WAN boss: Paper was going in the wrong direction
The CEO of West Australian newspapers has delivered a damning review of the newspaper’s direction under its former editor Paul Armstrong – and promised to copy Rupert Murodch if News Ltd makes paid online content work as a business model.
Chris Wharton, who was appointed by Kerry Stokes to run WAN at the beginning of the year, told Sky News: “I wasn’t very interested in the paper during the course of Paul’s editorship, just as a consumer. I read it infrequently. I’d scan it every day but it was too heavily into politics for me.
“The paper campaigned sometimes against the wrong things. One of the good things that Paul did was education stuff but even that got off the rails a little at the end. To me it wasn’t the kind of paper that I enjoyed.”
“If” being the operative word.
The West Australian has, in my opinion, improved markedly since the ‘changing of the guard’. Bring it on. My step-grandfather worked there and would have been rolling in his grave at how it ended up. Hopefully it will continue to improve, keep up the good work Mr Wharton!