THE DISTILLERY: News shake-up

Each day, Distillery selects the three or four best ideas that have been put forward by the nation's leading business and economic commentators (and lists other items they have covered). Readers are invited to comment on the Distillery selections in The Conversation.

Two particularly incisive observations emerged from the enormous pool of commentaries on Rupert Murdoch's decision to take over as News Limited chairman, while Foxtel boss Kim Williams replaces John Hartigan as News Ltd CEO.

This morning's first Distillery gong goes to The Age's Malcolm Maiden, who retraces the steps of yesterday's Chanticleer column. Just to recap, before the changes at the top of News Corp were announced, Chanticleer argued that the company's shareholders stand to benefit as political pressure reduces Murdoch's capacity to seek value diminishing acquisitions, which increases the power of chief operating officer Chase Carey.

Counter-intuitively, Maiden suggests that Murdoch's News Limited chairmanship could in fact be a sign that the octogenarian is finally beginning to take a backseat.

"Hartigan served as CEO of News Limited for several years before he also took on the chairman role. And as chairman of News Limited, Rupert Murdoch will be spending more time in Australia, and less time in New York, where News Corp is headquartered. That could fit with what insiders say is the medium-term plan, for Murdoch to relinquish the role of CEO of News Corp in favour of the group's chief operating officer, Chase Carey, and retain the non-executive role of chairman. The local change might in fact be a precursor of it.”

Second place goes to the Herald Sun's Terry McCrann, who has an inside track on this issue thanks to his close relationship with Murdoch. McCrann comprehensively explains why billionaire James Packer won't turn CVC Asia Pacific into his 'Alan Bond moment' by purchasing Nine Entertainment back from private equity for a steal after selling it to them for a fortune, just like his father. Then McCrann switches gears and warns his fellow commentators not to read too much into the appointment of Williams as Hartigan's replacement.

"Williams might bring a different skills set to the dynamics of the broader interface. But that's all. Similarly, it's far too simplistic to extrapolate from Williams' very successful exercise in migrating Foxtel to a digital platform, to the challenge of doing the same thing with the print products. It's absolutely not the same thing. The only shared aspect is the word 'digital'.”

Turning to the retail sector and The Australian's Matthew Stevens takes third place by finding that Myer chief executive Bernie Brookes – who led the charge with Harvey Norman billionaire Gerry Harvey for GST to be imposed on all international online purchases – is increasingly enthusiastic about the department store's online presence and is also encouragingly blunt about what its cheaper online competitors mean for prices.

"The internet is changing more than prices at Myer, though. Ultimately, it looks like Brookes's somewhat belated embrace of all things online has crimped ambitions once held for growth of the traditional bricks-and-mortar business. The virtues of virtual retailing mean Myer is going to need rather fewer stores than Brookes banked on before its return to the public markets. He set up his distribution and technology platforms to support a network of up to 100 stores. But he says the current firm target of 80 will be more than enough. And, what's more, it would seem that the future Myer estate might feature stores that are somewhat more modest in their size as shopping trends change.”

And fourth place is a tie. The Age's Michael West comes in for his attack on Wesfarmers' decision to pay chief executive Richard Goyder extra compensation that under the existing scheme he shouldn't be getting. "Return on equity has fallen from 25 per cent to 7.7 per cent, thanks to Wesfarmers' leviathan $20 billion acquisition of Coles. ROE is the purest measure of a chief executive's success and under the reign of the present executives, ROE has been quartered.”

Sharing the honours with West is Business Spectator's Stephen Bartholomeusz on the same subject, who acknowledges that while it looks like bad governance at Wesfarmers, there are mitigating circumstances. "Part of the problem for Goyder is that the 'E' in Wesfarmers' ROE was inflated by the way the Coles acquisition was accounted for and the fact that he was initially issuing shares at prices that were pumped up by the equity market bubble that developed in the lead-up to the crisis. The Coles businesses are in Wesfarmers' books at the valuations provided by that pre-crisis share price but, because the businesses themselves have made such progress, he can't, under the accounting standards, adjust the values to more realistic levels.”

Staying with Myer to round out this morning's commentaries, and the Sydney Morning Herald's Elizabeth Knight explains the Myer's numbers mightn't have been stellar, but the positive share price reaction shows the market was expecting something much worse.

The Australian's Bryan Frith identifies a potential weakness in the Corporations Act when it comes to takeovers, while his colleague John Durie finds some improving sentiments among top 200 directors via a survey from Deloitte.

The Sydney Morning Herald's Ian Verrender slams the opposition hard for its emissions reduction policy, arguing the government's approach is far more likely to work, a premise big business has increasingly agreed with.

The Australian's Asia-Pacific editor Rowan Callick reminds readers that Australia's export partners extend well beyond China, Japan and India, but points out the increasingly important relationship with South Korea.

And returning to News Corp, Business Spectator's Stephen Bartholomeusz says Murdoch's decision to take the chairmanship could be a sign of concern or the evolution of his role – or both – while Fairfax's Insider columnist Ian McIlwraith says there will be some disappointed executives who were passed over for the role. And finally, The Australian's media commentator Mark Day pays tribute to his outgoing boss Hartigan, maintaining that he was not pushed.