Dropping Sentimentality with Print Paywalls

“Last November [Wellingtonian] Mike Darcey, then a top executive at BSkyB, a British satellite-television company, received a phone call from Rupert Murdoch, the boss of News Corporation,” The Economist writes.

“Murdoch wanted him to run News UK (formerly News International), his scandal-plagued British newspaper unit, even though Darcey had never worked in publishing. ‘Don’t worry about it,’ Murdoch said. ‘It’s exactly the same’ as television.

“Television and newspapers seem to have little in common. The business of flickering screens is thriving while newspapers are shrinking. So Darcey, who took charge in January, is pushing his titles, including the Sun, a populist tabloid, and the Times, a higher-brow paper, to learn lessons from his former industry.

“Darcey, a tough New Zealander, does not have Murdoch’s sentimental attachment to newspapers. ‘If you keep saying “newspaper”, there’s the risk you constrain your thinking,’ Darcey says. ‘We distribute our branded proposition in several ways, one of which is … on paper.’”

Darcey, 48, replaced fellow New Zealander Tom Mockridge as chief executive at News International. Darcey graduated from Victoria University with a degree in mathematics and statistics.