Mark Hawthorne appointed Publisher, Victoria
Friday, 1 September 2017:
Fairfax Media has appointed Mark Hawthorne - a seasoned and experienced publishing
professional - to the newly-created role of Publisher, Victoria for Australian Metro Publishing.
Hawthorne has more than 25 years experience in journalism spanning news, business, politics,
sport and lifestyle. He has worked at Fairfax for the past 13 years, most recently as Senior Editor
of The Age since September 2013.
Managing Director of Australian Publishing Media, Chris Janz, said: “We are thrilled to have someone
of Mark’s calibre stepping up into this important new senior leadership position serving our
Victorian market. He will be our key local touchpoint for business leaders and the community.
“Mark’s extensive editorial experience and knowledge of Victoria’s business, political and sporting
circles make him well placed to drive strategies that deliver revenue growth and further elevate
the connection The Age and other Fairfax Metro brands have with industry in Victoria, working
closely with The Age editor Alex Lavelle and his editorial leaders, together with our strong
Melbourne-based commercial team.”
Commenting on his appointment, Hawthorne said: “I am excited and humbled to be appointed
Victorian Publisher of Fairfax Media. The Age and The Australian Financial Review are the
newspapers I grew up with, the newspapers I have read almost every day since I was a teenager.
When I lived in London, theage.com.au was my lifeline to news and events back at home.
“I still remember the excitement of walking into The Age newsroom for the first time in 1989. Later,
when I returned from London, I printed out one copy of my resume and posted it to The Age.
There was no other place in Melbourne I wanted to work.
“Amid all the changes happening to our industry, The Age is well positioned to succeed. It has the
best newsroom in the country, the respect of readers and the community and the heritage and
trust of being a 163-year-old masthead.”
Hawthorne will report to Chris Janz. Other editorial and commercial reporting lines do not change.
Hawthorne was previously National Business Editor of Fairfax’s metropolitan mastheads including
BusinessDay sections of The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald, as well as the Money, Executive
Style and My Small Business titles.
As a reporter, he has broken stories on the organised crime links to Opes Prime, as well as the
financial collapses of Bill Express, Hastie Group and BrisConnections. Hawthorne’s reporting of the
collapse of BrisConnections was highly commended at the Melbourne Press Club’s Quill Awards.
A Melbourne boy, Hawthorne attended Whitefriars College and Monash University. He started on
the path to journalism as a 14-year-old in 1986, working as a weekend copy boy at The Sunday
Observer newspaper.
Prior to joining Fairfax in 2004, Hawthorne spent seven years working in London, where he held
senior editorial positions at Sunday Business newspaper, before moving to Conde Nast, the
publisher of Vogue, GQ and Vanity Fair.