Andrew Olle Dinner

It’s Saturday night and I’m at work, so I thought I’d take the opportunity to update my website.

Today has been a “blah” day… feeling a little hung-over… after attending last night’s “Andrew Olle Dinner”. As the guest speaker was Lachlan Murdoch, there was a large crowd of people in attendance, and Damien and I were lucky enough to be sitting with people we actually know and like.

Lachlan is a little taller than I had imagined and just as good looking as his photographs suggest. I joked that he looked young enough to be an “Andrew Olle Scholarship Winner”. But of course, none of us were there for that, we were there to listen to his words of wisdom.

The central thesis for his lecture was that profitability doesn’t diminish, but enhances journalism and media diversity.

“Entry requires that you either rely on taxpayers’ money to draw your pay cheque, or that your newspaper folds twice over and, God forbid, don’t ever think about a profit. Far from corrupting the craft, profits enhance it. Expansion drives diversity and diversity protects and strengthens our craft.”

He also attacked the notion the Farmhand Foundation drought-relief charity, supported by News Ltd, was trying to aid the sale of Telstra.