship newspapers, The Melbourne Age and the Sydney Morning Herald.
On Thursday, the ceo David Kirk has resigned as chief executive of Fairfax Media after more than three years at the helm.
Speculation mounted in recent days about Kirk's position as the media company battles declining advertising revenue amid an economic slowdown.
Eric Beecher, publisher of irreverent Aussie website Crikey. Com said, “…the problems at Fairfax will get worse, not better, unless and until someone sacks the company's board of directors.
“Fairfax Media is suffering from an almost total absence of direction, strategy, comprehension of its problems or understanding of its business.
Of course, David Kirk was way out of his depth and added substantially to the Fairfax malaise. The same is true of his predecessor, Fred Hilmer. But don't blame Kirk or Hilmer. They are not the culprits. They did not appoint themselves, and they did not endorse their own strategies.
The culpability for the smoking mess at Fairfax, and for the death-by-a-thousand-cuts of Australia's best journalism at The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, lies entirely with the board.
A board made up of a former retailer, a former property developer, a financier, a former luxury goods executive, a former IT executive, a former TV executive and two members of the founding Fairfax family.
“A board that has demonstrated appalling misjudgement in nearly all its key decisions for a decade.
“A board that is as far out of its depth as a toddler without floaties in the deep end of an Olympic pool.”
Crikey’s Margaret Simons wrote, “The chaos at Fairfax, the exposure of the grand plans and upbeat statements as just so much spin, is more than just a sad story about a newspaper company. It is a generational moment in Australian journalism and public life -- the moment when it became crystal clear that newspapers were no longer going to be the main, or most important, forum for serious journalism and public debate.
“That does not mean that journalism and public debate will die. It does mean we are in the middle of a profound paradigm shift with implications for every aspect of our democracy. Things are still playing out, and will do for another decade or so, but the depth of the crisis is clear.”
“I am an optimist. I believe there is catharsis. But for now, let's talk newspapers.
“I am not saying they will die. And I know they still employ some fo the nation's most talented journalists. But anyone who has been kidding themselves that everything would somehow be okay in the long run now needs to face up to the fact that we are looking at enormous change. “Newspapers, if they survive at all, will be less important, smaller in circulation and more limited in purpose. We will need something else as well of and instead of newspapers.”
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