Speculation is mounting that Fairfax Media is considering a major restructure of the Financial Review Group (FRG), which will see it come under Jack Matthews' remit as CEO of Fairfax Digital and Metropolitan Mastheads.
Fairfax Media yesterday saw off long-serving chief executive Michael Gill, who was replaced by Brett Clegg, a journalist only recently appointed deputy chief executive of The Australian.
AFR editor Glenn Burge has also vacated his position to a yet undisclosed role within the company – Clegg was once considered a Burge protégé at the AFR before his defection to The Australian.
One Fairfax operative told AdNews: “The question is will The Financial Review now come under Jack [Matthews]? Most likely. Those discussions are taking place.”
Mediacom’s head of non broadcast, Nick Keenan, said the move to bring FRG and the digital and metro broadsheets together was a long overdue and necessary move. He expected to see Financial Review content carried by smh.com.au and theage.com.au behind a pay wall.
“It will happen and what you will see
is a lot of that Financial Review business content syndicated across
the online metro sites under a paywall,” he said.
“It won’t be
dissimilar to what Murdoch has done with The Wall St Journal and The
Australian. What we’re seeing under Greg Hywood (Fairfax Media CEO)
and Jack Matthews is the killing of a lot of sacred cows at the
company. Despite all it’s little experiments, it is still a silo
company and has never really got the cross platform strategy
happening. The Hywood and Matthews appointments are brilliant moves.
They will completely reshape the business.”
Jack Matthews did not return calls at
the time of publishing.
In other Fairfax Media news, Jane Huxley has been promoted to the newly-created position of digital publisher of its new Metro Media division.
Huxley has spent the past three years as general manager, media, at Fairfax Digital. She will now lead the product, mobile and online business strategies, and will oversee the technology, digital marketing, editorial and creative service divisions. Huxley will report to Matthews.
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