Kim Williams quits as News Corp Australia chief News Corp Australia's chief executive, Kim Williams, has stood down after less than two years in the job. Williams's resignation is effective from this weekend and he will be replaced on Monday by Julian Clarke. It comes less than a fortnight after the New York Post editor, Col Allan, was flown into Australia to oversee the tabloids. In an internal email sent to News Corp Australia employees Williams said he made the decision with a "heavy heart and a mixed bag of feelings." "Whilst the leadership roles and the issues encountered have at times been frankly really confronting, it has been a source of perpetual renewal and reinforcement to have worked with so many terrific colleagues both here and internationally," he said. It is the people that one remembers the most. I will be forever grateful to those who have been so helpful and constructively supportive in the many matters we have mutually confronted. There have been many good wins matched with some memorable awful problems and opponents! It has all been the stuff of a rich and varied professional life that I would never have had without the benefit of the trust reposed in me by many great colleagues at News Corp. Opposition leader Tony Abbott said he had met Williams a few times since he took up the helm of News Corp Australia in December 2011 and praised him as an advocate of free speech. "I have great admiration and respect for the way he led the fight for free speech when free speech was under attack by the Rudd-Gillard government," he said, referring to the media reforms communication minister Stephen Conroy tried to introduce. When asked about News Corp Australia's coverage of the election, and in particular the Daily Telegraph's front page from Monday which had in its headline "kick this mob out," Abbott replied: "We have a very robust media in this country, we have a very robust free media, it operates in very different forms these days and I tell you there are some extraordinarily satirical things said about all sorts of people in different forms of media including from time-to-time on the front page of newspapers and I just think people have to take the rough with the smooth." Clarke was described as Murdoch's "favourite managing director" by former Herald Sun editor Bruce Guthrie in his book Man Bites Murdoch. He said Clarke was "tall and toothy" and a big fan of corporate partnerships, and took particular pride in his idea to give away Simpsons pins with the Herald Sun in one of its promotions. Rupert Murdoch holds Clarke in such high regard that he flew in for a farewell when Clarke left the company in 2007 after serving as managing director of the Herald Weekly Times (HWT) in Victoria for 16 years. The event was held at the National Gallery of Victoria and the guest list included Murdoch's mother, Dame Elisabeth Murdoch. At the soiree, Murdoch presented Clarke with an original oil painting and tickets to Wimbledon. His wife, Tanya, was given a string of pearls. Guthrie said he was surprised by Clarke's testimony in the court case Guthrie pursued against the company for unfair dimissal. "Even though Clarke was of little importance to the case, I was probably more disappointed with his evidence, brief as it was, than that of [then News Limited chief executive John] Hartigan and [current HWT managing director Peter] Blunden," Guthrie said. They behaved exactly as I expected; he surprised me with his exaggerations, something Justice Kaye would later remark on in his judgment. In a statement Clarke said it was a "great honour" to take over the role. "The combination of our assets and talented people makes me confident that we are well placed to embrace the future and further build this exciting company," he said. News Corp Australia released a statement to the Australian Securities Exchange on Friday morning in which Murdoch paid tribute to Williams for his work with Foxtel, of which he was the chief executive for a decade, calling him "tenacious." The News Corp chief executive, Robert Thomson, said Williams felt it was the right moment to leave the company after driving the implementation of stage one in the company's strategy to "integrate and improve efficiency." "He has been a powerful, eloquent and effective advocate for media freedom and freedom of speech in Australia," he said. "His leadership against hastily conceived "reforms" ensured that the vigorous and vital debate that has characterised our country will endure. We all owe him a debt of gratitude for that strong and principled stand.