Brad Hatch steps up as corporate voice of Fairfax Media
Fairfax Media has installed a new manager of corporate communications after doing without one for more than three years.
Australian Financial Review journalist Brad Hatch, a former lawyer, quietly moved into the role in recent weeks.
Hatch is not a direct replacement for the company’s corporate affairs chief Bruce Wolpe, who returned to his native US to become a congressional adviser in early 2009.
Wolpe, who had been the voice of Fairfax Media for a decade, has since returned to Australia where he is now an adviser within Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s office.
Hatch will report into Fairfax’s group general counsel and company secretary Gail Hambly.
Hatch joined The AFR in 2002 with an honours degrees in economics and law from Sydney University.
He was a staff writer on the title’s Boss magazine before joining the AFR’s investment banking reporting unit, DealBook, when it launched in November 2009. He also edited DealBook’s Fast Track column which keeps tabs on who’s up, down, in or out in Australia’s banking and legal industries.
Since Wolpe’s departure, Fairfax Media has been making do without a spokesman on staff at a corporate level, using PR agencies for some functions and PR and marketing staff attached to individual titles for other elements of the role. The company board uses the services of agency Cato Counsel, while Access PR helps with announcements relating to Fairfax Media’s metro division.
Hatch quietly moved into a spokesman role for Fairfax Media in the middle of February. He acted as a spokesman for the company last month over the controversial departure of The Age’s film critic Jim Schembri.
Tim Burrowes founded Mumbrella in 2008. He worked on Mumbrella until 2021. At various points he was editor, content director and editor-at-large.
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