Remembering a man who was a strong supporter of women - Women's Agenda

Remembering a man who was a strong supporter of women

In 1989 I was 23 and in my first management role when I met the man who would become my first career sponsor. John Motion was general manager of Kerry Packer’s Australian Consolidated Press (ACP) when I was appointed editor of Dolly and we worked together on the partnership contracts for Dolly video, Dolly Club and Dolly books.

John passed away this week from the cruel and incurable disease liver cancer. I was informed of the terribly sad news by former That’s Life editor Bev Hadgraft. We worked together for John in the late nineties when he was CEO of Pacific Publications and I was publishing director there, a role that he appointed me to. It wasn’t until decades later that I understood the significance that a supportive male leader can have on your career — especially in the male-dominated media industry.

My return to ACP following the birth of my first child was less than welcoming. But just as I started to despair that my career may have peaked at Dolly magazine, John gave it a kick. He had joined ACP’s biggest competitor, PMP-owned Pacific Publications, as CEO of the Sydney office and offered me the role of editor-in-chief.

The story behind Pacific’s move from its head office in Melbourne, once famously run by publishing icon Dulcie Boling, is perhaps the one that best defines John Motion’s contribution to Australian publishing. He left ACP following a restructure and was quickly in discussions with PMP CEO Ken Catlow to join the enemy. The problem was that John wanted to remain in Sydney and the Sydney office at the time was purely a sales office. So he was given the challenge of finding a magazine business that Pacific could purchase and he would run. That business was Attic Futura, a tiny, cash poor publisher of teen titles that included Girlfriend, TV Hits and Hot Metal. The purchase would make multi-millionaires of owners Deke Miskin and Steve Bush. Deke Miskin would later buy the Point Piper waterfront mansion Altona from Fiona Handbury, the former wife of Rupert Murdoch’s nephew Matt Handbury, while Steve Bush would invest in art and businesses in Coffs Harbour.

As part of the deal Pacific and the Attic Futura founders would work together to launch successful young women’s magazines, Sugar, B and Shine, into the tough English market. They would also launch one of the most significant weekly women’s magazines in Australia. Backing the launch of That’s Life in 1994 was just one of the inspired decisions John made. That’s Life was the first reality-based weekly to launch in Australia and I recall many industry leaders quietly talking it down at the time. John once told me that his gut-instinct told him the genre would work here.

That’s Life took the industry by storm and was quickly selling half a million copies every week at a time when Pacific’s New Idea was in free-fall. It was an incredible time to be a part of John’s senior team as the success of That’s Life and the fast growth of the teenage titles consumed the company. John was promoted to CEO of the whole company as a result and he moved the head office and magazine production to Sydney. He continued running the business until Seven bought the company from PMP in 2000.

John kept a low profile in recent years as an investor in small publishing businesses in Australia and London. He always avoided the limelight and if you google his name you will be hard-pressed to piece together his impressive publishing career. But those who worked with him remember him as an innovative leader who was prepared to take risks into new markets. But more than that, he was a man who supported women in leadership roles long before there was public pressure to do so. There were always women in his leadership team. John once told me he preferred working with women because “they are smart and get stuff done”. He was the first leader in my career to identify my potential and support that with a couple of key opportunities.

When I shared news of John’s passing with some of my female peers from our Pacific days, the messages I received back said it all really. They included:

“He was a supportive and respectful man to me in an industry not known for its feminism.”

“He was a good, good man.”

John’s wife Trish and daughter Emma were by his side when he passed.

 

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