For a summary on the conventional wisdom on the situation, see this this piece by John Durie on The Australian website reprising what everyone has been writing for days – that the dysfunction may not be over because the members of the Fairfax family did not get what they wanted. Durie also makes the by now very trawled over observation that Corbett, while bright and battle scarred, lacks media experience.

For a more negative view, indeed perhaps the worst that can be said, remember this sledge by Eric Beecher, publisher of Crikey, which portrays Corbett as arrogant and completely at sea with new media and the threats it poses.

Yet some would argue that Corbett is a fixer of businesses, and that he will be exactly what Fairfax needs.

So what do I think? Let’s be clear. I have never met Corbett, or spoken to him so far as I can remember. I have never worked for him. I am dependent on what others say, and the distillation of this has already been chewed over by numerous commentators who are doubtless talking to the same people that I am talking to. I won’t pretend to add anything new.

What I can say is how I will judge Corbett – how I will come to a view about whether he is the right man for the job, or not.

Nobody, however brilliant, can have all the attributes necessary for a job like Chair of the Fairfax Board. The mark of good leaders is that they gather around them people who have whatever attributes and abilities they lack. That is, they must have the self knowledge to know their own shortcomings, and they must go out of their way to compensate for them.

Secondly, good leaders are not afraid of criticism. They make sure that they have people around them who will tell them when they are wrong, who will offer alternative points of view, and who will argue vigorously. The stronger the personality of the leader, the greater the need for fearless internal critics.

Now, Fairfax is notably lacking in new media nous at the top. Brian McCarthy is at sea with new media. Corbett shows no signs of being across the ways in which ALL institutions must change in an age when almost anyone can publish, and reputations are built and destroyed online.

So if Corbett is the right man for Fairfax I would expect to see him encouraging some brave hiring, perhaps of people from outside the mainstream, who are at the cutting edge of new media applications, particularly social networking.

Given that there is nobody on the Board who knows much about journalism, I would expect Corbett to be trying to compensate for this lack, too.

Then I would look for the critics. I hope to see Corbett opening himself to those who disagree with him, and who have the strength of character to argue and push their point. If, in six months time, there are only “yes people”  at the top, then we will have to sigh and turn away from our hopes for the Fairfax empire.

All this adds up to a continuing need for board renewal, but also some refurbishment to senior management. If we don’t see it soon, then I fear Corbett will have been a mistake.

Lastly, there is vision. Is that too much to hope for from Corbett?

Probably. Vision is hard for companies with as many problems as Fairfax. But let’s watch, wait and hope.

But in the meantime, Fairfax is about to go through an upheavel, with CEO Brian McCarthy expected to make an announcement today or tomorrow about his new management structure.

The word is that McCarthy is considering a flatter structure with a smaller number of direct reports to him. Who and what are the subjects of endless speculation, with lots of names being gossiped about as being potentially surplus to requirements.

The journos are worried that the announcement will also contain news about sections and bureaus being amalgamated, but others tell me that such lowly stuff is not necessarily on the agenda for this announcement.

Subject: Melbourne announcements
Date: Wed, 4 Mar 2009 18:16:27 +1100
From: PRAMADGE@theage.com.au

APPOINTMENTS

I am very pleased to announce two senior appointments.

Michael Short has been appointed Editor, New Media, reporting to me and effective immediately. In the past four years as Business Editor, Michael has done an excellent job, repositioning the section, developing staff and improving content. In his new role, Michael will create opportunities across the paper for smarter multi-media journalism. He will also oversee production and pictorial. Michael’s responsibilities will allow Deputy Editor Steve Foley to lead our work on major news specials.

Kirsty Simpson becomes Business Editor, which is timely recognition of her strong skills as an editor and manager. She comes to the position with well-rounded experience as deputy editor of the business section, and with a portfolio of work as a business reporter, political reporter, columnist and news editor.

Paul Ramadge

Subject: BusinessDay announcement
Date: Wed, 4 Mar 2009 18:16:48 +1100
From: PRAMADGE@theage.com.au

BusinessDay

BusinessDay will undergo a number of important changes to strengthen our business coverage in The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald and our online sites.

Business reporters and columnists in Sydney and Melbourne with national rounds or national expertise will work under a national structure to enable us to better leverage our resources and improve our coverage, both in print and online.

To lead this change, new business editors have been appointed to the mastheads - Kirsty Simpson is the Business Editor of The Age and Michael West is Business Editor of The Sydney Morning Herald.

Peter Hannam remains Business Editor of BusinessDay.com.au.

Working with the three editors in the new structure is a national chief-of-staff. This appointment will be made as soon as possible.

Business reporters and columnists will be briefed in more detail about the changes in coming days.

We believe this new structure will enhance our business reporting both at a national and local level, and we look forward to working with the new team.

Paul Ramadge, Editor-in-Chief, The Age

Peter Fray, Editor, The Sydney Morning Herald
Mike van Niekerk, Editor-in-Chief, Fairfax Digital

The conclusion: the charitable view is that Fairfax has a communications problem, both internally and externally. Less charitable views are certainly possible.

But continuing with the communications view ( and giving some value adding for readers of this blog who are not Crikey subscribers) I’ll add here that there are rumblings from within Fairfax that the new CEO, Brian McCarthy, might well need a bit of public relations help, as evidenced by the handling of the “we don’t need more capital” to “we are seeking more capital” switchover,.

It is no secret that McCarthy doesn’t like the limelight. Indeed, this has been seen as a virtue in the past, when as boss of Rural Press he did better than flashier CEOs eleswhere.

But now I am told there are those  among his colleagues who think he doesn’t handle well the inevitable media exposure that comes with heading a company like Fairfax. He tends to the defensive when asked to explain himself, and it doesn’t come across well.

In this context it is worth noting that there has been no announcement on a replacement for Fairfax’s chief spin doctor, Bruce Wolpe, who this month is due to move to Washington to become a senior adviser in Barack Obama’s administration.

You’d have to say that if ever a company needed good PR  – let alone good internal communications – it is Fairfax right now.

Rather, there  will be more cooperation between the two cities over what gets covered and who covers it, and more sharing of copy. However, there will still be both a Melbourne and a Sydney based business editor.

More as it comes to hand.

UPDATE: Since writing this, I have received a little more information.

Some kind of restructure of the Age and Sydney Morning Herald business sections is scheduled for announcement tomorrow, but exactly how it will work is far from clear even to senior people in the organisation.

What is clear is that things are moving very, very fast indeed at Fairfax, apparently in the attempt to cut costs. The decision to restructure business coverage and grant Short’s oft expressed wish to move on is, at most, days old.

It seems Age editor Paul Ramadge was speaking the truth, so far as he knew it, when he told the House Committee last week that there would be no mergers of sections.

But then, it was only a week ago that Fairfax was saying it did not need to raise capital – and it has now done so.

The rumour at the paper is that this is a precursor to a merger of The Age and Sydney Morning Herald business desks, to be announced soon.

If the rumour is accutate it would seem that senior people in Melbourne have been either out of the loop or economical with the truth. The editor of the Age, Paul Ramadge, told  the staff House Committee last week that there would be no merger of sections between the two mastheads, and no retrenchments.

I hear Short told his staff today that he was not unhappy with the move, and that he had given management a shortlist of other jobs within the organisation that he would be interested in. It is well known in the newsroom that Short has been keen to move to fresh pastures for some time.

I understand that Short’s deputy, Kirsty Simpson, will be acting as his replacement.

I hear that there was a high level strategy meeting of Fairfax executives at the Quarantine Station conference centre in Sydney last week. Perhaps this is one of the results.

Ramadge and Short have not yet returned calls asking for comment. I will update here as more information comes to hand.

Just had a call from Daniel at The Age subscription department offering me (as an ex-subscriber) a special deal of $4 / week for all seven days delivery.THe weekend only special price is $4.50!

I told him that I had tried to renew previously, but the subscription department couldn’t find my record, so I didn’t renew. And I don’t want to renew now. Thank you. Have a good day.

Quinn, formerly editor of the Newcastle Herald, talked about his love for Newcastle, but said he wanted to be part of the Canberra community, and was looking forward to moving with his two kids, dog and rabbit (and a wife too, apparently).

He told staff he wouldn’t be in a rush to change things for change’s sake, but wanted to get to know both the staff and the city.

He plans to get his feet under the desk in late February, but in the meantime gave out his email address and encouraged staff to contact him.

One long-time staffer said the performance was “solid and sharp”.

The younger reporters recruited in more recent times were slightly more critical. Some will miss former editor Peter Fray’s more flamboyant style.

The older hands, though, want a steadying of the ship and an understanding that Canberra is not just any town, but one in which inside knowledge and contacts really count.

Everyone is simply glad to have an editor, after the chopping and changing of recent times. Whether circulation will recover is another matter entirely.

The key words have to be: “its not so much a newspaper strategy as a digital strategy”.

Some Fairfax shareholders have drawn Crikey’s attention to an announcement last October that Fairfax had become a strategic partner in the group OMG, which owns “generic” domain names and needs content to “build out” its sites.

Fairfax Digital Director of Corporate Development, Dale McCarthy, said OMG will leverage Fairfax’s assets and knowledge to achieve its goal of building the “largest network of response ad (pay per click) sites and niche directories” in Australia.

Ms McCarthy indicated the move into online search and directories is ”not so much a newspaper strategy as a digital strategy”. She said Fairfax would be a minority shareholder in OMG, who would source content from Fairfax as well as other parties to populate the sites.

The OMG website contains a timeline that has Fairfax coming in as a “strategic partner”, and says:

Fairfax will leverage their extensive content library, technology platform and online advertising expertise to help OMG build out their portfolio of websites.

Some indication of what OMG is looking for in a partner is here.

Basically, its all about getting noticed in advertising land, with domain names that are search engine friendly, and light-on pleasing to advertisers content of the kind you might find in filling up the space between the ads in the real estate or travel sections.

Not so much a newspaper strategy as a digital strategy.

Hmmm.

He also gave some information on what he is going to do next.

Jaspan said that he was staying in Melbourne and was going to join the Global Cities Institute – an initiative of the United Nations based at RMIT University.

When I rang the Institute at RMIT this afternoon, none of the staff on deck had heard anything about Jaspan’s appointment. It later emerged that he is a member of the advisory committee for the Institute – which is an honorary position. The Director of the Institute, Paul James, said Jaspan had joined late last year and had been “terrific” and “most enthusiastic” in engaging cities in the region, and advising on research priorities.

Talking to Faine, though, Jaspan was less than articulate. What was he going to do at the Global Cities Institute ? Faine didn’t ask, and Jaspan didn’t help, although he said a lot:

“Here in Melbourne, RMIT, they have won the secretariat to serve the Asia-Pacific region for all the – all the cities that are signed up to the program. And the idea is to act as a bit of a clearing exchange to look at everything from social issues, economic issues, environmental issues, around housing, transport, government, governance, waste management, energy usage…Yeah. Now, the reason, I think, I was invited to there is I was really very committed to The Age playing a role and being at the heart of the debate in Melbourne as to what kind of city Melbourne was going to evolve into, given that, you know, population projections say we’ll overtake Sydney and all that. Now, you can’t just pour people in when there’s no water. I mean, there is no water in this city, in sufficient water. Or, in fact, if you push further, you say there is water but we’re not using it terribly well.

There was more along these lines.

Yeah. And the thing we never – we always forget about power is when you switch on your air conditioning, I don’t have any, but if you do switch it on or you switch on the lights, you’re actually consuming water. Another key area we’ve got to really look at is why are we exporting water. Cause right now when we send dairy products, milk, cheese, whatever, we’re actually exporting virtual(*) water.
The same thing goes, you could argue, for – for particularly things like, there’s wine, there’s a whole bunch of other products which consume huge amounts of water, rice and cotton being two of them…
JON FAINE: And meat. Meat production is massive user of water.
ANDREW JASPAN: And meat. Meat production. So, you know, I can’t remember the exact numbers, but for every litre of milk you’re actually chewing up something like 60 litres of water.
JON FAINE: So we need to rethink how we do things. So…
ANDREW JASPAN: So, all of that is, I think, why this, to me, is going to be one of the most stimulating periods to be looking at what’s going on. And in many ways I’m just frustrated I’m not there to play a part.

Here is RMIT’s Global Cities Research Institute website . The United Nations involvement is through the UNGC Cities Programme , and there are about 150 researchers involved.

Faine’s summing up of the discussion was little on the generous side, given that Jaspan’s position with the Institute is honorary:

So the rumour that you were going to go back to England or Scotland is wrong, the rumour that you don’t have any work is wrong. There’s another rumour that you were sacked for refusing to sack journalists, the way Sydney wanted you to. Is that right or wrong?
ANDREW JASPAN:I’m not going to go into that.

Jaspan, of course, was famously shunted from his job as Age editor late last year. His time at the broadsheet was not a happy one. He was faced with a staff revolt, including what amounted to a vote of no confidence in his leadership. He also managed to make enemies of senior management. All this despite comparitively buoyant circulation.

So what did he have to say about all this? Quite a bit – after stating that he was constrained from talking by an agreement he had signed with  Fairfax.

Why was he sacked? Jaspan blamed Rural Press and their reverse take-over of Fairfax.

I was praised for what I’d done editorially, but they told me that there’s going to be a change of direction in management, as – I don’t know if all your listeners know this, but there’s been, in effect, a reverse takeover. Rural Press has taken over Fairfax. The CEO of Fairfax, David Kirk, has gone, Brian McCarthy’s now in charge.

Faine: So, the country paper network’s taken over the capital city paper network?

Correct, yeah. The boys from the bush as they call themselves. [Laughter] And I think they want to go in a different direction and good luck to them. I mean, let’s see how they do. I mean, I think the jury’s out, in terms of what they do, and they’ve only just taken over and Brian, I think, is formulating a complete restructure of the company. Some of which I think is good, by the way.

The bit of the restructure Jaspan thinks is good is changing the arrangement by which the Fairfax newspapers’ online presence is managed entirely separately from the print iterations

I always argued to David Kirk I thought it was wrong that the online division, so The Age online, did not report to me. I had no control over it. That was a separate entity called Fairfax Digital. So, The Age had the newspaper, I was responsible for that. I wasn’t responsible for the magazines, for the books, for online, for a whole range of other areas. And I think it is good that it’s being looked at.

So, in effect, change of direction. And I think they felt that I was not the guy to take it down what they call the low cost environment.

Here Jaspan encouraged the view that he was sacked because he was not willing to cut costs. There is truth to this – but Jaspan’s newsroom critics would add that part of the problem with his management was that he was not sufficiently across his budgets to be able to argue his corner with the high-ups.

Jaspan went on to point out that when he left, so did about 550 other people from across the company. then he made the somewhat staggering claim that he really didn’t mind being sacked.

I don’t actually mind. In fact, I very much welcome a radical rethink of the way Fairfax is run, the way The Age is run, and I was always very much an advocate of that, because it allows you to really challenge. You know, are you spending your money in the right areas.

He made the somewhat conventional point that what matters is journalism, rather than mode of delivery. “I always argue that newspaper is dead”.And when it came to the online presence, Jaspan seemed to suggest that Crikey (yes, us) might be an appropriate model – which is generous of him, given that we were hardly his biggest fans when he was in office.

As I said to you a moment ago, it pains me to say this, but I didn’t have responsibility for The Age online. The people who do run it tell me that they were looking for a different audience, which I think is fine. Or the sort of phrase that they use is stretching the brand. In other words, getting other people who don’t currently read The Age. My argument always is, well, you can do that, but don’t call yourself The Age. You know, The Age is The Age and it needs to communicate through all the channels I said before. Now, I think Brian McCarthy and the new people at Fairfax may look again at that. But the key thing is, you know, who are – who are the people who are going to make editorial decisions about the quality of The Age online, the quality of The Age print and so on and so forth, those are the key questions you do need to look at.

And later:

What I would say, however, is that we here in Melbourne had a lot of thoughts about how we wanted to develop the online service, and I’m not going to rehearse them all here. But I think if we’d allowed local initiative to take hold and we could have developed The Age online as we wanted to do it here in Melbourne, we would have been offering, you know, very much the kind of things that Crikey and others can do out there.

I understand that Jaspan is right about McCarthy wanting to restructure the Fairfax Digital division. Running online separately from the print products is indeed a very strange arrangement at a time of the integrated newsroom.  I understand there may be an announcement within the month on restructuring. In fact, the mystery is why McCarthy hasn’t already moved on this.

Jaspan again floated the idea he offered as editor – of a narrower format for the papers, saying he had always thought The Age was too big. He said former CEO David Kirk had backed the idea, but it hadn’t gone ahead because it would cost money to implement the change – money Fairfax didn’t want to spend. He thought the idea was now dead. Once again, he revealed figures not before in the public domain. The cost of going to a narrower format would have been “about $20 to $40 million” to do both The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald. “I think they just felt they didn’t want to spend that right now.”

Jaspan nicely mixed a metaphor to make a contentional point about the way newspapers have been managed.

Newspapers, particularly, have been cash cows. They’ve been milked by the institutional investors and private investors, and they’ve been returning huge profits. And in many ways I think they’ve been killing the golden goose.

So that was it from Jaspan. Doubtless we will be hearing more from him.