Australian media mogul, and the nation’s richest man, has died: Kerry Packer was a young (by today’s standards) 68. And with him passes an era, one where mass media ruled.
   I will hand it to the late Mr Packer as a man, and as a company head. He was a philan­thropist, and he did right by a lot of people. From what I know, he did right by his family. I was always raised to believe that if your family is around you when you go, you’ve had a good life. And Packer had a good life. And the way his companies were run was success­ful in the twenti­eth century.
   His son, James, will inherit the Packer empire, the third generation of the clan to be big media owners. One of the companies, Publish­ing and Broad­casting Ltd., has casino interests, too, which are more than contribut­ing to its bottom line—and are occupying, I would say, more and more of its time.
   Its diversification is a shrewd move, and a useful legacy for the third genera­tion. The senior Packer did a wise thing not just to put succes­sion in place, but to diver­sify into an area where the junior has continued to shine. And James Packer has a knack of picking competent, board-pleasing people to run family interests.
   I wish the Packer family well as it mourns, and I wish James Packer well as his father’s successor.
   The news coincides with the early death of Italian–American actor Vincent Schia­velli, aged 57. It has been a big day for the obits. posted by Jack Yan, 9:54 AM  permalink