When John Hartigan ran a guard of honour at News Limited’s Holt Street HQ to start his new life thonging around Bondi, dutiful sycophants decided to present him with a special memento.

“OUR HARTO AND SOUL”, screamed the special staff-only December 2 edition of The Daily Telegraph, with 1600 written tributes wrapped in a pic of their hero downing a schooner on the Aurora Hotel rooftop. “A few close friends just wanted to say thanks …” the write-off chortled, with the page one lead dubbing him “Australia’s champion of journalism”.

The full hard-copy edition, obtained by Crikey and awash with cricket, punting and alcohol references (“great knock”, “great innings”, “cold VB”, “wine”, “wine collection”, “the track”, “Bradmanesque”), makes for amusing reading. (Download a scanned copy — 4.5mb — here.)

And it wasn’t only The Tele — special editions of the NT News (featuring a crocodile), The Australian (complete with a Paul Kelly analysis piece proclaiming the move would “usher in profound changes”), The Courier Mail, the Herald Sun and even an old Mirror all flew off the presses.

The tributes include multiple Kim Jong-il-style paeans to (variously) “our great leader”, “a great boss and man” and a “real inspirational leader”, despite the fact many admitted to never having met the legend or only seeing him once in the lift.

“Starsky & Hutch wish you well,” editorial headkicker Campbell Reid joshed cryptically, while Daily Tele ed Paul Whittaker claimed he was going to “… miss you keeping me on my toes every day”.

Harto’s successor, Kim Williams, left a heart-warming love letter: “We have done some remarkable things; together and from different aspects of a professional and personal prism …”

“You showed them,” wrote resident wordsmith Andrew Rule with palpable gravitas.

Dogged News loyalists such as the Herald Sun‘s Keith Moor reckoned that “one of the great things about working for News Ltd is that it has many honest to goodness journalists running things, with you being at the top of that tree”. You wonder what Williams, a non-journalist, thinks of that.

George Calvi, of the National Production Group, also employed a botanic metaphor. Harto, Calvi mused, was “the tallest oak tree at News Limited. However, you never, ever forgot that you were once an acorn, one of us …”

For Helen (HP) Parker, a News.com.au senior video journalist, an unexplained “MasterChef Harto/Preston tie-incident was one of my favourite moments”.

Leonard Mastapha, from Nationwide News, was keen to launch a Harto for Canberra push (“… thank you always for your diplomacy … I think that you are truly geared for politics now … and my gosh this country needs someone like you in Canberra”).

 

Even @bigharto references were au fait — John Grey, from Editorial News Queensland, wondered  if “@bigharto will retire with you :0)”. “Keep on tweeting,” said another (Hartigan doesn’t tweet). Danielle Stevenson, from News Magazines, weirdly implored her paramour to “make sure FakeHarto is still around”, whoever that is.

Matthew Jalagam, from the CareerOne product development team, got all God bothering (“I WISH YOU GOD’S VERY BEST in the future. I WISH YOU PSALM 1:3”), while the Gold Coast Bulletin‘s Suzanne Simonot unwittingly confirmed Crikey‘s series of reports that Hartigan had personally engineered the departure of Bully editor Dean Gould to install the Townsville Bulletin‘s Peter Gleeson: “So glad you organised his appointment before you decided to put your feet up!”

A few mocked Harto’s lack of financial skills, with Garry Bailey revealing the annual budget sessions “wouldn’t be the same without your iPad and your TAB account” and the Sunday Times‘ Jason Scott recalling a savvy edict to “try and make more money than we spend”.

Harto’s more controversial moments weren’t shirked either — “Azza”, from NewsAdvantage Quest, was keen to give Harto a “pat on the back for the way you handled the Melbourne Storm and News of the World business”.

Son-of-Dennis and Order of Melbourne brawler Leo Shanahan reckoned Harto’s “support” for The Punch and The Australian vindicated his decision to quit The Age, while The Hun‘s Stephen Drill shone the spotlight on himself, claiming he was “now breaking yarns” after a stint in the UK. Drill’s boss, embattled Herald and Weekly Times MD Peter Blunden, was “looking forward to spending time together in your next phase of life”.

But it was left to the farewell edition’s layout subs to deliver the sweetest goodbye, adorning the back page with a pic of Harto boxing above his “My name is John Kenneth Hartigan, occupation: journalist” refrain.

And the river of tears isn’t dammed yet — many well-wishers couldn’t wait to read all about it (again) when Harto inevitably pens an intimate autobiographical account of his ascent to greatness. @BigHarto implored staffers to “honour my legacy” and it seems ex-colleagues are more than happy to defy Rupert and keep the dream alive.