and used that for compliance and ethics messaging that people remember. TF: That’s a heck of a back story, and I picked up a couple of very interesting themes, one of which is that compliance is everyone’s job. I’ve always said that this should be on posters and billboards. You mentioned values, and in our report, 81% of organizations emphasized that they were moving from rules- based programs to more values- based programs, which motivate employees to take the right course of action when faced with ethical challenges. How does News Corp use values to create a more unified company? I mean, is this a blanket statement from the C-suite or something you’re cascading through senior management or middle management? IH: I think ultimately compliance is all about communication, isn’t it? Which leads me to another point of your report that I thought was interesting for us and aligns with a major priority that we’ve had over the past year. That is, your focus on tone from the top but more importantly, the gap between them and their managers. And you had some brilliant statistics on that. Most employees hope that the people at the very top are doing what they should be doing, but there’s still a massive gap between them and the managers who people see every day on the front line. It’s often those managers who are the most effective communicators of your compliance program, but they’re not quite there yet on knowing what they need to do.
worked. After those four years, the editor of the paper asked me if I wanted to be managing editor, which I would compare to being the chief operating officer of a paper. You’re running the logistics of the staff; you’re thinking about the editorial content and basically trying to keep the costs under control as well. It’s a tricky kind of balance. I was in that role for five years. During this time, around 2011, the industry was going through some turbulence, with the advent of the Leveson inquiry [into the ethics and culture of the UK press] , and the closure of the News of the World. It was a trying time for the press industry, which was under a lot of scrutiny (and rightly so) from the public, readers, advertisers and regulators. Shortly after that, in the autumn of 2011, I was invited to be News International’s first chief compliance officer. It combined the legal work that I’d done — all the regulatory scrutiny we had navigated, while at the same time the industry was discussing the formation of IPSO , the press regulator, so this new role was a great opportunity to put into practice all that experience I had gathered. In March 2012, I joined News International (now News UK) and in 2015 transferred to work in the compliance team of its global parent company, News Corp. I was always thinking about the personalities alongside the values of the organization to really understand what makes those people tick. That leads me to our values at News Corp: free inquiry, freedom
of speech and free expression. Working with my compliance team, one of whom had over 20 years’ experience running compliance training at global financial institutions, we really worked hard to codify the culture of our company and incorporate that culture into our latest standards of business training. We proudly say we stand for fairness and respect, so be inclusive and respectful; we inform the world, so be informed — know your policies and ensure you do your training. We hold the powerful to account. That’s one of the major things that all our editorial titles and broadcasters, including The Times, The Sun and the Wall Street Journal, do every day, and it is one of the key pillars of the latest DOJ guidance on the evaluation of corporate compliance programs . And then, lastly, we’re curious. That’s the essence of journalists, isn’t it? They’re always curious, wanting to find out more information. But not just asking questions; it’s having a culture where you’re prepared to ask the right questions. We stand for free inquiry, free speech and free expression. That’s our speak-up culture. And kudos to your report; it’s great how you talk about values and how instrumental values are to creating an effective program. But, at the same time, values 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,
Q&A: Ty Francis + Imogen Haddon
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