Order of Australia for JB Fairfax

Tim Burrowes

January 26, 2009 2:01

John B Fairfax has been appointed an Officer in the Order of Australia “for services to the print media industry”, it was announced today.

The accolade comes despite several turbulent months for Fairfax Media, including a series of redundancies as the company adjusted to declining newspaper revenues.

According to the citation, the reason for the 66-year-old’s honour was “particularly the development of news services in rural and remote areas, and to the community through executive roles with agriculatural, youth and charitable organisations.”

The Fairfax family had lost control of the media group from 1987 through to 2007, when it merged with Rural Press, led by John B Fairfax.

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Tim Burrowes

Tim Burrowes is the publisher of Mumbrella and Unmade. He co-founded Mumbrella in 2008 and sister title Unmade in 2021. He's worked in the UK, Middle East, Asia & Australia and has specialised in writing about the communications world for the last 25 years. He wrote the book Media Unmade, published in 2021, and became the presenter of MediaLand on ABC Radio National in 2025.