Extract from The Guardian
A name is only a word, but sometimes words stand for something
• Fairfax to lose name and control in $4bn takeover – live
• Fairfax to lose name and control in $4bn takeover – live
Greg
Hywood has been known as a cold fish, an impeccably suited undertaker.
But could Fairfax’s chief executive officer have been more brutal than
to announce to staff a $4bn merger with Nine Entertainment? “The merged
company will be called Nine,” he tossed off. Yes of course he could. “I
would like to thank everyone for their contribution to Fairfax.” So,
Fairfax, founded in 1841 with John Fairfax’s purchase of the Sydney
Morning Herald, is dead. And thanks everyone. I’m outta here.
There will be time to scrutinise Nine’s takeover of Fairfax. Time to work out how many jobs will go. Time to comprehend this latest symptom of media convulsion that may have well been inevitable given media companies’ struggle to compete with tech giants. Time to see what might happen to the journalism as the more serious-minded Fairfax is swallowed by tabloid Nine.
But can we take a moment to grieve? A name is only a word, but sometimes words stand for something. I joined The Age in the late 1980s and I never had loyalty to the corporate brand of “Fairfax”. I only cared about the Age, but there were common values across the Sydney Morning Herald too, a Fairfax confidence that what we did sometimes mattered.
Fairfax meant fiercely independent staff who, in a way most News Corp journalists would never dare, sometimes stood up to their corporate masters in the name of independence (the preening “Independent. Always” logo adopted a few years ago was more about marketing than reality).
Fairfax was about brave, hard journalism, from the Age Tapes in the 1980s, to the rape allegations against Geoff Clark story, to the late Evan Whitton’s uncovering of corruption, to recent stories that drove the setting up of the banking royal commission. I was so proud to work for Fairfax, and I know journalists still are.
This isn’t a nostalgia show. Fairfax was never perfect and in recent years the word has become synonymous, too, with bad business decisions – and some good ones – and for its painfully slow realisation of what the digital era would do its business. And for thousands of job cuts, necessary in the digital era, but painful.
"To lose Fairfax entirely is another punch in the stomach"
Journalists can overstate the importance of what we do. We shouldn’t mourn too hard the passing of the old, when the new, however terrifying, is exciting, too. But somehow to lose Fairfax entirely is another punch in the stomach. Could not the new board have kept some semblance of it, called the company Nine Fairfax? But on second thoughts, perhaps it’s better that it goes completely than limps on in name only.
As Greg Hywood drives off in his Maserati with his millions of dollars in bonuses, he’ll no doubt congratulate himself for the brilliant job he’s done. For the rest of us, give us a moment to shed a tear.
There will be time to scrutinise Nine’s takeover of Fairfax. Time to work out how many jobs will go. Time to comprehend this latest symptom of media convulsion that may have well been inevitable given media companies’ struggle to compete with tech giants. Time to see what might happen to the journalism as the more serious-minded Fairfax is swallowed by tabloid Nine.
But can we take a moment to grieve? A name is only a word, but sometimes words stand for something. I joined The Age in the late 1980s and I never had loyalty to the corporate brand of “Fairfax”. I only cared about the Age, but there were common values across the Sydney Morning Herald too, a Fairfax confidence that what we did sometimes mattered.
Fairfax meant fiercely independent staff who, in a way most News Corp journalists would never dare, sometimes stood up to their corporate masters in the name of independence (the preening “Independent. Always” logo adopted a few years ago was more about marketing than reality).
Fairfax was about brave, hard journalism, from the Age Tapes in the 1980s, to the rape allegations against Geoff Clark story, to the late Evan Whitton’s uncovering of corruption, to recent stories that drove the setting up of the banking royal commission. I was so proud to work for Fairfax, and I know journalists still are.
This isn’t a nostalgia show. Fairfax was never perfect and in recent years the word has become synonymous, too, with bad business decisions – and some good ones – and for its painfully slow realisation of what the digital era would do its business. And for thousands of job cuts, necessary in the digital era, but painful.
"To lose Fairfax entirely is another punch in the stomach"
Journalists can overstate the importance of what we do. We shouldn’t mourn too hard the passing of the old, when the new, however terrifying, is exciting, too. But somehow to lose Fairfax entirely is another punch in the stomach. Could not the new board have kept some semblance of it, called the company Nine Fairfax? But on second thoughts, perhaps it’s better that it goes completely than limps on in name only.
As Greg Hywood drives off in his Maserati with his millions of dollars in bonuses, he’ll no doubt congratulate himself for the brilliant job he’s done. For the rest of us, give us a moment to shed a tear.
- Gay Alcorn is a Guardian columnist and former editor of the Sunday Age
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