[James Packer said this week that new technology had made the newspaper game] very scary ... Newspapers have never operated in a more dynamic and challenging, fragmented environment [but they're a] fantastic vehicle for news, entertainment and for advertising, and they will remain so. |
As a result of our successful online investments, we are now a significantly more diversified media company. |
Booming internet revenues and profits with improved market positions for our Fairfax Digital news and classifieds franchises, a solid performance in New Zealand, continued growth in business publishing and our regional newspapers ... with tight cost controls in a cyclical downturn have all resulted in solid profit growth. |
David did a huge job managing that cultural change. He's a good-quality, practical, hardworking, people person who related well to people across the board. |
David won't thank me for saying this but there have been a couple of things that have gone wrong in his personal investments. |
Fairfax Digital's outstanding performance - both financially and in competitive terms - shows it is a major force in online markets in Australia, and we intend for it to continue to enjoy significant growth in its news and classifieds businesses. |
I'm passionately interested in the media and want to be engaged in it, |
Increasingly I've had to learn to be less single-minded, to manage the whole complexity. I'm still learning to balance sitting in the office cooking up plans with getting out of the office and talking to people. |
it's got to be consistent with our overall strategy and two, is there value in it? |
Morale is a little bit dimmed, is a bit affected by the redundancy program. That program had been planned for quite some time, and when I took over it was really left to me to make the final decision and it clearly was the right thing to do for the business. |
PMP was in an almost diametrically opposite situation to Fairfax, |
The company as a whole posted a healthy earnings gain, even with the weaker economy. |
The entrance into Jerusalem has all the elements of the theatre of the absurd: the poor king; truth comes riding on a donkey; symbolic actions - even parading without a permit! |
The fool for Christ holds a prophetic role in Christianity, from the early church to Russian Orthodox 'pilgrims' and such later fools as Luther, Kierkegaard, and Dostoevsky, who were seekers after the true, the good, the holy, the beautiful. They were insane - not in a clinical sense, but in the madness of the Holy, an insanity which ordinary sanity refuses to admit. |
The strong revenue and earnings performance of Fairfax Digital in Australia, together with today's acquisition of Trade Me in New Zealand, and other online opportunities that we are pursuing, are coming together to give Fairfax a higher growth profile. |