The announcement of the retirement of Fairfax director JB Fairfax yesterday came as a surprise to even close watchers of the company, given the key role the man has played in recent years — first getting rid of CEO David Kirk, then mustering the family might to oust chairman Ron Walker.

Meanwhile, the word around Sydney is that the hunt for new board members for Fairfax is proving challenging. Present Fairfax chairman Roger Corbett was putting a good face on it in The Australian this morning, talking about working through a list of candidates. But I hear that the headhunters have been out, people have been approached and turned down the job.

Understandable perhaps. Nobody has come up with a definitive answer to the problems that Fairfax Media, along with other world newspaper publishers, is facing. Nor is there any new vision emerging internally.

Fairfax Digital chief Jack Matthews is seen as a critic of the existing steady-as-she-goes risk-averse approach, rather than a visionary with brave new ideas. Nevertheless, the board members are listening to him, with one of the key issues being the degree to which the print and online operations should be merged.

It’s a difficult question, even though merger would seem to be an imperative from a journalistic point of view, and from the point of view of advertisers wanting a one-stop shop and integrated approach.

The challenge is that advertisements in print products still attract a premium price compared to the peanuts payable on the web, where advertising space is in endless supply.

The board has called in advice from independent consultants Bain and Company, who, if their track record is any guide, are likely to advise that steady-as-she-goes is not an option, and deep and fundamental change and experimentation are the only feasible, though risky, paths forward.

With JB Fairfax out of the picture, the position of his favoured collaborator, CEO Brian McCarthy, is obviously in doubt. Indeed, by ducking out now, JB may have avoided not only a stoush over his family’s disproportionate representation on the board, but also a difficult test of loyalties. McCarthy made the Fairfax family big money through his hard-nosed management of Rural Press.

But country papers, many of them in monopoly markets where the internet has yet to make big inroads, are a much simpler business than international and national media organisations, and it seems that the present Fairfax board — which may lack media experience but not corporate nous — is not convinced that the  Rural Press conservative approach amounts to the necessary strategic vision.

There is room for McCarthy to bow out gracefully. His age means that in any case he is not there for the long haul. Other Rural Press executives in senior positions are also nearing departure, meaning that changes at the helm are inevitable in the medium if not the short term. And McCarthy is believed by some to be willing to consider departure.

Meanwhile, the loss of JB Fairfax will not be much mourned among the journalists. There was hope, when he returned to the company that bears his name, that he would oversee a return to the benevolent, journalism-loving days of the family’s previous proprietorship.

Those hopes died, perhaps if not before then with his speech to the Melbourne Press Club in March last year, which the organisers had seen as an opportunity for him to lay out ideas and approaches, but that fell embarrassingly flat, with its say-nothing attempts to talk about quality journalism.

JB Fairfax has since then exerted himself at board level, as one would expect given the money he has in the company. But those who know him say that he never wanted the chairmanship, and has for some time seen his role as being one of passing on to the next generation of the family.

So who will replace him on the board, and indeed fill the existing vacancy? Names are being bandied about by Fairfax watchers. Steve Harris, former editor in chief of The Age and the Herald and Weekly Times, put up his hand at the last AGM but has yet to be smiled upon.

Another name mentioned is Peter Bartlett, of Minter Ellison, who has handled the company’s legal matters for a generation, and is highly regarded by editors and journalists.

Fairfax watchers also wonder if well thought of company secretary Gail Hambly is set for elevation, either to CEO or to a board position.

As the company searches for new directions, the wonder is that the mastheads are still in reasonable shape, after the wasted years of Fred Hilmer and the lack of leadership since then. Yes, there have been drops in quality and uncertain journalistic leadership, but the fact that the mastheads still contain good content is a tribute to the calibre of the journalists.

Declaration: Steve Harris is a board member of the Public Interest Journalism Foundation, of which I am the chair. He is also a colleague of mine at Swinburne University, where he heads the new Centre for Leadership and Public Interest.