News Limited boss John Hartigan steps down; Kim Williams to replace him; Freudenstein moves back to Foxtel

Did Rupert turn up with a hatchet this week on his whistle-stop tour of Oz?

Free Press? Democracy? Definitions.

http://christophercopywriter.com

@Christopher copywriter – a very lame spammy way to get your link in the thread.

Spammer.

John’s visit to Adelaide was my highlight of the South Australian Marketing Week this year… a blog was even created in tribute to the quality of questions he received during his visit.

http://dearjohnhartigan.tumblr.com/

The results of his “internal audit into journalistic practice at News Ltd” must be in

It sad to say, that when i first glanced at the headlines about another NEWS CEO leaving, I just assumed that the News of the World Scandal had claimed a scalp out here.

Just shows how low News Ltd reputation is that that was my first thought.

Will Kim give News Limited’s upper management a much needed shake-up ?

“A whole new world
A new fantastic point of view
No one to tell us no
Or where to go
Or say we’re only dreaming”

Congratulations to John Hartigan on a most distinguished career. John has shown leadership, courage and integrity in some of the most challenging of circumstances. The industry is a better place for having had John play such a long and vital role.

Interesting and very sudden, image makeover perhaps, given the Kangaroo Court review

Good bloke, great career.

I echo Mark Buckman’s comments.

John Hartigan has had a most distinguished career and is extremely well respected by those who actually know him, have worked with him, for him or around him.

John has shown a lot of leadership, courage and integrity and the Australian media landscape is a much better place for having had John in it.

On a personal note, we would not have been able to create such strong awareness and interest in The Battle of Long Tan without his support. And without his support we would probably not have gotten the Long Tan medals upgraded for the veterans.

Ironically this success with the medals was achieved by the media (namely News Ltd) and veterans campaigning and exposing the refusals of three successive Governments to address the matter as weak and misinformed.

The media continue this role today and so they should, whether the government or opposition, or certain politicians in particular like it or not.

Bravo John!

@devils advocate – Thanks for your misdirected and thoughless abuse. We have more than enough links thanks. Anyone can be an abusive sock puppet. You should look at your own efforts or thoughts.. Hiding away and tossing mud. Cowardly, time waster and with no taste! tisk tisk! (u could at least of contributed something to the discussion)

We all see u!

http://christophercopywriter.com

@christopher copywriter.

I can clearly see that you are evidently not a copywriter…

Christopher and his blatant self-promotion aside, I would have expected this topic to generate some fiery comments here. V lame response so far. Maybe needs a phone hacking scandal to two (or 12) to generate passion??

Being an ex News employee and having met John and knowing his story from mail room to CEO he was a great leader and inspirational man.

Kim Williams? What a bizarre appointment. What does he know about Newspapers?

Bad news for the maaaates who currently dominate the Oz newspaper operation. If I was Neil Breen or Simon Pristel I would be very worried today.

Hartigan to step down? Or did he just fall off from on top of his huge piles of cash?

Dear troglodyte, this news does not generate passion it generates reflection. After 23 years of toil in the monopoly of News Ltd I can tell you that it is a mnistery of fear, and bullying is the dictum.. If you don’t toe the line, Mighty Rupert’s pawns move insidiously and effectively, and the discipline is demoralising. So what exactly did Hartigan do to have his heart broken after 41 years? Someone must know but who dares tell?

Apologies for the slip: Ministry of Fear.

Thanks Jim P. Reflection beats passion on this story. Thanks for sharing It confirms what some of us pick up in our dealings with News.

I had the good fortune to meet with Harto on a few occasions when i worked at News and I for one wish him the absolute best. He’s a top guy, a gentleman and a very smart man. There should be more like him.

@Jim P I’ve worked in the same company as you for 25+ years, and I can tell you that’s not my experience at all, ever….jeeze, you must be a masochist to have stuck it out for 23 years, if it was that bad why didn’t you leave?

Tim….. get all of this rubbish about self promotion off this thread. This is one occasion, where in fact 3 executives should be celebrated. Surely there’s a better place for others to have a crack at each other.

I thought John Hartigan deserved his own piece yesterday so didn’t add anything about Kim Williams or Richard Freudenstein. Both these appointments are great choices by Rupert. He’s got a very strong bench there and Kim will bring a strong multi-platform perspective to News Ltd and i have no doubt that he will continue to be as colourful and vocal as ever and stand up for what he believes in. Richard Freudenstein is one of the smartest media execs around and Foxtel will be in very good hands under his leadership. Great succession planning.

Gee Mark, has the ghost of Sol appointed you king?

i’m sure Tim can run this site without you giving him orders, and you could use the time to clean up at home.

Johnny Boy…I didn’t get out because I loved to write. I was picked up by News Ltd after the independent publtisher I worked for succumbed to a Murdoch bid; a takeover that created a monopoly in the city in which I live. I wanted to continue writing so I played the monopoly game as News Ltd dictated and still found a way to love what I was doing. Thanks to that compnay I built a career and a name but that doesn’t mean I can forget or excuse the treatment doled out to those who refused to play the News Ltd way. End of comment.

I’m proud to say I work at News Limited – there’s a lot of people here passionate about producing great journalism and Harto has always championed that by leading from the front. I’ve been in meetings with him and heard him deliver lectures and have always been inspired about what he stands for.

Thanks for the ride Harto.

Fair enough mumbrella. (Apologies for our iPhone driven typos.) We take a creative, strategic and conceptual pov towards copywriting. Spelling and grammer being somewhat straight forward and prescribed.

We can understand you might like to generate comment on your stories – even if you feel the need to defame your contributers. I suggest you be very careful not to land yourself with a libel suit. I understand you have published enough here to substantiate our victory in such a case already in this post and our solicitor agrees overwhelmingly. You have been kindly advised.

Onto the topic at hand. (a second hand story..) As you may appreciate, it’s not an easy task to publish the quantity and depth of stories which News does on a daily basis. They can’t possibly make everybody pleased all of the time. The shear size of the organisation is somewhat testimony to their financial success. Though important questions may be asked perhaps regarding News’s balance, agendas, methods and social impact.

We have always found those we’ve worked with at News to be extremely delightful colleagues.

I think we’ll leave it up to you dudes to attempt to create content of value. We’ve said enough to help keep your pages interesting.

Sincerely,

http://christophercopywriter.com

Chistopher Copywriter get your hand off your willie, open the cubicle door and look in the mirror.

What do you see?

Nothing?

Suggest you read this:

http://www.poemhunter.com/poem.....he-ad-man/

I didn’t know he knew you…………………………….

christopher copywriter, i’m no wordsmith but wow – the typos on your site are scary. have at it proofreaders:

COPYWRITING

We’re copywriters writing uniquely stylised business voices for growing and existing companies which nurture a emphasis for your brands life. The best copywriters arn’t just simple writers of copy; they are crafty business growth savvy individuals who can delve into your business and understand its most sell-able facets and craft copywriting carefully and creatively to suit the future of your brands success and public reception.

Oh dear!

From all those followers of Rugby League who remember the Super League fiasco………don’t let the door hit your arse on the way out

I find typos in everything I read. To stick to the topic of this post, News publications have typos every single day. None of our client work ever has a single typo. So there we rest our values. With those who can see the forrest through the trees. Thanks for the lecture Groucho – but I’m certain we have far greater substance than yourself. The poem is hilarious.. Marketing and advertising or rather “communications” as we would rather call it will always exist, but I won’t bother explaining why to you here. Yes Andrew – you’ve made your fair share of typos yourself in the short sentences you’ve written here.

I guess it’s time to find time for a rewrite, if not even rebuild our site. Though, it works well enough.

Bring on your critique and animosity.. Your lives, like your methods, are appearing rather silly, pathetic and little man to us.

I guess it’s our talent for self premotion which pleases our clients when we promote them. It’s somewhat similar to mumbrella staff needing to write their own blog comments in a vain attempt to get someone to care.

The majority of this anonymous opinions thread is complete dribble and you publish it happily unawares!

Sad.

What a joke!

~ cc communications.

😉

cc communications.

@ Groucho #27 @ mark Buckman

have to agree with Groucho – who died and made Mark Buckmann king of the internet?

I mean, a Telstra executive giving orders to people who have nothing to do with him..

Way to go on the matrix management there Mark..

LOL at the people replying and getting angry at ‘christopher’

😉
It makes sense that people own their comments, rather than say anything with a false name and no link, and no verification.. Unless you’re trying to run a wikileaks type organisation. But then the comments on this site are rarely insightful – more like dross.

I’m going to reiterate my our original comment towards this article..

Free press? Democracy? Definitions.

(I guess you’ll just have to work out what this means for yourself, media workers..)

And here’s our sign off link –

http://christophercopywriter.com

(we do this to offer our readers the courtesy to know who took their own words seriously enough to stand by them..) those with little reason skills and loads of issues call it “spammy,” rather than address the story. Quite a mistake.

Instead of being completely rude and offensive about it, publically – I suggest you could email the contributer and mention that the left hand column link attached to the post is enough and that the censorship board of the website considers links (for whatever reason) – “spammy.”

OMG!!!
Have you noticed?! The whole Internet is made of links?!! How dare they?!

Perhaps this is why the quality of mumbrella’s comment contributers is so low..
Completely out of touch.

cc comms.

CC … was the use of the word “grammer” deliberate? Hang on, my apology – it’s not a word. Sloppy, plai sloppy.

Mark Buckman is on the money in my humble opinion.

http://dontbotheclickingthis_i.....aswell.com

“Hush, hush, whisper who dares, Christopher Copywriter is saying his prairs…”

LOL @ Groucho

CC, you also can’t spell “premotion”. Your website/company is a joke (much like your attitude)

Thanks.
Our website currently serves its purpose.
Anyone can spell.
We do a lot more.
Goodbye.

It is quite clear why Christopher was in the position to start his own business. From the clarity (or lack of) his comments, and his appalling spelling and grammar he appears to be entirely unemployable.

And if he wasn’t before, he certainly is after his performance on Mumbrella!

Oh dear, oh dear!

I’m with you Tim. I was really looking forward to a good conversation about the where’s and wherefore’s of News Ltd and maybe some interesting insights.

All got hijacked by poisonous pen hissy fitting. Pity.

I cannot believe you lot are even taking his character seriously.

It’s clearly a piss take.

Ohh.. I’m serious alright.
Say what you will.
If you cared for the truth, you’d bother to find it out.
Everything else is an utter waste of time.
Goodluck with whatever you do.

This is not the forum for this discussion.
Some of you are not very happy people.
You need help.
Perhaps a career change might help you.
Your sense of overly opinionated and utterly misdirected self importance
renders your comments a useless nonsense.

After 41 years of this mans service – I’ve inadvertently upstaged his whole career here.

OBVIOUSLY.. the company corporate life isn’t all its cracked up to be.

😉

http://copywritingpublicrelati.....sydney.com

lol. This is pathetic. Some of you look just a bit jealous of individuals with unique talents. The contradictions, petty opinions and uninformed slanderous statements I’ve just read, are really quite laughable.

If you’ve got something valid to say re: Hartigan – say it.

mADMEN.

🙂 Fair play CC

Christopher Copywriter, I wish I had the technology to send you a virtual bitch slap. Nothing will please me more than slapping you upside the head with the vigour you deserve.