2020 CEO Survey: Michael Miller, News Corp

The nation has become more resilient to change and disruption because of this year, says News Corp’s Michael Miller.

Michael Miller, News Corp’s executive chairman of Australasia

What are the three enduring lessons or changes to flow from COVID?

Creativity comes from being challenged: Virtual channels have given us so much during this pandemic but there are just some things that can’t be replicated - a sense of empathy, of connection, emotion, the passion for one idea and the subtle disapproval of another. The virtual world just doesn’t cut it for creating the energy needed for the real creativity to flow. The importance of debate to innovation and creativity will stay with me.

We can change, and faster than we thought: Almost overnight, everything about normal life changed and for our part centuries old traditions of newspaper production changed and we started to produce newspapers remotely - and for the most part - we adapted. We might not have executed every change perfectly the first time but we did learn and grow from it. I think we have become more resilient to change and disruption because of this year.

Australians turn to trusted news: During the height of the COVID lockdowns, we saw historic highs in readership across our printed and online mastheads.The Australian’s readership, for example, has never had a larger audience at any point in its history. Australians did not turn to social media, they turned to news sources they know and trust, news that has a face and is accountable.

How would you rate the shape of the Australian economy as we head into the New Year?

Our reputation as one of the world’s safest, smartest, quick moving and healthiest countries certainly stands us in good stead for economic growth.

NSW has bounced back faster than expected and Victoria has reopened just in time for Christmas. Property prices have shown their resilience. We’ve all but conquered the virus, interest rates are at record lows and we are expecting big rebounds in key sectors such as tourism and hospitality - that will be good for many small businesses.

However, there is volatility in some parts of the economy and there are many unknowns - Job Keeper and Job Seeker finish at the end of March, joblessness remains high, relations with China are fraught, there is a new US President.

From Australia’s perspective I’d like to see us have a go and take some risks. It would be a mistake to let our good handling of Covid go to waste. The danger is we get back to where we were pre-Covid and go sideways. It isn’t time to play it safe. We are in a unique global position, having handled Covid better than most, and we should maximise this opportunity.

What three reforms are needed to sustainably grow the economy?

A renewed and revitalised national approach to Innovation supported by greater investment in research and development will provide a ‘shot in the arm’ for our economy.

To drive a spirit of entrepreneurship and innovation we need to re-think some of our legal settings and create room for risk-taking and space to fail and learn, rather than punishing all failures and regulating for risk-aversion. Australia is an outlier in the way we frame insolvency and liability laws. Smarter settings could boost accountability for those doing the wrong thing while supporting a culture of governing for growth. One example of how to do this is expand the Business Judgement Rule in the Corporations Act so it applies to all reasonable business judgements re directors duties, like it does in the US.

Third, there’s the long-term, business-as-usual reforms that seem to forever sit in policy makers’ bottom drawer - tax and industrial relations requiring immediate attention.

What are the three best growth opportunities for your company in 2021?

• Growing our subscribers through great storytelling

Storytelling is at the heart of what we do and we want to grow our audiences and subscribers through great journalism and storytelling. We continue to evolve our approach to storytelling in ways that are resonating with our audiences - in print and digital, in video and in audio. It is our goal to have not just Australia’s - but among the world’s - largest subscriber bases.

We are focused on improving our subscriber offers to cater for different consumer needs and we have already seen a positive response with subscriptions up 25 per cent year-on-year and our national masthead The Australian attracting a record-high number of subscribers.

The number of subscriptions is not success in itself, the real measure of success is the number of people who find our content so valuable they make the commitment to pay for it.

• New marketing models are critical for the partnership we have with our clients. Our goal is to offer our clients a full suite of advertising solutions from awareness to consideration to conversion, unmatched in the Australian market. We are particularly investing in advertising solutions that channel high-intent leads to our clients and transactions at the digital checkout.

• Data and Insights - With a large registered and subscribed customer base we are in a unique position to capture first party data on our audiences behaviour. This is particularly important given the changing role of cookies in the ad tech ecosystem. This valuable first-party data allows us to provide our clients and partners with more targeted solutions at scale.

What impact will digital transformation have on your company?

Investing in digital innovation and digital transformation is a key part of our business and of almost every business operating today. A more connected digital world is the future and it is my view that whoever dares, wins.

We are already Australia’s leading digital media company, being #1 in many major categories but digital transformation unlocks the potential of data. We will better know our audiences, more effectively tailor our content and enable us to develop products for our clients that gives them verified results at scale.

How would you rate business, State and Federal Government performance this year?

Individually they’ve all worked hard and done well, but as a collective it has been disappointing.

What 2020 has revealed is how competing interests, policies and priorities - especially between our state and federal governments - continue to hold the country back.

The most worrying development, one which carries the gravest long-term implications, has been the accelerated leap in government secrecy at all levels and a growing belief among some that the media’s traditional role of holding governments to account is somehow against the public interest.