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Order of Australia for JB Fairfax

John B Fairfax has been appointed an Officer in the Order of Australia “for services to the print media industry”, it was announced today.

The accolade comes despite several turbulent months for Fairfax Media, including a series of redundancies as the company adjusted to declining newspaper revenues.

According to the citation, the reason for the 66-year-old’s honour was  “particularly the development of news services in rural and remote areas, and to the community through executive roles with agriculatural, youth and charitable organisations.”

The Fairfax family had lost control of the media group from 1987 through to 2007, when it merged with Rural Press, led by John B Fairfax.

Fairfax today told his paper the Sydney Morning Herald that the team behind him at Rural Press took the credit: “We had a great team there – we had a good board and a good management team. They’re the ones that have done all the hard work and I’m the one who has been fortunate to be the beneficiary out of that.”

Other to be made in the Order of Australia include scriptwriter Geoffrey Atherden and former Nine newsreader Brian Henderson. Alec Mathieson, the retired, former general manager of Messenger Newspapers in SA was granted the Order of Australia Media in the general division for his “service to the print industry, and to the community, particularly through the Operation Flinders Foundation“.

And publishers David and Alison Gyger, who produced the Opera-Opera journal from 1978 until last year, were also both recognised with the Order of Australia Medal.

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