News Corp parties now come with HR warnings

There’s no better dampener on holiday cheer than being reminded that work drinks are still work. On the other hand, few HR bosses have grappled with silly seasons quite like News Corp’s did last year.

There was a trio of incidents involving senior men and parties at the company towards the back end of 2022. One involved then-Sky News barker Chris Smith who got boozed up, touched colleagues and by his own admission acted like a total dropkick at Sydney’s Establishment Bar.

He was sacked, but not before Andrew Bolt used his show to say his colleague needed to get help.

The Australian’s senior editor Sid Maher also resigned after an alleged incident at after-work drinks.

As this column revealed, Maher had been accused of grabbing the chest of a female colleague at Sydney’s Bar Cleveland, according to an internal HR note. Maher was also alleged to have been intimidating to another female colleague when confronted. He disputed the allegations, but left the company shortly after.

The third involved The Australian’s editor-in-chief Chris Dore, who abruptly resigned after 31 years with the Murdoch-controlled company for “health reasons”. There were later reports Dore left after allegedly making lewd comments at a Wall Street Journal event in California.

All, for what it’s worth, have landed on their feet: Maher is at a PR firm; Smith’s doing radio; and Dore is joining Seven’s new digital publication.

But the string of incidents were said to have incensed executive chairman Michael Miller, who sent an all-staff note in December last year about “formal and informal parties”.

“Do not let a bad choice you make at a party undermine all the good you have achieved.”

What does it say about News Corp that the company feels the need to send pre-party memos annotated with HR messages? Nothing good.