@media08 - David Kirk, CEO of Fairfax Media

David Kirk, the CEO of the Fairfax Media group is up and it wouldn't be a stretch to describe him as a bit of an overachiever.He captained an All Black Rugby World Cup victory, Rhodes Scholar, Medical Doctor and now CEO of one of Australia's largest media group.

Fairfax runs some of the biggest daily broadsheets in Australia and are sponsoring Media '08.

His approach from a "metro publisher to leading multi-media company" seems like a fairly standard online distribution play. The core elements is focused around content :

• Unrivaled capability in Digital content origination and aggregation
• Powerful multimedia brands extending audience reach
• Distributing and promoting content across multiple platforms
• Proven new media revenue models

Interesting he hasn't spoken about the "former audience" and changing engagement models. The good news is that they are chasing the audience down the "rabbit warrens" into whatever platforms they choose. It remains to be seen what sort of engagement models they'll choose. One of the bullet points is ensuring effective "audience" connection and management.

Strongly focused on display, classified and transaction markets. Subscription is another model that they're keen on and David Kirk mentions that he's relieved that the Wall Street Journal has stuck to the subscription model and that they will too.