Eric Beecher interview
Eric Beecher has been a strident critic of Fairfax Media and its management. Just the facts: when asked last week what he would do if he could control Fairfax, Mr Beecher said he would sell it or break it up. Well, we reject that.
Beecher's exchange with Virginia Trioli is here:
ABC TV
Lateline
29 August 2008
VIRGINIA TRIOLI: Eric Beecher, what would you do with Fairfax if you got your hands on it tomorrow?
ERIC BEECHER: Well, the first option would be to sell it or break it up and sell it. That's what I would do.
VIRGINIA TRIOLI: You wouldn't bother with trying to stick with this behemoth?
ERIC BEECHER: Well, the problem is, if you owned 100 per cent of it and there wasn't a share market to deal with, yeah, you could do lots of things with it. You could actually say, as the New York Times does and to some extent the Washington Post, the journalism is the centre of the fabric of what we do and that comes first and we'll deal with the profits separately in some way, but whilst you've got a share register which is just open like there's, no I don't think there's anything you can do.
