Fairfax chief Kirk resigns
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Updated
Resigned: Fairfax chief executive David Kirk (AAP: Paul Miller, file photo)
Fairfax Media says its chief executive David Kirk has resigned, effective immediately.
In a statement, the company says Mr Kirk has been replaced on a temporary basis by his deputy Brian McCarthy.
Fairfax Media has not given a reason for Mr Kirk's departure.
The company publishes newspapers including The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald.
Mr Kirk took over as Fairfax chief executive in November 2005, replacing Fred Hilmer at the end of Mr Hilmer's seven-year reign.
The former All Blacks rugby captain came to Fairfax from printing and media services company PMP Limited.
He oversaw turbulent times at Fairfax, including the merger with Rural Press, a tumbling share price amid concerns about the newspaper industry, and widespread job cuts which saw 5 per cent of the workforce sacked.
In August this year, when the 550 job cuts were announced, Mr Kirk denied the move would affect quality.
"Media companies fit for the modern media world need to be lean and agile," he said.
"This far-reaching program will position us well for the next stage of our growth and development."
Analyst Roger Colman from CCZ Equities says the announcement comes as no surprise.
"David Kirk didn't come from a journalistic background. He came more from a strategy background and it is really is now up to Brian McCarthy to bring this operation into a tighter cost base, a model for the future, and then make sure the debt gets paid down," he said.
Oakley resigns
Fairfax yesterday announced that the editor of The Sydney Morning Herald, Alan Oakley, stepped down.
A statement issued by senior executive Lloyd Whish-Wilson said Mr Oakley had been offered another senior position in the company.
Mr Oakley had been the editor for the past three years and deputy editor Michael Millett will take over editing responsibilities until a short list of internal candidates is drawn up.
In August, The Age editor Andrew Jaspan was sacked after four years in job, after Fairfax announced 550 job cuts in Australia and New Zealand. Mr Jaspan was replaced by Paul Ramadge.
This morning Fairfax Media shares were up a third of one per cent to $1.49.
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Comments (15)
Comments for this story are closed. No new comments can be added. If you would like to have your say on this issue, you can do so via the Emails section of our Opinion pages.
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incitatus:
05 Dec 2008 1:37:07pm
Fairfax would be important to Australia even if one merely saw it as a newspaper group. But its more than that. Unlike News Corporation, Fairfax papers are Australian owned. Some are 150 year old cultural institutions which create promote and buttress the arts. The papers are high quality and provide access to alternative views on whats going on in our nation. If we are to have effective democracy, we need them to inform, entertain and educate us.
I mostly admire the ways in which Fairfax journalists work within these traditions of excellence. I am afraid I can't say the same for the Fairfax Board. The recent examples on Wall Street should remind us that companies are more than sources of revenue to be milked, exploited and abandoned.Agree (0) Alert moderator
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wmc:
05 Dec 2008 2:14:28pm
Traditions of excellence?
Try reading the garbage that Alan Ramsay produces each week. He quotes great slabs of politicians' speeches and then appends a bitter diatribe.
No wonder Fairfax is struggling - who'd read that rubbish?Agree (0) Alert moderator
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M:
05 Dec 2008 2:55:39pm
So you base your opinion of an entire newspaper on one *opinion* columnist? If you don't like what he has, then don't read his column. I've personally stopped reading Miranda Devine ages ago for the exact same reason.
Agree (0) Alert moderator
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wmc:
05 Dec 2008 3:10:26pm
Ramsay is the SMH's leading columnist, Devine is only one of many.
Why would any newspaper, let alone a 'quality' broadsheet' pay someone to quote giant slabs of other peoples' speeches?Agree (0) Alert moderator
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Reg:
05 Dec 2008 3:19:24pm
I think fairfax newspapers have a lost of credibiltity over the last 10 years with their thinly disguised left wing editorials as news, many readers have deserted it.
The sales figure are down and outside the eastern suburbs and inner city Sydney areas , hardly anyone reads it.
If not for their online news medium, it would be in a even worse position.Agree (0) Alert moderator
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Robert:
05 Dec 2008 1:44:20pm
There can be no more pecarious profession right now than journalism. I pity any journalism students now who are learning a dying trade.
It isn't Fairfax, or News Ltd. that need to "reposition" themselves for future challenges; it is journalism itself that needs to reposition.
Newspaper and magazines will die first, then broadcast journalism will be phased out. All news in the future will be direct from source, or internet, or pod-cast/iphone such devices. There will be no more analysis or investigative news.
A journalist will be merely a copy-writer who tidies up the stories, then sets up the blog so the "analysis" will come from the public in blog form, yes, the truth with the lies, but it will be up to the reader to judge.
Prediction: in 5 years, Google will buy up Fairfax and News Ltd. Internet news will take over.Agree (0) Alert moderator
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Peter D:
05 Dec 2008 2:17:14pm
Agree. Printed journalism is dead in the water. I get all my news electronically (why do you think I'm here now?). I haven't bought a newspaper or magazine for over 5 years.
Agree (0) Alert moderator
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Spooky:
05 Dec 2008 2:32:20pm
Journalism was supposed to be about the facts.
Now it is more about finding the facts, and straining them through an ideological view. Negotiations become backflips. Delays become lies. A 3% margin becomes a landslide victory.
If what we call news is becoming more internet based, this is simply a product of the times. The internet is usually 6-12 hours ahead of any newspaper, so journalism needs to keep pace.
But journalists will always be needed to put the right slant on the facts.Agree (0) Alert moderator
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twobob:
05 Dec 2008 3:45:07pm
Freudian slip spooks the "right" slant eh? What about a left slant?
Why not report the facts and let the people decide? Slanting the way that an article is reported is exactly why I get most of my news from the ABC, I perceive that their slant is a little less than that of the Australian or the telle. Thats why newspapers dont get my money any more. Provide a bit of reporting without the slant and maybe they might survive but thats not gunna happen is it?
I am amused or more often disgusted to watch different versions of the same event on different TV channels. Try it, you might get to decide that the left slant is the right slant.Agree (0) Alert moderator
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John:
05 Dec 2008 1:46:10pm
First task for incoming Cheif Executive is to restore some balance to the newspapers and stop the crusading.
Second taks is to publish news, not opinion masquerading as news.
Third task is to show proper news-media scepticism of every claim about everything and then as often as possible publish multiple points points of view within the same report.
Fourth task is not to be led by "advisors" and not to be dictated to by pressure groups.
(I hope you're reading this, ABC.)Agree (0) Alert moderator
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hugh jampton:
05 Dec 2008 2:02:38pm
That would be good advice for News limited papers too.....
Agree (0) Alert moderator
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Gadget:
05 Dec 2008 2:21:18pm
I stopped buying printed news as soon as they started filling the papers with "Opinion Pieces". If I wanted someone else's opinion, I would catch Cabs or go to the pub.
Some of the supposed "Opinions" are nothing short of uneducated, highly unresearched, disasterously un-peer reviewed drivle, pushing, predominately a theoretical right wing position for their on agrandisement.
Most come across as Pompous, sanctimonous waffle.Agree (0) Alert moderator
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Stephen Matthews:
05 Dec 2008 2:39:14pm
David Kirk came to Fairfax with a reputation for spending up big with little regard for future earnings per share.
Upon arrival he was given a massive share grant in recognition of what the Chairman, Ron Walker, claimed was compensation for foregone benefits at his previous employer, PMP.
He then went on a debt fuelled acquisition binge to the point where market capitalisation was below the level of debt and there is talk of a need to cut or even abolish the dividend to appease the company's bankers in a constipated debt market.
Why can't the Chairman, Ron Walker, take shareholders into his confidence and tell us candidly why Mr Kirk "resigned" after only 3 years, particularly since he spoke so highly of Mr Kirk at the recent AGM, and paid him so well to force down the share price.
Mr Walker is up for re-election to the board at the next AGM in 2009 and shareholders will let their voice be heard then.Agree (0) Alert moderator
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Anon:
05 Dec 2008 3:13:35pm
Fairfax is a basket case, full of the wrong people all too busy watching their own backs to get anything worthwhile done.
They should be streets ahead of everyone else in online but where are they ? a sorry and very bad second in real estate and non of their sites perform as they should and there is no integration with their newspapers, with online Fairfax just dont get it.
Who's to blame for that ?Agree (0) Alert moderator
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djb:
05 Dec 2008 4:21:52pm
Fairfax has lost touch with readers, resulting in an incredible slide in its share price.
Poor business decisions and an inflated sense of self-worth has ruined the publisherAgree (0) Alert moderator
