News Corp co-chairman said competitors were 'irresponsible' to talk about a time when it would stop printing newspapers

The co-chairman of News Corp, Lachlan Murdoch, has mounted a strong defence of the future of newspapers in the digital age while condemning his Australian competitors for giving up too early.



In a separate session at a Sydney media conference, News Corp’s Chris Mitchell, the editor-in-chief of the Australian, took aim at Fairfax Media’s style of journalism, its embrace of social media and its alleged leftwing attitude.

In his first public comments since taking over his father Rupert Murdoch’s company, Lachlan said News Corp “can’t give up on print” but the industry as a whole had already done so, a reference to Fairfax signalling it would stop printing newspapers when it was no longer profitable.

In 2012 Fairfax conceded the business would move “to a digital-only model if that is what is required in the future”.

Its chief executive, Greg Hywood, told an International News Media association world congress last year: “We know that at some time in the future, we will be predominantly digital or digital-only in our metropolitan markets. We can’t say whether it’s three, five or 10 years. That depends upon print revenue trajectories, but it will happen.”



Murdoch said News Corp, by contrast, was loyal to print.

“But at the same time we were supporting the industry and talking it up, which it deserves, some of our competitors were talking it down in their own products … that’s just crazy and a lack of leadership that frankly is irresponsible and it’s got to stop.”



In a rare public appearance to mark the Australian newspaper’s 50th anniversary, Mitchell said the broadsheet newspaper was worth $50m in “cover price revenue” alone and it was too soon to walk away from print. However, he appeared to differ from Murdoch's point of view when he told a session at the Mumbrella360 conference there “will be a time when print won’t be viable”.

Mitchell, who admitted his newspaper ran at a significant loss – $30m a year – said Fairfax’s Sydney Morning Herald had declined in quality since its best days under the legendary editor John Alexander in the 1990s.

“I think it is a bit sad that the Herald is reverse publishing Twitter now, and I am not the only one who’s made that assessment,” Mitchell, who has been the editor-in-chief for 11 years, said.

“I would like strong competitors in the media. I think the conversation is happening in kind of a left echo chamber.”

He said he didn’t have a Twitter account and wouldn’t be getting one but he did “follow and look carefully at the tweets of my own staff”.

“Sometimes I think people get too political in their tweets and they engage in too much banter on Twitter with their opponents and I discourage that. I’d like to see them use Twitter to market their stories.”

Mitchell admitted he was a campaigning editor and said his comprehensive coverage of billionaire Clive Palmer was in the national interest.

“We’re having a bit of a campaign about Clive Palmer at the moment and I would argue that that is in the national interest,” Mitchell said.

“Here we have a man whose senators may control the balance of the Senate and not many Australians know much about Clive. We are not campaigning to hurt Clive, we’re trying through pretty rigorous reporting led by Hedley Thomas to look at Clive’s real business interests and his real views.”

Mitchell said his newspaper’s targeting of the previous Labor government’s economic stimulus schemes, such as the roof insulation program, was not “ideologically focused” but was “old-fashioned, on-the-ground reporting”. “The stories weren't driven by Christopher Pyne or the conservative side of politics,” he said.

Mitchell was highly critical of Fairfax’s coverage of indigenous affairs and politics. He said the Herald approached indigenous affairs from a “white guilt focus”.

“I am pretty committed to the values of the newspaper,” he said. “I don’t seek to have my voice projected out. I seek to project my newspaper’s voice.”

Lachlan Murdoch said some input from the proprietor about the product and the editorial direction was appropriate and necessary for the business to succeed.

“I think interference is the wrong word,” he said. “We work in a creative industry, we are interested in the craft of journalism, the craft of design and the craft of designing papers, websites, apps is critical.”

“The choice of what stories editors lead with, or don’t lead with, how strong a headline is or how soft it is and that can be both positive or negative, that drives engagement with our readers and that’s why our newspapers are as successful as they are. They are well crafted.

“I think it is important that editors, like all creative people, have the ability to design their papers and create something that engages with their readers, but I don’t think that media boards need to not have an opinion on the quality of the product, the thinking. The quality of the products is how we survive and how we afford the quality of our journalism.”