The revelation of the scale of the downturn at News Corp under the final year of Kim Williams' stewardship by online publisher Crikey has set industry tongues wagging on the eve of the Newspaper of the Year Awards in Sydney tonight.
Crikey published the year-old document yesterday afternoon, purporting to reveal the scale of the advertising downturn and redundancies on News Corp's key Australian mastheads.
The document has earned a swift rebuke from News Corp CEO Julian Clarke who told staff it was was out of date and illegally obtained.
“The figures quoted are 14 months out of date, have been illegally circulated and are not from our statutory accounts,” Clarke said.
Speaking at the Newspaper Works Future Forum this morning, where he appeared alongside other major publishing executives including Fairfax's Greg Hywood, APN News and Media's Michael Miller and the West Australian's Chris Wharton, Clarke said: “Yesterday was a very interesting day."
"I'm not too worried about what was published yesterday to be honest," Clarke told the audience.
"All the trend lines that I’m responsible for, and that’s been in the last 12 months are all kicking the right way.
"The company at head office level, Robert Thomson, has been more than open about the state of the industry and the state of our country, all the trend lines in Australia are looking good. Make of that what you will."
This morning Kim Williams responded through Fairfax media saying he was awaiting a “festival of vengeance” as News Corp used columns in The Australian to attack his time running the business and highlight Clarke's steadying of the ship.
News Corp this morning also sent out warnings that publishing the leaked documents could result in legal action – an interesting approach from a media company that regularly relies on leaked documents from business and government for its own reporting.
Crikey editor Marni Cordell said she had no comment on any possible News Corp response to the article.
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