Media mongrel Greg Hywood is the right man to lead Fairfax Media’s fight
In this guest post, former colleague Peter Miller argues that new Fairfax Media boss Greg Hywood is the man for the job.
Today Fairfax Media announced that Greg Hywood has been confirmed as its new CEO.
If a large majority of Fairfax employees aren’t breathing a sigh of relief at this news, then either they don’t know what’s good for them, or they are Gen Y. Gen Ys are allegedly entirely focused on what’s good for them, but generally less well informed. So they will probably do their homework and then breathe a sigh of relief.
The top job at Fairfax has been held by some pretty well credentialed dudes over the past decade and a bit. Generally they have been either newspaper men with ink running through their veins, like Bob Muscat and Brian McCarthy. Or they have been strategic business leaders like Fred Hilmer and David Kirk.
That there have been four CEOs and three chairmen in this relatively short period tells you plenty. The pressure to evolve Fairfax whilst defending revenues and margins in the tempestuous media market- not to mention constantly duking up with News Ltd – has been an immense challenge.
So, why so confident that Greg Hywood has what it takes to push Fairfax forward and up, and take the organization with him?
Well, for a start he’s a journalist. He knows what news is, what consumers want, and the importance of credibility and integrity. So the editorial quality of Fairfax titles across all their platforms including the smart apps is bound to remain top draw and evolve. That’s publishing 101.
An important by-product of this focus will be resounding support from the editorial corridors in Pyrmont and Spencer Street. This should have the effect of firing up commitment in the creative department.
Greg knows his immediate adversary well and is pugnacious. In fact whilst he is urbane and intellectual, he has a bit of mongrel in him too. It’s kind of intellectual mongrel, but it’s still mongrel. This will be helpful because News Ltd is a cross-media behemoth and there are share points to be had if Fairfax takes the big stick to them.
Well into my career at ACP, Kerry Packer once asked me what I thought our main competitor would most hate us to do. When I told him, he asked me why the hell I hadn’t done it yet. Whilst the boyos at News fear little, other than an unannounced visit by Rupert when they are out playing golf, they would privately acknowledge Hywood’s appointment as smart whilst publicly denying it’s a problem for them.
Hywood is a fine listener and not presumptuous. As publisher of the SMH, a role he inherited from John Alexander who went on to do great things for both ACP and his bank balance, Greg worked as collaboratively with the commercial hacks as he did with the editorial hacks.
I reckon he is a good chance to get the orchestra playing in time.
He will need to dig deep. The business he will now run has fantastic brands, assets and valuable audiences. And several personalities. One of the challenges, to quote from a favourite art house movie, is to harness the full power of the Death Star. That is to somehow create national momentum across the offline and online platforms, from the brains trusts in both Sydney and Melbourne.
The aforementioned Fairfax CEOs have attempted this feat in several different ways. Most of the attempts have been structural, leading to large numbers of clever people heading for the exit door with generous payouts. In fact one of Fred Hilmer’s less good ideas had that exact effect on Fairfax, with Greg Hywood himself leading the charge to the door back in 2003.
But the tribes have never really met, let alone worked to extract a multiplier. They will especially need to win online and in the smart apps for mobile devices. To get that happening will require strategic vision and leadership from Hywood, and unfailing support from his Board.
I’ve no doubt Hywood will deliver. But his Board will need to buy into his vision and stay the line.
- Peter Miller is the managing director of Adstream. He is a former group sales and marketing director at Fairfax Media
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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I love the cutting remark about Gen Ys. What a nightmare to work with..huge sense of entitlement, entirely focused on getting ahead whether it’s merited or their time, sloppy in their work, clock watchers with unrealistic ideas about the workplace and the wider world, and little interest in current affairs or what’s going around them. Nice anecdote about Packer. Good on Fairfax for appointing a CEO who will truly understand the business they have on their hands.
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Good insider insight, but I wonder if anyone can turn Fairfax back into what it once was.
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Too many people feathering their own nests at the Herald.Its a retirement village, we need some new energy.
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Good on you Peter Miller.
I have also worked with/for Greg Hywood at Fairfax and I believe he is the right CEO for Fairfax at the right time. I agree with all of the above – maybe because I’m Gen X and of the opinion that the cost of inexperience has proven to be massive. Not all of the decline is market-inflicted.
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good analysis, i don’t think the guy is perfect, but his intentions will be around the brands and building rather the cost cutting of late. He still needs to look at some of his senior management, the Fin needs a shake up at the top, the longer its left, the more the market will question his thinking (Hywood’s) and the reason why…it’s viewed as old school and out of touch, and the buck should stop where it belongs…
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