Joe Aston to leave the Financial Review

Oct 6, 2023 – 1.05pm
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Joe Aston has decided to resign from The Australian Financial Reviewfollowing an extraordinary 12 years in which he turned the masthead’s Rear Window into the nation’s most riveting daily column and among its most compelling journalism.
The Financial Review’s Editor-in-chief, Michael Stutchbury, said Aston was leaving at the top of his game as he took a break from the daunting mission of holding power and hypocrisy to account day in and day out and to open up the options for the next phase of his career.

Rear Window columnist Joe Aston. “He took the helm of the Rear Window gossip column in late 2011 as a 28-year-old,” Stutchbury said in a note to staff.
“Over the next dozen years, he turned it into Australia’s must-read business and political column, capped by his sustained dissection of Alan Joyce and Qantas over the past year.
“Joe graduated from corporate star spotting at Global HQ, aka Rockpool Bar & Grill, to high-level corporate analysis. He turned a ‘gossip column’ into a form of journalism never seen before in Australia, and arguably the world.” Stutchbury said Aston took Rear Window to a new level in 2017 when his justified discrediting of Alex Malley led to the firing of the chief executive of the accountants’ body CPA Australia and the mass resignation of its board.
“A gossip column had become public interest journalism,” he said.
The Alex Malley episode followed his pursuit of Murray Goulburn’sGary Helou, who was ultimately disqualified by the Federal Court from managing corporations for three years.
And it gave way to his relentless coverage of Rio Tinto chief executive Jean-Sebastien Jacques over the Juukan Gorge destruction, and his revelations surrounding the decline of Magellan and its co-founder Hamish Douglass.
“It became an adage that, under Joe, Rear Window was the column business and political figures loved to read – so long as they weren’t mentioned in it,” Stutchbury said.
Aston said: “It’s been the most tremendous privilege to write Rear Window for the past 12 years. To get paid for doing this job is an outrageous racket, for which I am thankful.
“I will really miss working with so many talented and devoted colleagues at the Financial Review, whose work is so important for our capital market and our democracy.
“You cannot speak truth to power so unflinchingly without having an unwavering editor behind you. In that regard, there is no editor in Australia like Michael Stutchbury, and I am supremely grateful for his backing over the years.
“Thank you, as well, to the Financial Review’s awesome, loyal readers for their encouragement, feedback and support.”
Aston will file for Rear Window for another week. The Financial Reviewwill appoint another top writer to join Myriam Robin, Aston’s trusted Rear Window partner for the past six years.

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