Former News Limited CEO Kim Williams set to replace Ita Buttrose as ABC chair (www.abc.net.au)

submitted 10 months ago by zero_gravitas@aussie.zone to c/news@aussie.zone

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[-] PetulantBandicoot@aussie.zone 2 points 10 months ago

Is this good or bad for the ABC?

[-] galoisghost@aussie.zone 7 points 10 months ago

From a speech when he was News Limited chairman in 2009:

"Moreover the ABC, in our view, should not be seen as the default provider of all publicly funded content. We need to look at new models – such as making some public funding open to contestability. Because no one is suggesting an end to public broadcasting or free-to-air commercial broadcasting, we're happy to compete against it."

Bad.

[-] Wiggles@aussie.zone 6 points 10 months ago

Did a quick google search of his name, turns out his time at News Corp was limited, and it didn't end on good terms

Early on Friday morning, News Corp Australia announced that Williams had resigned, just 20 months into the job. In a letter to staff, Williams thanked his colleagues, while admitting that "the issues encountered have at times been frankly really confronting". Confronting, indeed. In his short and tumultuous tenure, Williams had managed to not only alienate some of the company's most senior editors, most notably Chris Mitchell, editor of The Australian, and Paul Whittaker, editor of The Daily Telegraph, but infuriate Lachlan Murdoch, the man who had originally got him the job. "News Corp might be a publicly-listed company run out of Delaware, but there's never any mistake that you are working for Rupert," former Sunday Telegraph editor Neil Breen says. "It's a family company. You run it the Murdochs' way or you don't run it at all."

The source of the above quoute: https://www.smh.com.au/business/companies/making-the-wrong-enemies-how-williams-was-cut-down-at-news-20130809-2rnsx.html Which was a Wikipedia citation: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kim_Williams_(media_executive)

If he managed to anger them so much while he was employed by them, hopefully he can anger them even more de-shitifying the ABC.

[-] galoisghost@aussie.zone 3 points 10 months ago

Well that’s an interesting article. Maybe it won’t be as bad as it seems.

[-] Macrocarpa@aussie.zone 4 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

It will be different for the abc. There isn't an objective good or bad, that depends on your evaluation.

He is highly experienced across multiple media organisations and is a fierce proponent of the arts. his business interests do not change his effectiveness as a leader or administrator. However, every exec has their approach and we will see that expressed through the way the institution is run.