Is it 1978 again? The WA Newspapers Holdings annual general meeting was so far removed from last year’s hostilities that it was only missing John Paul Young’s 21-year-old hit Love is in the Air as the theme song.
Is it 1978 again? The WA Newspapers Holdings annual general meeting was so far removed from last year’s hostilities that it was only missing John Paul Young’s 21-year-old hit Love is in the Air as the theme song.
Unlike recent years, dissent was almost non existent as Kerry Stokes chaired an easy meeting with the compliments flowing at length from the spacious floor of the Hyatt’s Grand Ballroom.
The barrage of good tidings came from several shareholders, most notably a thankful delivery agent and the Australian Shareholders’ Association which dominated proceedings.
The love-in was broken by one lone shareholder who queried why the publisher couldn’t put out special editions on Wednesdays and Saturdays for those who didn’t want real estate and motor vehicle advertising, in an effort to save the forests of Brazil and Borneo.
There wasn’t even the demand for increased print size for the daily share price listings, a subject that WAN AGM regulars look forward to every year.
The contrast to 2008 could not have been greater.
At last year’s meeting, Mr Stokes and his fellow Seven Network director Peter Gammell were up on stage after gaining board seats following a tumultuous year of pressure on the WAN board led by Peter Mansell.
Mr Mansell and his colleagues had had a pyrrhic victory in winning a vote in April 2008 to depose them. They had then opened the door to allowing the Seven Network pair on the board, creating an awkward and short-lived detente during which the 2008 AGM was held.
Ironically, instead of hostile questions directed by the Stokes camp, Mr Mansell was forced to defend his new board members from shareholders concerned about whether the Seven Network directors would act in the best interests of WAN.
Not surprisingly, Mr Mansell quit a few weeks after last year’s AGM and Mr Stokes took the chair.
Clearly a lot of water goes under the bridge in 12 months.
Mr Stokes gratefully accepted the gratitude of a shareholder/delivery agent who said the new regime was very different from the last.
Delivery agents have been involved in legal action with WAN for some time over late newspaper arrivals and contract terms which many believed made their businesses unprofitable.
She said it was relief to be listened to and taken seriously, no longer treated as “someone you can squeeze the last drop of blood from”.
ASA WA branch, company monitoring committee chairman, Doug Armati was particularly fulsome in his praise of the independent directors Rio Tinto Australian chief Sam Walsh and Woodside Petroleum CEO Don Voelte who both stood for re-election having been appointed after the last AGM.
Mr Armati said the men had taken considerable time to answer the ASA’s concerns about how they would perform their WAN directorship duties when their primary allegiance was to the companies they led.
The ASA had come to the conclusion that – based on the experience they brought to WAN and their confirmation that they could make available the necessary time – the association would support their election, a position that was an exception to their rule on such matters.
Other shareholder praise was directed at circulation gains, the removal of management ‘silos’ and the improved editorial. One shareholder wanted to know, given the improved performance, if the paper would seek an award such as the Newspaper of Year prize he noted on one east coast paper.
With all the love in the room no-one queried WAN CEO Chris Wharton’s note about dividends being lowered to 80 per cent of reported profits. That is a notable shift from the 100 per cent policy which Mr Stokes maintained he supported at last year’s AGM.
