The fact that the people from WA Newspapers Holdings Ltd who have been making the headlines are not the chief executive reveals much about the publisher's chief executive.
The fact that the people from WA Newspapers Holdings Ltd who have been making the headlines are not the chief executive reveals much about the publisher's chief executive.
Chairman Peter Mansell and The West Australian editor Paul Armstrong have had far more column centimetres and broadcast footage devoted to them in the past two years than Ken Steinke, who arrived from New Zealand to start as CEO in July 2006.
While those who have seen Mr Steinke in action at shareholder meetings can see he is clearly comfortable in front of a crowd, his positioning since starting two years and a week ago has been low-key, perhaps aided by WA Newspapers location in Herdsman well off the beaten corporate track.
It's difficult to suggest this is deliberate given the high-profile issues at WA Newspapers that have focused attention on others; however, there are hints of this in the media company boss's own description of his management style, which is very clearly hands-off.
"It is about understanding where your business is and where you want it to be," Mr Steinke said of management.
"That is the exercise we went through a couple of years ago."
"Once you are clear about that it it's about getting the right people in the right positions and basically letting them get on with the job.
"I am not a fine detail type of person. That is what you hire really good people to do.
"You have to provide the environment, the parameters and direction for those people to operate in. We operate very much as a team.
"Everyone brings their particular expertise and skills from their particular sector in driving the business forward."
Two years into his reign, Mr Steinke's management team remains well stocked with faces from before his arrival.
Clearly, anyone who thought the boss was going to make sweeping changes to WA Newspapers staff or operations was mistaken.
One notable departure at top level was special projects head John Rowsthorne, who departed shortly after Mr Steinke's arrival.
He was probably one of the team most closely associated with previous CEO Ian Law.
While Mr Steinke had obviously decided to retain much of the team he inherited, he had less choice when it came to some of the big issues he faced.
The sale of WA Newspapers' ill-fated half share in cinema chain Hoyts, implementing new printing presses and a boardroom battle with Kerry Stokes' Seven Network Ltd were all inherited matters; or, in the latter case, very much left Mr Steinke on the sidelines.
To a lesser extent, there has also been an ongoing dispute with newspaper distributors, which came to a head in the past 12 months as teething problems with the new presses delayed deliveries and the newsagents found an ally in Mr Stokes.
Mr Steinke appears confident a new approach and revamped offer will end this relatively small but painful issue, though there remains an existing legal action and the newsagents involved are known to be keen to continue that fight in the courts.
The WA Newspapers boss doesn't dwell on these hangovers from past management.
He admits he hasn't always got things right himself, especially as a former journalist feeling his way in management, where motivations are far more commercial than those in most editorial departments.
"One of the things that took me longest to learn, when you come from that background, is to get your head around the commercial parts of the business," Mr Steinke said.
"You tend to see things with editorial glasses, but those glasses are not always right."
"I am sure I have launched a few things that people have had to pick up after me."
He says one of the shortcomings of having an editorial background is the reliance on individual decision-making due to the fast-moving nature of events.
"Someone has to make a decision; someone has to carry the can."
"From a [general] management point of view I think the days of hierarchical system are past."
"You get the most if you have available all the skills that are available. I think that took a while to learn that."
"I had to recognise that there were areas where I was not the font of all knowledge, there are times you have to shut up and listen to other people."
Mr Steinke has added plenty of managerial experience to his CV since his first move across from the editorial floor.
Prior to taking on WA Newspapers, he was chief executive of APN News & Media's New Zealand National Publishing division, which produces New Zealand's leading metropolitan newspaper, The New Zealand Herald, as well as the The Aucklander.
Before his New Zealand role, he had headed up APN's Australian newspapers division.
His arrival in New Zealand heralded a major market shift, with changes led by him at APN, coinciding with those by rival Fairfax, shaking up local media.
Among the changes he introduced was a Sunday paper, the centralising of operations, launching a community newspaper in Auckland and numerous new daily supplements.
But in conversation, his vision for WA Newspapers appears far less grandiose at this stage, and not particularly anchored around his own achievements.
For instance, Mr Steinke views the new presses - much maligned during the recent Stokes publicity battle - as a key investment for WA Newspapers, which will both consolidate the publisher's position in WA and drive new revenue opportunities.
He also points to a huge reduction in costs. Staff numbers at the presses have dropped to about 120 from a previous complement of 300.
"We do lots of things much, much better with only about one third of the people," Mr Steinke said, lauding the decision of previous management and the board to press the button on the $200 million press upgrade.
He views much of WA Newspapers' growth opporunities as incremental, with small fast growing segments able to deliver clear profit growth on top the more stable traditional newspaper business.
The recently revamped website is a major part of that growth.
Many in the market would argue the changes were long needed, especially with Fairfax entering as a second national force in the online WA news market.
But Mr Steinke believes WA Newspapers is well-positioned to stave off competition in that sector. He said the changes in media require news organisations to adapt and think beyond their traditional products.
"That is a mindset change," he said. "I think our editorial department has done a good job on that.
"I think our revamped website is as good a news site as any in Australia."
However, he acknowledges, tactfully, that the investment in The West Australian newspaper's online operations was late when compared to others.
"If I was here before would we have done it differently? I think yes because in New Zealand we did it differently," Mr Steinke said.
"You can't necessarily draw from that that the policy was wrong, it may have suited people who were here at that time."
"I think we are moving as fast now as it is possible to move but we were late in the game."
"We are criticised as being tardy, and that was probably fair criticism."
Mr Steinke said that he now believed the pressure on WA Newspapers was not from the relatively small presence of Fairfax or even News Corporation Ltd's more established PerthNow, but on grasping online opportunities beyond news, such as classifieds.
"The challenge for us is how do you take that into other parts of the business," he said.
