Crikey leaks News Corp documents, company to take ’appropriate action’
Leaked documents from News Corp Australia’s confidential Weekly Operating Statement have shown The Australian newspaper lost $27 million in its 2013 financial year, while the media company’s national newspaper division shed $320 million in ad revenues.
News site Crikey.com published the documents yesterday, apparently revealing News Corp shed over 1,000 jobs from its newspaper division in financial year 2013 and supposedly propped up the division with earnings from REA Group and Foxtel. Additionally, the documents shine a light on the August 2013 departure of ex-CEO Kim Williams, who left just under two months after the accounts were compiled, and in the same week that News Corp Founder Rupert Murdoch split the company from 21st Century Fox.
Since the accounts’ publishing, News Corp Australia’s Chief General Counsel Ian Philip has released a statement to staff saying the company is “taking the necessary and appropriate action against Crikey (including considering all available legal avenues).”
“It has come to the attention of News Limited that Crikey.com.au has today published documents and information which is highly confidential and commercially sensitive to News,” said Philip. “In particular, Crikey has published in full News Corps’ Weekly Operating Statement for the week ending 30 June 2013, as well as a number of articles referring to the contents of the Weekly Operating Statement.
“The disclosure of this document is entirely unauthorised, and News is taking the necessary and appropriate action against Crikey (including considering all available legal avenues). News will also take appropriate action against any other entity or individual who publishes the Weekly Operating Statement and/or its contents, including by referring to or summarising its contents.”
The Australian Financial Review has reported the documents, or ‘Blue Book’ as they are known to News Corp executives, are “only seen by six or seven people in the company, half of whom have since left.”
Julian Clarke, CEO of News Corp Australia, also released an internal statement to staff where he said the accounts had been “circulated illegally.”
“The figures quoted are 14 months out of date, have been illegally circulated and are not part of our statutory accounts,” said Clarke. “They do not reflect the current performance of the business.”