Fairfax Media chief executive Greg Hywood has hit out at the ABC for using taxpayer money to boost the profits of multinational corporations such as Google and encroaching onto the terrain of newspaper companies at an appearance before a public inquiry into the future of journalism.
Mr Hywood, who is overseeing a plan to cut 125 editorial jobs at the media company, was also forced to defend his salary and performance bonuses under pointed questioning from senators suggesting his pay packet was excessive.
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Fairfax boss quizzed on job cuts
Fairfax CEO Greg Hywood has fronted a public inquiry into the future of journalism, where he's attacked the ABC, discussed salaries and staff cuts.
The chief executive received a base salary of $1.6 million and bonuses worth $2.7 million in the last financial year. Mr Hywood said reports he had been paid up to $7 million in total were "media speculation" but declined to state his total benefits.
Mr Hywood said he was not "anti-ABC" but was concerned about the public broadcaster "using taxpayer money to drive traffic" to its news websites by paying to boost its Google search results.
These tactics make it harder for online readers to find news articles from companies such as Fairfax that rely on advertising revenue to support journalism, he said.
"Why the ABC is taking money out of the system I don't understand," he said.
Fairfax Media publishes digital and print editions of The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, The Australian Financial Review and other publications.
Mr Hywood said the ABC was aggressively competing for online audience with companies such as Fairfax, which is creating additional commercial pressure for traditional newspaper companies.
![Fairfax Media chief executive officer Greg Hywood prior to speaking at a parliamentary inquiry into the future of ...](http://web.archive.org./web/20170520161015im_/https://www.fairfaxstatic.com.au/content/dam/images/g/w/6/l/v/x/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gw6o1w.png/1495059959576.jpg)
An ABC spokesman said: "Like all media organisations, the ABC bids on keyword search engine terms to ensure its content finds the correct audience.
"This is normal marketing behaviour in the digital space and is critical to ensuring audiences find relevant content.
![Senator Sam Dastyari questions Greg Hywood at the inquiry.](http://web.archive.org./web/20170520161015im_/https://www.fairfaxstatic.com.au/content/dam/images/g/w/6/o/4/l/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gw6o1w.png/1495059959576.jpg)
"In the same way a television guide provides information for television audiences, keyword searches help audiences find content in an increasingly fragmented market."
The Select Committee on the Future of Public Interest Journalism was hastily convened last week to examine how governments can support quality journalism, the rise of "fake news" and "clickbait" reporting.
![Greg Hywood at the inquiry.](http://web.archive.org./web/20170520161015im_/https://www.fairfaxstatic.com.au/content/dam/images/g/w/6/o/r/t/image.related.articleLeadNarrow.300x0.gw6o1w.png/1495059959576.jpg)
Mr Hywood appeared a week after most editorial staff at The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age finished a week-long strike in protest at the latest round of job cuts.
He declined to comment on private equity firm TPG Capital's $2.76 billion bid to buy Fairfax Media.
TPG Capital is expected to be summonsed to appear at the inquiry to discuss its intentions unless it accepts an invitation from the committee.
Mr Hywood said his salary was in line with that of the chief executives of other ASX-listed companies.
"You have got to pay appropriate market rates to get the best results," Mr Hywood said.
Stressing he had been a journalist for decades and edited publications such as The Australian Financial Review, Mr Hywood said: "I know what quality journalism is. I'm personally committed to quality journalism."
He said Fairfax Media's future was as a "smaller but fit-for-purpose business" and that the company's future would have been imperilled without tough cost-saving decisions from management.
Mr Hywood said that he would be uncomfortable with commercial media companies receiving direct support from governments as happens in some European countries.
"What we don't want are handouts," he said.
"What handouts do is to create obligation."
Mr Hywood said he was more open to changes to the tax system to support journalism, for example by making digital subscriptions tax deductible.
He said one of the most important things governments could do to support media companies was to deregulate media ownership laws so companies such as Fairfax Media can better compete with global giants such as Facebook and Google.
The Turnbull government has introduced legislation to scrap the "two out of three" rule restricting media companies from controlling a television network, radio station and newspaper in the same market.
Speaking earlier in the day Paul Murphy, chief executive of journalists' union the Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance, said the government should consider placing a levy on Facebook and Google revenues that could be used to support new and traditional news sources.
Mr Murphy said the government should consider other measures to support journalism such as tax relief for media companies, direct subsidies to newspaper companies and an industry assistance scheme to help the media industry cope with digital disruption.
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