Marinya cold on Corbett as Fairfax chairman

Sources closely aligned to the Fairfax family and their Marinya Media company told The Age last night that Mr Corbett, although talented, would represent more of the same and not be the independent chairman the company needed.

"Roger can put his hat in the ring if he wants to, but he has tied himself too closely to Walker," one source said. "The company needs genuine renewal and you are not going to get that with Roger. We've got to get away from being grocers to be a media company."

The issue will be debated between the warring parties this week, in a bid to broker a compromise, before the notice of meeting goes out for the November 10 annual general meeting. The Walker camp is expected to push for Mr Corbett to succeed Mr Walker as chairman, while the John B. Fairfax camp is tipped to reiterate its calls for an independent search firm to scout for an external candidate.

Divisions in the boardroom of Fairfax, owner of The Age, turned into an extraordinary public spat last Thursday after Mr Walker who was celebrating his 70th birthday at a party in Melbourne last night declared he would retire on August 10 next year.

Late that day Mr Fairfax's Marinya Media, which owns 9.7 per cent of the company, issued an explosive statement saying it would vote against the re-election of Mr Walker at the AGM. The statement said that during Mr Walker's tenure as chairman, Fairfax had taken on "an unacceptable degree of risk" and suffered damage to its balance sheet by making acquisitions "at the top of the cycle".

That night, independent director David Evans and Mr Walker returned the serve, accusing Mr Fairfax of hypocrisy and deceiving the board by not disclosing details of the leverage over his Fairfax shares.

The next day, Friday, independent directors Mr Corbett, Mr Evans, Julia King, Peter Young and Robert Savage issued a statement saying they supported Mr Walker.

The Walker and Fairfax camps are expected to try to reach a compromise before the end of this month to avert a showdown at the AGM and instability in the boardroom. Both say they "have the numbers", or expect to garner the support of institutional investors in a proxy battle, should a compromise not be struck before the meeting.

It is understood that although the Marinya camp respects Mr Corbett's ability as a potential chairman, and has praised the former Woolworths chief executive, it would prefer an external appointment as Mr Corbett is allied with the opposing board faction.

On Friday, Mr Corbett flagged strategic differences with Mr Fairfax, highlighting the focus on cost-cutting emphasised in Marinya's statement.

Mr Corbett said Marinya's statement released on Thursday gave little credit for the changes made within the business.

By the nature of his statement he doesn't give (the repositioning of the business) much emphasis, Mr Corbett said.

He said the lack of acknowledgement of changes that had been made in the business made it a very one-sided statement.

Asked whether he should be seen as heir apparent to Mr Walker, Mr Corbett said he was deputy chairman, full stop.

Asked whether he was prepared to consider the chairmanship if Mr Walker were voted down, he said it was a hypothetical question but added: I would consider that at the time.