Fairfax turmoil unhealthy for industry
It’s nearly a month since I’ve found time to write here. In the past week the editor of the Sydney Morning Herald has departed and Fairfax chief executive David Kirk has been knifed.
There is no polite way to describe Kirk’s treatment. He was addressing staff in Melbourne while his board colleagues held an audit committee meeting in Sydney. That became a full board meeting and Kirk’s resignation followed.
Fairfax shares have fallen below $1.30 in recent times, which The Australian likes to remind everyone is the cover price of the SMH.
Former Rural Press CEO Brian McCarthy will almost certainly be installed as Fairfax chief executive this week. I won’t be celebrating.
I worked for Rural Press from 1989 to 1997. I developed a great respect for “old school” managers like John Parker and Dan Austin who had ink in their veins.
They cared about the quality of the papers under their stewardship. I doubt if McCarthy gives a toss about the quality of most of them.
He won a power struggle with Ian Law to replace Parker as managing director. Law stayed with Rural Press for a while and then headed to West Australian Newspapers and later PBL.
Law’s star seemed to be shining brighter.
Meanwhile, McCarthy continued to steadily build Rural Press through acquisitions. The company was in a solid position when the Fairfax merger went ahead, reuniting John B Fairfax with the company that carried his surname.
I left Rural Press reluctantly for personal reasons. The paper I went to was part of John Amati’s Macquarie Group in New South Wales, which Rural Press subsequently acquired.
The integration of Macquarie with Rural Press was badly handled, in my opinion, and poor management was largely responsible.
I tried alerting Ian Law to some of the problems. This was in the era before mobile phones and email, so communications were not easy. Nobody wanted to listen.
I finished up leaving and became involved for a short time with a monthly community newsletter. Rural Press ultimately bought the title.
I moved to an independent paper in Victoria and then worked as a PR consultant for six years.
I returned to newspapers with WAN. Ian Law grilled me at interview over my NSW experience, but had no reservation (evidently) in appointing me as editor of the Kalgoorlie Miner.
That was interesting, because two years previously I had sought re-entry to Rural Press through my former regional manager Allan Browne, someone I regarded as a friend.
He organised interviews for me at Ballarat and Bendigo. They seemed to go well and I was waiting for an offer, preferably at Ballarat.
The manager there was honest enough to tell me I could not be employed again by Rural Press because McCarthy had blacklisted me! No explanation was given.
I don’t know for sure, but it’s almost certainly because I was involved (briefly) with an enterprise which competed against a Rural Press masthead. Either that, or my efforts to expose poor management practices were seen as unwelcome agitation.
Either way, it soured my impression of McCarthy; summary executioner without trial.
He will probably be successful as CEO of Fairfax, at least in relative terms during the tough economic times ahead.
He doesn’t have ink in his veins though, and he probably dislikes journalists.
I’ll reserve judgment on whether the future of Australian newspapers is in good hands.
At the moment, the Fairfax turmoil is creating much uncertainty, or “desperate hilarity” among experienced observers, as The Australian reported today.
That’s not healthy. McCarthy should aim to calm things down, make his razor cuts if necessary, and then set about rebuilding the mastheads.
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Hi Michael
Fascinating story. My family (Drummond side) were shareholders in the Land dating back to FSA days as well as Armidale Express/Northern Newspapers. I have watched the evolution of RP with interest if not always approval.