Sacked AFR boss sues Fairfax

Tim Burrowes

January 30, 2012 11:43

Former AFR boss Michael Gill has taken legal action over his dismissal from Fairfax Media, reports today’s The Australian.

The company got rid of Gill in March last year, replacing him with Brett Clegg.

Days before his departure, Mumbrella editor Tim Burrowes put the rumour to Gill who described it as “nonsense” at the time.

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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.

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4 COMMENTS

Ann 30 Jan 12

How did it leak?

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Come off it! 31 Jan 12

Looking again at that interview and reading the Oz, it does appear that Gill was stitched up. And maybe Mumbrella was set up?

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Matt 31 Jan 12

IMHO, MG was in no way stitched up.

I have no personal beef with him, but during his tenure, the AFR turned from the ‘must-read’ financial publication to an afterthought for many of their key constituents.

As I understand it, he personally led the redesign of the AFR site, and their awful subscription model.
Mumbrella has in the past covered how few actual online subscribers they have on the AFR – I think with a great Web site and a better model, they could be absolutely dominant online in Oz, but I think that ship has sailed….

Good luck with the court-case…
m

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Ed 31 Jan 12

Doesn’t mean the guy was stitched up Matt. Though if we could see the numbers clearly I dare say there’s not a single large scale Australian news web site that will be here in ten years, assuming that bills have to be paid and print products keep sinking. Certainly the next little while is going to be a bare knuckle ride.

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