News Corp Australia Kim Williams departs, Julian Clarke named as replacement

Col Pot’s revenge. Dark days ahead.

Ain’t Karma a bitch.

Good riddance.

Resigned before he got the boot I’m guessing

Conclusions will be jumped to with people suggesting Williams could not cope with News Corp’s mad right political bent. Then again it may be just something far less sinister, he just may not have liked News Corp’s style of journalism supporting Tony Abbott regardless of reality.

The wisest captains jump the ships that are sinking

Editors won hey. What does that mean for Nicole Sheffield

It’s testament to the esteem in which he is held that Julian Clarke gets offered the gig. He has all the skills.
It would not be ambition that’s brought him back but two old-fashioned qualities more companies could do with: loyalty and being a thoroughly decent bloke. Just couldn’t say no to Rupert, one suspects.

Fairfax looking stronger these days, solid team. NEWS all over the shop

What an absolute joke – this company on has itself to blame for it’s current position and not the market – Jerry should follow next

Well done KW. Incredibly moral man

Kim Williams. A departure very few (if any) will mourn.

Watch all the middle managers who switched sides to the Williams management style suddenly revert back to the Col Allan style of old.

Fairfax has had some tough years but they have had the consistent digital vision and strong commercial focus through Ed Harrison. Greg Hywood is breaking through bit by bit ditching overpaid editors, failed publishers, shonky salespeople and handling a micromanaging board. Kim William was obviously trying to do all the same things but the pressure got too much for Rupert. The old school print Editors have won.

its not a signal of inter-generational change or succession planning, thats for sure. Rupert looks to back older business, older models of newspaper men. And, I stress men. Rebbeckah may be all over the tabloids in the UK, but he doesn’t seem to want anyone of that age or calibre in charge in Australia.

Nero fiddles…

The print regime is back!

The management consultants will be shown the door within days. Fairfax should take note.

The naked visceral attack on Labor is, no matter how you vote, completely abandoning the principle of serving the reader. I cancelled my sub to The Australian this week. No self respecting media professional should be expected to work inside such a dysfunctional machine. Big shame News Limited, respect to K.W.

His last email to staff said a lot. Journos hate reading corporate waffle and that email was full of it (again). Very unbecoming for the boss of hundreds of journos.

Kim Williams was too decent a man to oversee the job that News is doing. It’s sad to see newspapers trashing themselves for an agenda, especially one that could be done with subtlety.

Having struck out in the UK and USA, Australia is suffering from the need for the boss to play king maker.

The terrograph does a photoshop of rats. Perhaps they do another of the rats arse that everybody doesnt give. They give away more copies than they sell and even the homeless wont take them to use as toilet paper because they are already too full of crap.

Three possibilities:
– Kim upset the print old guard too much and eventually Rupert said enough! Will find a new digital guy more acceptable (less progressive) to the old guys to continue the revolution albeit more gently.
– Kim had a gutful of the obstructionism and/or editorial policies and/or decided it was a hopeless task and jumped
– Rupert got cold feet when it comes to the amount of change necessary to modernise a failing business model and has will keep it basically as-is to his grave. Future will see lip service paid to digital and revert to old print based editorial and sales models

Probably all of the above really. Be interesting to see how/if he reacts when digital disrupts FOX to the same extent as it has print. Ban Google?

He was on the way out when Col Allen returned.they don’t call him Col Pot for nothing

New Newscorp reports earnings in the next few weeks so perhaps one could draw a connection between this personnel movement and the first time in a long time the AU assets (admittedly partnering in decline print with domestic pay TV) will have to report results.

Julian Clarke was in charge of the HS when it was reported to be the most dominant paper in the world in terms of revenue and also readership to population … so it’s a safe decision that should appease Grandma and Granddad shareholders.

So … when Julian retires from this (which won’t be long) it’ll be Lachlan’s turn.

And bringing the success-ridden leadership he has provided to everything from Onetel to Network Ten … how long before calamity strikes?

Sell those News shares now guys

No coincidences here. Obviously the arrival of Col Pot two weeks ago has everything to do with this resignation. Don’t you just love the Corporate speak though?

Looks like an implosion from within News Ltd. The sooner it’s over the better for us in Oz.

Lachlan throwing the “toys out of the cot”….bad luck Kim

Given that Murdoch had someone at the ready to take over it is reasonable to suggest the decision about Williams’ departure was made some weeks back. There was probably a big payout involved so if we ever discover who decided what it will come from someone other than Williams or Murdoch. That someone might speak up after the election and after they too are shown the door.

Fairfax and News both are in dire straits financially and finally the News arrogance has cracked. Too many people in newspapers have no management ability, just the capacity to slide through the politics. Most likely, Williams was trying to do obvious stuff and the editors as usual have arked up. So he is gone. Julian won’t be there for long and the final appointment will be fascinating in light of the financials that soon will emerge.

new leaders of the publishing arm of news corp are flexing their muscles over what is their biggest revenue assett. Surely this os a temporary leadership change or a puppett for comand abroad. Might be a mice well respected person, bu you wonder in an age like this wether its history repeating itself. just my two cents – if journalists and editors were meant to lead the business to a better place through this massive decline, then they would have done it with John Hartigan- they are not capable in this difficult time when the abundance of revenue doesn’t exist. Capable of telling the News they are great at most of the time, sustaining and running a profitable business in a digital disrupted environment – just hopeless. Hopeless at embracing non-editorial expertise, arogant from a former era that they still have mot evolved from. That’s where Kim was the right leader through this change. Someone who made decisions and challenged an old gauard waiting for their retirement.
I guess we wait and see how the business fairs up this week when they announce results in the US.
Good luck Kim on next venture. You said what needed saying and didn’t shy from a hard conflict. Great display of Integrity despite people perhaps not likeing the messages you had to deliver.

Back to being the typical old journo’s boys club. News was making strides into being a a media company that was on the pinnacle of being pretty damn interesting.

Kim Williams now in the running for the NBN gig. Up against his old foe Jack Matthews. Interesting to watch, just gotta ge through this election

Stodgy, old guard journo nonsense versus financial facts of life. News media needs more product focus and much better quality. Both big camps are still run by old huatd types. It wont work.

latte lover, you are an idiot!!

The paywall model will never work in Australia for everyday news sites. We just dont have the population.

Instead, the numbers will DRASTICALLY drop (as they have) and their ad revenues will die in the arse.

Not helped by the fact that most paywall articles can easily be found elsewhere for free just by copying and pasting the preview paragraph into Google and then you’ll usually be shown a syndicated version of the content on another site.

Sign of the times at newprint media, revolving door

It’s like moving the deck chairs on the titanic been there done that with mr Clarke

I’m sure being married into the Whitlam family wouldn’t be appreciated in the Murdoch camp either.

Latte Lover, you got it down pat. Mr Hywood has shaved plenty of fat and has an interesting mix around him now. Just get rid of the management consultants and perhaps he won’t cop Kim’s fate. I worked with Kim for many years – smart beyond comprehension. NEWS won’t realize that until a while later. What a regressive decision.

“….Williams leaves the group with a deeper curriculum vitae than the one he brought, and he is likely to be on any Australian media group’s list of candidates when it considers the question of CEO succession”
by Malcolm Maiden

The current CEO of Fairfax has a heavy reliance of no clue management consultants and could possibly be his downfall too

Good to see some young blood brought in

Looks bad when a CEO hailed as a “saviour” leaves in disgrace just a few weeks before the Income Statement is released doesn’t it ?

The expression “rat leaving a sinking ship” comes to mind.

Latte loser
Greg Hywood will be next to go. Brings back an old hack from NZ to run a digital company? One of the so-called ‘management consultant’s ie The only people who have any clue how to fix fairfax will be running Fairfax by this time next year.

Au Revoir
How would management consultants know how to run media companies? These people are behind appalling operational decisions that we journos despair at.
I doubt BAIN – will outlast Greg Hywood. THEN AGAIN, look what happened to Kim! He’s probably on their hit list too!

DibbyNob
If you think I’m talking about Bain you are so junior and so far out of the loop you might well be working in a branch office of the Turramurra times