Robert Thomson (born 11 March 1961) is an Australian

journalist A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalism ...

. Since January 2013 he has been

chief executive A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...

News Corp News Corporation, stylized as News Corp, is an American mass media and publishing company headquartered in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. The second incarnation of the News Corporation (1980–2013), original News Corporation, it was formed ...

Life

Thomson was born in

Torrumbarry Torrumbarry is a town in northern Victoria, Australia. The town is in the Shire of Campaspe local government area and on the Murray Valley Highway, north of the state capital, Melbourne. At the , Torrumbarry had a population of 279. The town w ...

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada * Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory * Victoria, Seychelle ...

, and studied at Christian Brothers College in St Kilda East, and at the

Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology RMIT University, officially the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology,, section 4(b) is a public research university in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1887 by Francis Ormond, RMIT began as a night school offering classes in art, scienc ...

. One of his ancestors was named Arturo Dell'Oro, and came from

Domodossola Domodossola (; Lombard: Dòm) is a city and ''comune'' in the Province of Verbano-Cusio-Ossola, in the region of Piedmont, northern Italy. It was also known as Oscela, Oscella, Oscella dei Leponzi, Ossolo, Ossola Lepontiorum, and Domo d'Ossola ...

, in northern Italy. He is married to Wang Ping, the daughter of a general in the Chinese

People's Liberation Army The People's Liberation Army (PLA) is the principal military force of the People's Republic of China and the armed wing of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The PLA consists of five service branches: the Ground Force, Navy, Air Force, ...

Career

Thomson started work as a

copyboy A copy boy is a typically young and junior worker on a newspaper. The job involves taking typed stories from one section of a newspaper to another. According to Bruce Guthrie, the former editor-in-chief of the ''Herald Sun'' who began work there ...

at '' The Herald'' (now the ''

Herald Sun The ''Herald Sun'' is a conservative daily tabloid newspaper based in Melbourne, Australia, published by The Herald and Weekly Times, a subsidiary of News Corp Australia, itself a subsidiary of the Murdoch owned News Corp. The ''Herald S ...

'') in Melbourne in 1979. In 1983, he became senior feature writer for ''

The Sydney Morning Herald ''The Sydney Morning Herald'' (''SMH'') is a daily compact newspaper published in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, and owned by Nine. Founded in 1831 as the ''Sydney Herald'', the ''Herald'' is the oldest continuously published newspaper ...

'', and two years later became Beijing correspondent for ''The Sydney Morning Herald'' as well as the ''

Financial Times The ''Financial Times'' (''FT'') is a British daily newspaper printed in broadsheet and published digitally that focuses on business and economic current affairs. Based in London, England, the paper is owned by a Japanese holding company, Nik ...

''. Thomson then became a Tokyo correspondent for the ''Financial Times'' in 1989. Thomson was appointed the ''Financial Times'' foreign news editor in 1994 and in 1996 became editor of the ''Financial Times'' weekend edition. While at ''Sydney Morning Herald'', Thomson wrote a series on Australian judges, which was published as a book in 1987, ''The Judges: A Portrait of an Australian Judiciary''. In 1998, Thomson became U.S. managing editor of the ''Financial Times''. In May 2008, he was appointed managing editor of ''

The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...

'', having previously been the

editor Editing is the process of selecting and preparing written, photographic, visual, audible, or cinematic material used by a person or an entity to convey a message or information. The editing process can involve correction, condensation, orga ...

of ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...

''. He received an honorary doctorate from

RMIT University RMIT University, officially the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology,, section 4(b) is a public research university in Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city ...

in 2010. In January 2013, Thomson became the chief executive of

. In 2007, Thomson was one of the first media executives to criticize Google and big tech for the disaggregation of content and publication of falsehoods, and to pressure them for a higher share of advertising value. He has been known to use alliterative expressions to call out those companies, such as platforms for "the fake, the faux and the fallacious," and "tech tapeworms." Thomson called for new terms of trade for tech platforms to allow viable business models for creators and to benefit broader society.

Notes

External links

Robert Thomson lecture online: From the editorial desk of ''The Times'', RMIT School of Applied Communication Public Lecture series
__NOTOC__ {{DEFAULTSORT:Thomson, Robert James 1961 births Living people Australian newspaper editors British newspaper editors The Times people Journalists from Melbourne RMIT University alumni The Wall Street Journal people The Herald (Melbourne) people The Sydney Morning Herald people