Rob Wilson at Pinnaroo Printing Museum, 1 February 2003. See “Deaths” below (65.1.8.2). – Photo by Rod Kirkpatrick AUSTRALIAN NEWSPAPER HISTORY GROUP NEWSLETTER ISSN 1443-4962 No. 65 December 2011 Publication details Compiled for the Australian Newspaper History Group by Rod Kirkpatrick, 38 Gingham Street, Glenella, Qld, 4740. Ph. +61-7-4942 7005. Email:
[email protected] Contributing editor: Victor Isaacs, of Canberra. Deadline for the next Newsletter: 25 February 2012. Subscription details appear at end of Newsletter. [Number 1 appeared October 1999.] Ten issues appeared by Dec 2000 and the Newsletter has since appeared five times a year. 1 – CURRENT DEVELOPMENTS: NATIONAL & METROPOLITAN 65.1.1 FAIRFAX FAMILY EXITS FAIRFAX MEDIA After four and a half years, the Fairfax family name is again missing from the share register of the Fairfax newspaper company. John B. Fairfax sold his family‘s remaining stake of 232 million shares on 10 November 2011. The Fairfax family interest, held through Marinya Media, represented 9.7 per cent of Fairfax Media Ltd. Marinya sold the shares at 85c each to institutional investors. The Australian (11 November 2011, p.1) reported that Marinya‘s stake in Fairfax was valued at more than $1.1 billion when the 2007 merger with Fairfax‘s Rural Press Ltd ―reunited the family and the company founded in 1841 when John Fairfax bought the Sydney Herald‖. At this point, some history to better obtain an accurate picture of the beginnings: History: Gavin Souter says in Company of Heralds about the emergence of Fairfax dominance at the Herald (pp.27, 44, 52, 591, 592): It is not known how [John] Fairfax came to form his business relationship with Charles Kemp (or rather it may have been the other way round, for as long as the partnership lasted Kemp’s name was to take precedence on their imprint).