Lachlan Murdoch: ‘If the industry won’t lead debate on print, we will’
Lachlan Murdoch, co-chairman of News Corp, has spoken about the problems facing the print sector and called on the industry to promote its strengths telling the Mumbrella360 conference that if the industry won’t lead the debate around the future of print, then the publisher would.
Murdoch also addressed the public debate around editorial interference within News Corp and ongoing rumours that the publisher might seek to buy the Ten Network, in which he is still a major shareholder.
“The industry has got to lead,” said Murdoch in an interview with John Steedman, executive chairman of Group M, acknowledged the major problems facing print both in terms of declining revenue and declining print circulation.
“There is a challenge (in print) absolutely, we are embracing digital absolutely, but newspapers have a long life left in them.”
So what part of the “quality journalism” was Lachlan Murdoch referring to? The Daily Telegraph perhaps or the mere opinion of a mass of opinion writers for The Australian which has little to do with sound, investigative, non partisan journalism? It must have been excruciating to listen this crap.
The lesser sibling (according to his mentor) should read his papers. Today, for example, the Oz has one the front page a story that is manufactured. Clearly part of a campaign by that small picnic group of pedagogues centred around News Ltd columnists plus Chris Mitchell, it has all the subtlety of a lynch mob’s bar room debate. If, as he rightly says, Fairfax is deliberately shrinking from the task, the notion that Murdoch’s clan will be our source of reliable news is risible. And unlikely.
Great news from Lachlan, newspapers might finally be stirred into some kind of action after years of seeing their competitors taking over while they sat on their hands doing nothing
Pity its about 10 years too late.
What a load of rot. Three quarters of Lachlan’s comments either did not make sense, had no point, or were redundant. He sounds like Confucius meets Yoda on one-too-many Eccies. “The quality of the products is how we survive and how we afford the quality of our journalism”. “We are interested in the craft of journalism, the craft of design and the craft of designing papers, websites, apps is critical”. And “I don’t think that media boards need to not have an opinion on the quality of the product, the thinking”. WTF? Talk about being ill-prepared and not well-trained for the media…
Lachlan’s line: “newspapers have a long life left in them” makes me think of Monty Python and the Holy Grail when during a fight, Arthur chops off the black knight’s arms and legs but the black knight refuses to surrender. It’s only a scratch etc etc.
In the US print newspaper advertising is at a 63-year low. More than half of that decline suffered in the last five years. The trend is not unique to the US but is global. There info here http://bit.ly/1rKml59