Ominous conflicts
THE death of Sydney establishment icon Lady Mary Fairfax provides an extraordinary — perhaps, ominous — intersection with the battle for the Ten Network and changes to the ‘ old media’ ownership rules.
For Lady Mary was a central player in the tumultuous events at the end of the 1980s when we last had serious reform of the media rules — then treasurer Paul Keating’s famous ( or infamous) split of the ‘ princes of print’ and ‘ queens of the screen’.
When the dust settled, ownership and control of all three free- to- air TV networks had changed hands, in every case at least twice; along with ownership of two of the three major print media groups.
Only Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp sailed through unchallenged — while itself taking over what was then the country’s biggest media group, the Herald and Weekly Times.
After going toe- to- toe with Murdoch ( and the late Perth player Robert Holmes a Court) for the HWT, and losing, the most profitable of the media groups, John Fairfax ( now Fairfax Media), came under surprise assault from within its own portals.
Lady Mary’s 26- year old son ‘ Young Warwick’ Fairfax launched a $ 2 billion bid to claim what would have eventually been his inheritance, spurred on by his ambitious mother.
The rest, both for Fairfax and the entire media industry — and most particularly for ‘ Young Warwick’ and his mother — would ‘ be history’, spread out agonisingly over a quarter century and still continuing to this very day.
Fast forward 30 years and once again we have big changes to the rules — once they get through the lower house — but into a very, very different media world.
In 1987 the six major FTA- TV and print groups were all- profitable and all- powerful. No longer: profit and power lies with Google, Facebook and even Amazon.
Yes, once again there will be integrating and rationalising- style mergers. But at very different price points, as shown by Ten, whose ownership future will essentially be decided today in court ( on appeal) and by creditors.
The appeal from Bruce Gordon will play out in the usual legal way. The creditors meeting could go in one of three directions.
Creditors accept the bid from the CBS US- TV network, recommended by the administrator KordaMentha. They opt for the competing offer from Gordon and Lachlan Murdoch, chairman of this company but acting in his private capacity. They postpone, either to get clarity from the appeal or to prompt a further auction or both.
The battle for Ten was not triggered by the changes to the media rules but by Ten’s financial woes. But that exactly captures why we won’t see anything like what happened 30 years ago. The media main game — more, its future — is in a very different space.
So finally, why did I write ‘ ominous’ at the start?
Because Young Warwick launched his bid for Fairfax just as the stock market went over a cliff, with Wall St plunging 22 per cent in a day.
Let’s hope history doesn’t repeat itself too exactly.