News Corp CEO admits to ‘head winds’ but claims trend lines are ‘heading the right way’
L:R Russel Howcroft, Julian Clarke, Greg Hywood, Chris Wharton, Michael Miller
CEO of News Corp Australia Julian Clarke has sought to downplay a damaging leak of internal financial information by this morning telling a forum of newspaper publishers that he was “not too worried about it”.
Asked by Future Forum panel moderator Russel Howcroft about yesterday’s leak, which was revealed by news website Crikey (paywall), that showed the News Corp’s Australian newspaper division dropped $320m in ad revenues and cut one in eight jobs in the 2012-13 financial year, Clarke said the issues facing the newspaper industry were universal but that with good strategy they could be overcome.
“I can confirm it was an interesting day,” said Clarke. “I won’t say too much more than what I’ve said to our staff and that is what was published was 14 months old. No one is in any doubt about the headwinds that all of us are facing and continue to face.
“not too worried” about the leaks, huh, Julian? You might want to talk to the boss (Mr Murdoch) about that: he’s just gone on record threatening legal action against media organisations that report on it.
Bollocks
Isn’t the share market also up over that same time period? So was the boat floated by the rising tide?
As the Black Knight would say: “It’s just a flesh wound.”