Brett Clegg tipped to be News Corp’s NSW regional director
Brett Clegg
Fairfax director of business media Brett Clegg, who last night announced his departure from Fairfax, is strongly rumoured to be taking the role of regional director for New South Wales at News Corp Australia.
Sources at both News Corp and Fairfax said Clegg’s ‘re-defection’, he was at Fairfax, then at The Australian before returning to Fairfax as the CEO of Financial Review Group, was the result of the April Fairfax restructure which saw him lose power after the group was folded within the Australian Publishing Media division and he was forced to report to Allen Williams, rather than Fairfax CEO Greg Hywood.
Mumbrella understands Clegg’s appointment in the role, vacated by new APN CEO Michael Miller in May, is likely to be announced next week.
News Corp Australia has declined to comment on the speculation however, The Australian today reports that Clegg will take what the newspaper calls “a senior role at News”.
Clegg’s defection in 2011 from The Australian back to the Australian Financial Review intensified a fierce war between the business newspaper and the national broadsheet over talent after he lured back a number of senior reporters, such as Michael Stutchbury, Jennifer Hewitt, James Chessell and Nabila Ahmed, and also poached senior commercial executive Simon Smith.
In a 2011 interview with Mumbrella Clegg lamented the loss of relationships at News Limited, such as that with former CEO of The Australian, now CEO of Foxtel, Richard Freudenstein and also News CEO Kim Williams.
“Leaving News Limited one of the things that really hurt was losing the friendship I had with Richard Freudenstein and I’ve also had a very strong relationship with Kim (Williams). I’m not sure if that stands the time of time…,” said Clegg.
Nic Christensen
So Clegg hired Stutchbury and Hewitt? That’s a laugh. Of course Ahmed and Chessell tagged along, but what will they do now? (No mention of Matthew Stevens I note. Nor Christopher “Submariner”: Joye.) You’d have to think that the next round of cuts from Roger Corbett’s consultants will include the gigantic salaries of the Clegg/Hywood star system.
Clegg also hacked out the entire commercial team. Before he lost authority for anything commercial. Speaking of which, what are the odds that the Fin will be in serious loss at June 30? Maybe not losing as much as the Oz. But it’s probably the first lost in living memory.
Clearly Clegg learned a lot at News, and applied it effectively at the Fin. Wonder what else it is the Kim was to lose money on in News?
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As Fairfax and News continue to blunder about, trying to work out what they are doing in this brave new media world, they can be likened to the old joke about the mining industry – the old boys’ club share the gold as they move back and forth between the two mahogany rows while the poor suckers who actually dig the dirt at the coalface end up getting the shaft.
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game of thrones anyone?
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If I was News Ltd I’d tell Brett Clegg, thanks but no thanks. For him loyalty is clearly a commodity. With all the redundancies & restructuring going on in newspapers, there’s surely no shortage of “talented” media execs out there
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Amazing how the Corbett term at Fairfax has had so much instability. It looks like a company running from consultant to consultant. None of it makes sense and inexperienced people like Clegg end up at the dials for five minutes.
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Corbett and Hywood continue to mess it up.
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Grima Wormtongue was once a man of Rohan, but betrayed them for Saruman, and manipulated Théoden, the king of Rohan, until Gandalf broke his control over him with his staff. He returned to Saruman afterward, and after the Ents destroyed most of Isengard they trapped Saruman and Wormtongue inside the tower of Orthanc. After the One Ring was destroyed, Treebeard let Saruman and Wormtongue go. They went to the Shire to cause mischief. Frodo offered Wormtongue the chance to leave Saruman, but Saruman pointed out that Wormtongue killed his cousin Lotho, and presumably ate him. When Saruman told Wormtongue to go with him, something snapped, and Wormtongue slit Saruman’s throat with a knife, and was in turn killed by three hobbits with arrows.
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