Mark Day, stick to knitting, Fairfax, the death of newspapers, and the dazzling future of the intertubes

Remember Mark Day only a little while ago?

Crikey has become a bore; a daily platform for fixated characters who appear to share an obsession with little more than the goings-on at The Australian and within the global media business of the Murdoch family.

Key writers Bernard Keane (Australian politics) Guy Rundle (can anybody understand what he’s on about?) and Glenn Dyer (media and business) seem to spend most of their energies bad-mouthing The Oz, its editors and anyone named Murdoch, who they accuse (among other things) of using his media clout to further his business interests.

It’s “pot calling the kettle black” hypocrisy, evidenced by a constant Crikey commentary on the imminent death of newspapers and the dazzling future of the web. (here).

Funny how after a dummy spit, the world can suddenly revolve, and the truth about the dazzling future of the web become apparent, especially if the chore at hand is writing about how Fairfax Media doesn't get it:

It is no longer good enough for media companies to stick to their old knitting. Research by PricewaterhouseCoopers recently predicted a contraction in growth for “old” media products - a compound annual rate between 2009 and 2013 of -0.7 per cent for newspapers and free-to-air television.

The PwC figures suggest a growth rate of 10.4 per cent for the internet, 9.1 per cent for subscription TV, 7.6 per cent for interactive games and 4.9 per cent for filmed entertainment. There are no prizes for guessing which segments new-media companies should aim for.

By golly, how that razzle dazzle of the intertubes does shine. But only for those in the know, like Chairman Rupert. Poor old Fairfax hasn't had a clue, doesn't have a clue, and now has employed a grocer!

Now that Ron Walker has seen the writing on the wall and folded his tent, a new question has arisen among shareholders of Fairfax Media: What does a grocer know about the media business?

It may be unfair to label Fairfax Media’s likely new chairman, Roger Corbett, a grocer. As the former boss of Woolworths it was his operational skills and business acumen, rather than his feel for fresh fruit, that made him so outstandingly successful.

But the question is legitimate. There are those inside and outside Fairfax who say the company’s greatest need is to replace yesterday’s men with smart, switched-on, media-savvy management. This includes the board, the chief executive, and senior divisional managers.

Gee, that sounds serious. A grocer appointed to run a company which needs to understand that the web is the dazzling future. Perhaps someone from Crikey, which keeps ranting on about this kind of nonsense in a way that can sicken a sensible media commentator like Mark Day, is needed?

Of course not silly billy. In times of trouble, who are you going to call? That's right, web busters:

If JB and Nick get their way, and an international search for a new chairman is undertaken, who are the possible starters?

Locally, two candidates spring to mind. Kim Williams, the CEO of Foxtel, is a smart operator, ahead of the curve on matters digital, steeped in media, a hard taskmaster when it’s needed, yet personable and persuasive with people.

Few people know more about the digital media future than Richard Freudenstein, a former chief operating officer of BSkyB in Britain and now head of News Digital Media in Australia (owned by News Corporation, publisher of The Australian). He is often mentioned as a future CEO of News in Australia, so he may be unwilling to consider taking on the Fairfax transformation.

Doug Flynn is another Australian who worked for News overseas. He was pursued by Fairfax as a possible CEO several years ago but was ultimately ruled out on salary demands. He is now living in Australia.

Among other names mentioned is Murdoch McLellan, currently CEO of London’s Daily Telegraph.

Notice a pattern? Foxtel, BSkyB, News Digital Media, News, the Daily Telegraph UK.

All good Chairman Rupert businesses, run by decent Chairman Rupert chaps, just standing by eager and willing to help out Fairfax Media in its transformation into an understanding that the intertubes has a dazzling future.

Why perhaps they might even develop a magnificent site like The Punch to show the others in Fairfax the way forward. Strangely however it seems even Mark Day recognizes they might not take on Mark Day's advice:

Oddly, JB and Nick Fairfax appear to be sanguine about the possibility of Corbett rising to the chairmanship. While they see him as part of the Walker old guard, they nevertheless recognise his abilities.

A bloody grocer as the chair? I say old sport that will never do. They need to get on board with News Corp, which latched on to the idea of the intertubes having a dazzling future ... in much the same way as after he stopped abusing Crikey, Mark Day seems to have realized they have a point. Still approaching this new fangled beast is tricky:

Identifying and pursuing new-media businesses may require an intimate knowledge of new media, a willingness to chance your arm on start-up ideas and a preparedness to fund initial losses - but they are still businesses.

Naturally the journalists at Fairfax are deeply worried:

That is not a view shared by all shareholders, but the installation of a Corbett-McCarthy team is unlikely to assuage the fears of journalists who worry that the key metropolitan mastheads of The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald will go down the cheap-and-nasty path taken by their regional stablemates.

Well there's one thing to reassure those anxious, fearful journalists. Not even a grocer could manage to take down those mastheads to the cheap, sordid, pathetic level that the boys in News Corp have managed for online titles like the Daily Telegraph, and the Herald Sun, and worst of all, that cheap assed, half baked conceit The Punch, Australia's most irrelevant conversation.

As for the regional titles, go take a look at The Advertiser on line some day, and see how a once proud broadsheet now carries itself lower than the lowliest days of The News, before it was folded and offered up only its name to Chairman Rupert's empire.

And possibly there's another notion that will reassure Fairfax journalists. If the team does almost anything directly opposite to what Mark Day suggests, they'll be surely heading out on a more viable road. Here's his final prescription, after a check list of News Corp candidates to head Fairfax:

Whether any of these people would figure in a final selection in a Fairfax head-hunt is unknown. What we do know is that whoever gets the gig will need to see the future clearly and have the ability to deal with the people required to take the company there.

Um, like people who can foresee the imminent death of the newspaper and the dazzling future of the intertubes?

You can read all this and more in Yesterday's men unsuitable for Fairfax's tomorrow, but I'm not certain why you'd bother, unless it's to discover how poor old Mark Day still has trouble coming to terms with tomorrow, while writing today, from the perspective of yesterday ...

Why it was only in June he was writing this, while slagging off bloggers and praising John Hartigan to the skies for slagging off bloggers ... shortly before News Corp launched ... a blog ...

While others search for new forms of journalism, or dicker with the manner in which it is presented, I’d be sticking to my knitting, investing in journalists who actually break stories and uncover the most valuable resource in media companies—news.

When I was in New York recently I arranged a briefing from the people in The Wall Street Journal’s “skunk works”, the futurology department, where new concepts are developed and technological innovations tested. It was very interesting to hear of developments in micro-payment systems, to fiddle with products such as the Kindle e-reader and speculate on Apple’s whispered response—a device similar to the iPhone but with a screen four times the size.

But in the end we had defined lots of questions, isolated lots of puzzles and identified lots of connections, but we were no closer to definitive answers. I commented on this to my host, who grinned and replied: “Yes—exciting, isn’t it?” (here).

He'd be sticking to his knitting? Would that be the same knitting that Fairfax must immediately abandon?

The Fairfaxes believe that any revival must begin at board level. They want a new chairman unscarred by the Walker era, which was marked by a series of mergers and acquisitions that saw top dollars paid for old-tech properties such as the regional publishing business Rural Press and the AM radio talk station network including 3AW Melbourne and 2UE Sydney.

They see a desperate need for Fairfax Media to shape up to the digital future; to lessen its reliance on publishing; and to prepare for the opportunities that will open up with the advent of the national broadband network. These high-speed “pipes” into every home will kick-start the world of internet TV, demanding that news organisations not only report the news but show it on video as well.

It is no longer good enough for media companies to stick to their old knitting.

One of the exciting new games the intertubes allows is the 'then and now', gotcha game. Tim Blair loves to play it, but in the case of the contradictions of Mark Day (or News Corp in general) it's not so much razzle dazzle as same old knitting, same old mouldy sox ...

(Below: xkcd under the header 'steal this comic'. Can't work out why I put this here, not unless it's a thought bubble on Mark Day's grand ideas re charging for internet content. More xkcd here.)