KEY POINTS:
MELBOURNE - Rural Press Ltd chairman and majority owner John B Fairfax says changes in the media sector require a younger person eventually to be chairman of Fairfax Media.
Fairfax chief executive David Kirk last week spent $2.8 billion on rural and regional publisher Rural Press to create
Australia's biggest newspaper company.
Mr Fairfax told Sky News' Sunday Business programme that he may be one of the two Rural Press directors to join the Fairfax board.
Asked if he may become Fairfax's next chairman, Mr Fairfax said: "That's a long way off, and I wouldn't like to speculate on that".
"I think while it could be a good thing that I was chairman of Fairfax, for example, for a couple of years, I think you need a fresh mind and some younger blood, some younger thinking ... particularly in the publishing and media area where we're facing some quite revolutionary methods whereby people get their news and information."
Mr Fairfax said that contrary to the views of some who believed that Fairfax had not performed well in recent years, he believed the company had done "quite well".
"They've got a solid management team in place now, they've got Ron Walker as chairman, I don't know a great deal about the board and how it operates, but I imagine it will be an effective board," Mr Fairfax said.
The Fairfax family has a 53 per cent stake in Rural Press, held though its company Marinya Media.
The holding will convert to around 13 per cent of Fairfax, making the family one of the company's biggest shareholders.
Mr Fairfax said the family might consider investing more in Fairfax "after time".
"Our investment (the Marinya holding) will be significant. Obviously, we would want to tread water on that until we're satisfied that the company is developing in a sensible way.
"So, it is possible, I wouldn't rule it out."
Mr Fairfax said Fairfax's moves to develop its internet operations was one of the things that was attractive to Rural Press in its merger with Fairfax Media.
Fairfax chief executive David Kirk told the ABC's Inside Business programme that Fairfax's online assets could be used to develop regional and rural online propositions, news and information, classified advertising and other transactional businesses.
"I see a whole range of new businesses we can develop in the online space," Mr Kirk said.
Mr Kirk also said he did not know if the merger with Rural Press would make a takeover bid for Fairfax less likely.
"I don't know practically what the outcome will be. Theoretically, it makes very little change," Mr Kirk said.
"Sure the company is bigger, there's a lot of capital around out there, there's no shortage of money to make takeovers as we've seen with the private equity companies."
But Mr Kirk noted that anyone making a takeover bid would have to deal with the Fairfax family's 13 per cent stake.
- AAP
