Fairfax executive Alan Revell has very loose lips indeed. The victim of
the latest reshuffle at Fairfax, Revell is now called “group
executive,” which according to the Management & Executive Handbook
is another term for “special projects.” And according to anyone who
knows, that’s another term for “Siberia.”

But if he was hoping for a comfortable landing place at News Limited
after his special projects/group executive gig ends in tears, his
comments in this week’s BRW will hardly help. Asked about Rupert
Murdoch’s recent comments about the uncomfortable future for newspapers
and glowing future for the internet, Revell said:

“I don’t know who Mr Murdoch was watching, but it sure wasn’t Fairfax.
If he had theage.com.au as his home page, he would have seen how we are
creating integrated, continuous news across both platforms and could
have saved himself about $5 million spent with McKinsey.”

Mr Murdoch must be grateful that there are such deep thinkers at Fairfax Special Projects to provide him with advice.