Fairfax chief executive Greg Hywood has fronted the Senate inquiry into the future of public interest journalism this morning, where he was quizzed about a number of issues, including the company’s decision to cut 125 staff from its newsrooms, the seven-day journo strike that followed, and TPG’s bid to buy it.
With a number of journos sitting in on the inquiry and keeping us all updated on social media, we’ve collated them and created our own Twitter feed:
Hywood, sits alone in front of journalism inquiry, begins his opening statement: “Fairfax is a 186 year old company…” #PIJ
— Mark Di Stefano ?? (@MarkDiStef) May 17, 2017
Maserati Greg is up #PIJ: Goog&FB have caused ad revs to halve in five years pic.twitter.com/0QLDsZNtyh
— Michael West (@MichaelWestBiz) May 17, 2017
Hywood: The ABC is aggressively competing for the same audience as commercial media and is therefore restricting commercial revenue #pij
— Karen Barlow (@KJBar) May 17, 2017
Hywood: “I know what quality journalism is. I am personally committed to quality journalism” #PIJ
— Mark Di Stefano ?? (@MarkDiStef) May 17, 2017
Hywood cites ABC News buying up Google ad space… which he says is using taxpayer money to undermine Fairfax #PIJ
— Mark Di Stefano ?? (@MarkDiStef) May 17, 2017
Hywood against European model of government grants for journalism, says grants “create an obligation” #PIJ
— Mark Di Stefano ?? (@MarkDiStef) May 17, 2017
Hywood says “our priority is to compete effectively”. The Australian media “needs a level playing field. #PIJ
— Lisa Visentin (@LisaVisentin) May 17, 2017
Greg Hywood: “What we don’t want is handouts.” (because they invoke obligation) #pij
— Karen Barlow (@KJBar) May 17, 2017
Greg Hywood says everyone at Fairfax is paid at an appropriate market rate #PIJ
— Michael Koziol (@michaelkoziol) May 17, 2017
Hywood: The executive bonus scheme is generally based around the success of Domain #pij
— Karen Barlow (@KJBar) May 17, 2017
Hywood says laying off of journalists “not directly” related to his short-term incentive bonuses #PIJ
— Lucy Cormack (@LucyCormack) May 17, 2017
Hywood says he has not had a short term bonus “for some years” because of the stress on the publishing business. #PIJ
— Lisa Visentin (@LisaVisentin) May 17, 2017
“The best thing for journalism in this country is profitable media companies:” Hywood #PIJ
— Lucy Cormack (@LucyCormack) May 17, 2017
Lisa Singh puts it to Hywood that his “bonus of $2.735m on top of salary” suggests the “playing fields seem uneven.” #PIJ
— Lucy Cormack (@LucyCormack) May 17, 2017
Senator Singh asks Hywood about management taking a pay cut instead of cutting journo jobs #PIJ
— Lisa Visentin (@LisaVisentin) May 17, 2017
Hywood indicates Fairfax management won’t be taking a 25% pay cut, “You need to pay people at market rates.” #pij
— Karen Barlow (@KJBar) May 17, 2017
Hywood says proportion of journalists who have lost their jobs is way lower than in other areas of Fairfax #pij
— Eliza Berlage (@verbaliza) May 17, 2017
Hywood is breaking down his salary and bonuses… refuses to correct record that his 2017 renumeration package is $7 million #PIJ
— Mark Di Stefano ?? (@MarkDiStef) May 17, 2017
Hywood, being grilled by @SenatorLudlam on his pay, says: “I thought we were here to talk about the future of journalism.” #PIJ
— Luke Henriques-Gomes (@lukehgomes) May 17, 2017
Hywood: “There is no one at Fairfax who comes to work just to get paid.” #pij
— Karen Barlow (@KJBar) May 17, 2017
@SenatorLudlam: Hywood salary more than 7% of editorial budget. Is that appropriate? “We have done what we need to do” replies Hywood #PIJ
— Marcus Strom (@strom_m) May 17, 2017
Very interesting discussion at #PIJ. Hywood saying Domain supports mastheads in making shareholders ascribe value to mastheads
— Myriam Robin (@myriamrobin) May 17, 2017
Hywood on whether TPG has access to Fairfax books: “This is something I cannot talk about… it is a live issue” #PIJ
— Mark Di Stefano ?? (@MarkDiStef) May 17, 2017
Hywood: FB and Google type aggregators are “hoovering up” the commercial news dollars, as they have weight behind them #pij
— Karen Barlow (@KJBar) May 17, 2017
Hywood on Fairfax revenue: It used to be 85% advertising,15% subscriptions. Now it is around 50/50 #PIJ
— Karen Barlow (@KJBar) May 17, 2017
#PIJ Senate inquiry will consider summonsing private equity firm TPG to discuss potential takeover of Fairfax. @abcnewsSydney
— UrsulaMalone (@UrsulaMalone) May 17, 2017
