Fairfax Fail # 14

Don't get Whispers wrong, we really are fond of Fairfax Newspapers. Especially having worked for lengthy periods twice for them although the partnership didn't always end amicably. The real problem is despite Fairfax hosting some of the nation's best journalists, those in management are not newspaper people. They are businessmen looking at the bottom financial line and that isn't always a happy marriage.
Say what you will about the Dirty Digger ( Rupert Murdoch) he employs expert experienced newspaper men & women to run his worldwide operations and that's why they succeed (hey and they pay on time !).

So it's always sad when you see an obvious corker in one of Australia's venerable institutions and one we need so badly. As in this report by the local Southern Highlands' Fairfax newspaper where two budding journos got it so badly wrong.

Local newspaper baron Cristian King (pictured right with his Mum Jane)  Australia's youngest newspaper executive and an editor at King Media is involved in a dispute with some local Highland's colorful characters. He's been charged with an offense but most certainly not 'stalking' a fairly serious offense as the local Fairfax newspaper alleges. Cris is in good hands though His brief is from one of NSW's best law firms run by Christopher Murphy. We reckon King will prevail in court. We don't think M'lud will be happy with the Fairfax report.

Disclosure : Whispers has worked for Fairfax, Rupert Murdoch, King Media, Vanity Fair, the Wentworth Courier..oh hell, who haven't we worked for?

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And on the subject of King Media, Cristian and Jane King are about to launch their fourth local newspaper, The Independent Goulburn. This is the way of the future in print publishing - small independent newspapers will thrive. Take it as gospel from an old hack.

TOMORROW: THE TRUTH ABOUT MOVIE STAR MARILYN MONROE

Publishing heir James Fairfax dies

 James Fairfax AC (pictures above left with Edmund Capon), the former chairman of publisher John Fairfax Ltd, passed away age 83 on Wednesday at his Southern Highlands home Retford Park in Bowral. 
James was a great philanthropist and art collector and the son of Sir Warwick Fairfax. In our snap above James donated a substantial body of precious art works of old masters worth then, around $35M to the the NSW Art Gallery.

Barry Humphries at the NSW Art Gallery & one of James' donated works

In 2016 Mr Fairfax bequeathed his Retford Park homestead,  worth around $20 million, to the National Trust for the Trust to preserve in perpetuity for the local community. For the past few decades Fairfax lived and traveled with his companion Ray Hansen who died in 2015.

When the young Warwick Fairfax Jnr, James half-brother launched his ill-fated move to take back the family business Fairfax Newspapers in the 1980s James recived an estimated $200M. He was a director on the Fairfax board from 1957 until 1987, and chairman from 1977 to 1987.

Spending half the year at a property in the UK, James retired permanently to Bowral in 2003. One of the highlights of the social calendar in his Sydney days was an annual masked drag ball where guests, mostly well heeled bachelors from Sydney and Melbourne competed and spent a small on extravagant gowns.
James Fairfax is survived by step mother Lady Mary Fairfax who like James has bequeathed the family home Fairwater in Double Bay to the National Trust on the proviso all her staff live there for life. James leaves behind two half sisters, Annalise Thomas and Anna Cleary, his half-brothers, Warwick and Charles Fairfax.
Below : Retford Park

 

The Guardian (Oz Version) Marches On

News today (but old news for Shuttle readers) : 2 political heavyweights have fled Fairfax Media to join the coming new on-line Australian  newspaper The Guardian which is soon to launch just in time for the September General election.

Lenore Taylor is to be Political Editor and Katherine Murphy to be her Deputy. This is a blow to Fairfax no matter how they spin it- these are 2 of the very best political writers in the country who are rarely vehicles for political propaganda but are known to delve behind the scenes unlike the current Canberra mob who comprise the Press Gallery in Parliament who often sound like an echo chamber.  Nothing illustrated that more than Prime Minister Julia Gillard's famous 'misogyny' speech which had the press gallery in a twitter of disapproval while the Youtube film of her speech swept the world's media to a chorus of approval.

In March the Fairfax titles will change to tabloid size and a former editor Andrew Jaspan has claimed they will attempt to emulate the UK Daily Mail.
Today Murphy and Taylor twiittered their intentions:

Scooped Again

Several reports have appeared today on the ABC, in Fairfax Media, in Rupert Murdoch's Australian paper, on the Crikey website and distributed far and wide via AAP : Britain's Guardian Newspaper is to set up in Australia with an on-line newspaper publishing local content.

Graeme Wood

The project is a joint venture with Guardian Newspapers and multi-millionaire philanthropist Graeme Wood who has invested around $20M in his Global Mail digital news magazine.

Annabel Crabb

None of this is news of course for regular Social Shuttle readers who were brought this exact news on the 31st December last year.

The Oz Guardian is expected to employ up to 35 to produce local journalism and already leading ex- Fairfax writers- some who took a nicely padded redundancy package last year including Annabel Crabb and David Marr have been offered posts by the Guardian's deputy editor Katherine Viner.

Plots & Fine Dining

 THE ANNOUNCEMENT today that Canadian born hamburger salesman Jack Cowin has been granted a seat on the board of Fairfax Media signals another shot across the bow of the recalcitrant Fairfax board from the World's Richest Woman ( and soon to be the world's richest person according to Chase Manhattan Bank) Gina Rinehart.

A relative pauper with just a $620M fortune compared to Gina's $29Billion, the former insurance salesman turned Burger King and Hungry Jacks entrepreneur is being described as an 'independent' board member and has agreed to maintain Fairfax's editorial independence. He also sits on the board of the Ten Network in which Rinehart holds a swag of shares along with Lachlan Murdoch.

Just last week Cowin celebrated his 69th birthday in the South of France on board his super yacht Slipstream (left). Fellow guests included Gina Rinehart and John Singleton. Whatever plans were hatched sailing the Med, they seem to have paid off. Gina had demanded 3 board seats after buying nearly 20% of Fairfax shares. She's scored one -for now.

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SADLY there is just two more days left before the pop-up restaurant Masterchef closes but the experiment has been such a huge success, another is on the way.

St Marys

Masterchef is a joint venture of the Ten Network which screens the popular Masterchef series, and the media production company Shine. Located on the forecourt and in the shadow of the elegant St Mary's Cathedral and opposite Hyde Park it's a million dollar location but it's the size of the restaurant that amazes. Housed in an enormous marquee, it's 2 floors of culinary delights with a large but comfortable bar upstairs for pre-dinner drinks.

Chefs include Masterchef stars Julie Goodwin and Marion Grasby with some of Sydney's most experienced food stars assisting, like Justin North and Kylie Kwong, who is rated in the top five Chinese chefs in the world.

The Shuttle dined there last Wednesday and the food - well sadly as this current venue will vanish on Sunday there isn't much point describing it - apart to say it was sensational. Never fear, we hear another pop-up is in the works for the coming Summer and in an equally fabulous Sydney location.
                                      

Tina's Perfect Storm & My Role In Mommie Dearest

You have to feel sympathy for Tina Aldiss, a publicist at Mango PR who wrote an article for the media website Mumbrella.
Tina was commenting on the current woes at Fairfax Media where up to 1900 workers are to be laid off over the coming years. News Ltd will do likewise. The Shuttle has been quizzing hacks and snappers from both organisations and the fear and loathing is palpable.

Tina reckons when printed newspapers crash and burn her job flogging Arnott's biscuits and McDonald's Chicken burghers will be that much easier as she harnesses net power.
In the mean time the comments section has gone ballistic attacking poor Tina with most thinking her timing is a bit off.

The lines between reporting and publicising were blurred well over two decades ago and it's gotten worse. The Shuttle has worked both sides of the fence and gave up trying to think in terms of ethics years ago and decided to concentrate on survival.

Our only gripe is the attitude of Australian PRs and publicists ( Sydney ones are the worse.. Melbourne publicists are far better mannered). Many come across as far grander that the product they are flogging yet are really quite ignorant when it comes to inventive publicity.

Charlotte Dawson, Sarah Murdoch & Alex Perry at the WALL.

Hence the rise of the tiresome photographic/publicity board that pops up at every event from a blockbuster movie premiere to a minor beauty product launch.
And the press section will be crammed with paparazzi with sometime half a dozen working (unpaid and only on commission) for one agency who reckon the scatter gun approach will get sales. Amass hundreds of snaps of the same celebrity in varying poses and a handful might sell.

Regular Shuttle contributor Bill Ranken (right) who knows just about everyone in town and probably dated their grandmothers (at 81 years of age) discovered this recently at a charity bash for a children's hospital.
He was snubbed at the entrance by a bright-eyed 20 something publicity operative who scolded him for missing the 'wall' and scoffed at the idea guests could be photographed whilst sitting at tables. The fact the guests were the same people we all see day after day, week after week in this town was incidental.

And the problem is not really that Tina Aldriss is just stating the obvious, newspapers and magazines are responsible for blurring the lines and you can't blame a publicist for taking advantage of the fact.

Rupert Murdoch's Daily Telegraph has long been criticized for it's Sydney Confidential pages which resemble at times, a series of press releases full of inane information. It's significant that the former top Packer PR and journalist Annette Sharp has now been given her own Saturday edition spread and is delving into the lives of anyone who isn't Lady GaGa or Beyonce in an obvious move to challenge er rivals-not that it should be too hard.
As for the Shuttle, we have been shameless at times and never let accuracy get in the way of a good publicity campaign.

Years ago we travelled to New York with the UK Daily Express' William Hickey correspondent, the late Timothy Swallow and set up shop in a suite at the Waldorf Astoria in order to interview US celebrities for a series of show biz style books commissioned by a top promoter.

One day we went to a Times Square cinema to see the just released Mommie Dearest with Faye Dunnaway starring as Joan Crawford. Hollywood had boycotted the film, the star and producers deeming it a treacherous portrayal of a Hollywood legend.
 We loved it.

At one point in the movie Joan beats her children late one night after discovering their wardrobes contained wire coat hangers (apparently Joan had a thing about wire hangers), screaming "NO WIRE COAT HANGERS !!!"

 That night over cocktails at Studio 54 (working our way through our generous expenses allowance) we concocted a story that groups of fans were attending theatres and when the scene appeared, would wave wire coat hangers in the air. The Daily Express duly ran the tale which was picked up and swept the world's newspapers and TV news broadcasts.

Life imitated art and soon people were appearing at cinemas and doing just that. Not only had we created a movement (and a Wikipedia page), we had given the ailing flick a million dollar boost in free advertising by propelling it into the mass media.
All for the cost of a few drinks !

Publishing Pitfalls #1

Two months ago we wrote of the doom and gloom at the venerable Fairfax Media publishing house who produce two of the world's oldest and most respected newspapers The Sydney Morning Herald and the Melbourne Age.

As crikey.com.au revealed Fairfax plan to cut up to 200 staff including journalists and sub-editors at the same time they are reaping in tens of millions of dollars in annual profits. Fairfax want to out source sub editing to Pagemasters part of AAP who are in turn 45% owned by News Corp currently the subject of a police and parliamentary investigation in the UK over hacking and whose boss Rupert Murdoch was attacked by a cream pie wielding comedian yesterday.

One complaint over the Fairfax cuts that will further concentrate media power into fewer hands is that standards are likely to fall. Particularly at an organisation like Fairfax which has maintained a long history of high standards not only in reporting news but in presentation.

Fairfax managers should heed our warnings. Just a few days ago we pointed out how the web-site of the Daily Telegraph carries the odd story of how Lady GaGa appeared at the Sydney Opera House although it was in fact the Sydney Town Hall where she wowed 1000 invited guests. The clanger still remains.

There was a reason Lady GaGa chose the Town Hall-it boasts the world's biggest and most magnificent organ which GaGa pounded away on to great effect during her concert.

Is the curse of the absent sub-editor spreading ?. This series of posts in one of favourite newspaper websites London Evening Standard owned by the Russian entrepreneur Alexander Lebedev  caught our eye this morning :

Doom & Gloom at Fairfax Media

The independent political website crikey brings disturbing news that Fairfax Media are planning to force redundancy on  up to 300 staff.
Fairfax publish two of the oldest and once most respected broadsheets in the world : The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age in Melbourne.

Just a ten days after Fairfax Managing Editor Greg Hywood gave an interview on the ABC's Media Watch defending the future of printed newspapers, he has told staff at Fairfax that if workers including 90 sub-editors do not accept redundancy, it will be "forced upon them".

Fairfax also own the Southern Cross Broadcasting chain of radio stations and made a profit in 2010 of over $282M

Originally owned by the Fairfax family from 1841, the publishing group has had a variety of owners since Warwick Fairfax's failed 1990 bid to completely privatise the company.

Journalists at Fairfax are not happy campers.

One beef is that editing is to be out-sourced to Pagemasters, a firm owned by AAP. Similar has happened throughout Britain where dozens of small independent news gathering agencies that supplied Fleet Street tabloids with local news have gone to the wall and standard s have declined alarmingly.

king of the world

Britain is still comes to grips with the fact the the giant News Corporation which claimed for years that the illegal hacking of mobile phones was an 'isolated incident' . Demands from politicians for a parliamentary enquiry may have temporarily delayed Rupert Murdoch's plans to snaffle up B Sky B giving him extraordinary control over UK broadcasting but he is expected to still get the go ahead.

And News Corp owns 45% of AAP. The world is shrinking.

Read the whole sorry saga here at crikey.com.au.