Tony Barrass and Elizabeth Gosch | April 03, 2008
THE depth of feeling in Perth about the future of The West Australian was made clear yesterday when 1200 people, including the state's business and political elite, turned up to hear the man who wants to seize control of the much-derided newspaper and rebuild it from the ground up.
Australia's richest man, Andrew "Twiggy" Forrest, went so far as to suggest he would use his billions to ignite a newspaper war in Perth should Seven Network chairman Kerry Stokes fail in his bid to get a seat on the board of West Australian Newspapers.
At a Perth breakfast - before an audience including NAB chairman Michael Chaney, former Australian of the Year Fiona Stanley and former premier Richard Court - Mr Stokes launched a scathing attack on the "self-indulgent" editorial content of The West Australian, which he said had completely lost touch with its readership.
While many in the audience, such as the influential Mr Chaney, would not be drawn on whether they supported the Stokes boardroom bid, Mr Forrest had no such reservations.
"Kerry, you are a true inspiration like those elders, if you will, who inspired you. I can assure you, you will be inspiring others," he said before gently tossing up a Dorothy Dixer about what the television magnate would do if, or when, he got a seat on the embattled board.
"The very first thing, Andrew, would be to set down some benchmarks for the executives, and in fact demand a change of attitude to customer-first," Mr Stokes said, before outlining the many problems - of distribution, circulation and content - besetting the organisation.
Later, outside the venue, Mr Forrest, who last month overtook James Packer as the nation's wealthiest citizen, said Mr Stokes's speech was a "declaration of faith" in the state.
"He's going to paint a brighter future for this state through The West Australian newspaper," he said. "If The West Australian continues to have a declining readership and a blog-style to its editorial, then we will definitely have a second newspaper on our doorsteps taking advantage of that gap."
Professor Stanley questioned the commitment of the paper's present controllers to important social issues, asking whether a Stokes-led board would play more of a role in the newspaper's education of readers about the plight of the underprivileged.
"The board will be saying to management 'The customer is first'," Mr Stokes said.
"Management's challenge is to take the message you just mentioned and turn it into a story that is of interest to the people who want to read it."