I mogen Haddon is no stranger to change. She launched her legal career in 2001, becoming a UK-qualified attorney as the post-9/11 era began. She was named the first chief compliance officer of News International (now News UK) just a few months
Ty Francis: Before we talk about the report, I do want to talk a little bit about your experience at one of the largest media organizations in the world. But I’m equally fascinated about your prior career and how that must have given you an enormous amount of insight into how you do your job now. Imogen Haddon: I started out way back as a mergers and acquisitions lawyer. It was around September 2001 when I qualified, but I always actually aspired to be a journalist, especially as I looked at the work that journalists were doing at that pivotal time in history and saw that as being such an important vocation. So, I went to journalism school, did some work experience at The Guardian and realized I didn’t want to go back, in terms of career progression, to being a junior reporter. Luckily enough, I got the opportunity to be a media lawyer at The Independent, and I found that was a fantastic way of marrying my skills with my passion at the time for journalism. I did that for about four years, and working with all those journalists day after day really gave me a greater understanding of how their minds
into a chaotic period in the UK media landscape as News of the World was forced to close following a hacking scandal and a public inquiry into press culture and ethics got underway. And in fall 2023, Haddon became CCO of News Corp, parent company of News UK and The Wall Street Journal, among other publications, not long before that
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company, too, experienced a massive change when founder Rupert Murdoch announced plans to hand the reins of News Corp and sister company Fox to his son Lachlan — not to mention a post-Covid workplace reality, intense renewed conflict in the Middle East, the ongoing war in Ukraine and new money-laundering rules in the UK. But navigating choppy waters is nothing new for Haddon, who made the leap from law to journalism — and then back again — before becoming News Corp’s CCO last fall. In that role and her previous one with News UK, Haddon’s focus has a strong connection to her journalism roots. Communication, she says, is the key to compliance. In the following Q&A, lightly edited for length and clarity, guest editor Ty Francis of LRN explores Haddon’s career path and looks ahead to the future (and present) of ethics and compliance programs.
“[V]alues need to remain simple, and they’ve got to really align with the culture of your company, otherwise you’re just not going to land that message. So, we were able to intertwine what a journalist is, and what News Corp itself is, trying to encapsulate in its essence, and used that for compliance and ethics messaging that people remember.” — Imogen Haddon News Corp chief compliance officer
22 | April/May 2024
Q&A: Ty Francis + Imogen Haddon
CCI Magazine
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