Crikey

Tour + Evans = SBS boost. The Tour De France and Cadel Evans are good for SBS, island break for ads and all. At the halfway mark of 10 stages, SBS says its audience is up 40% on last year when Evans only emerged late in the Tour De France as a contender before finishing second. SBS says the Monday night broadcast of Evans gaining the leader’s Yellow Jacket by 0.1 second attracted an average audience of 303,000 viewers from 10pm to when the race finished after 1am. SBS said this was up 37% over the same day’s broadcast of the Tour last year and to date, SBS’s television coverage of the live Tour stages has increased by 40.7% year on year. But SBS has to improve their presentation and co-ordination processes to handle the ad breaks (Why don’t they ask a commercial network for help or hire somebody with MC/PC experience?). It’s chunky, clunky and at times the return from the break is disconcerting. — Glenn Dyer

Compare and contrast #1: Press release v newspaper.

What ACP magazines said:

The much-anticipated Grazia will hit newstands on Monday July 21, supported by a $7 million marketing campaign and a cover price of $5.00 …

Editor-in-chief Alison Veness-McGourty will lead the high profile editorial team, which includes: Anita Quigley (features and entertainment editor), Maxine Frith (news editor), Lucinda Pitt (beauty and health director), Matthew Evans (food columnist), Edwina McCann (fashion features director) and Mark Vassallo (fashion director).

“Grazia fuses style with substance, reality and reflection with the speed of a weekly, but the depth of a monthly. The magazine will absolutely make and break the news, but in a way that’s honest, witty, emotive and fun,” says Veness-McGourty. “Grazia will never be predictable or formulaic - and it’s this core proposition that excites us the most, and we believe will excite Australian readers,” added Veness-McGourty.

What The Australian said:

ACP Magazines will celebrate the debut of new weekly fashion glossy Grazia next Monday with and a $7 million marketing campaign…

McGourty has assembled an impressive team of journalists including former Daily Telegraph columnist Anita Quigley (features and entertainment editor), former Sun-Herald journalist Maxine Frith (news editor), Lucinda Pitt (beauty and health director), Matthew Evans (food columnist), former Australian fashion writer Edwina McCann (fashion features director) and Mark Vassallo (fashion director).

Grazia fuses style with substance, reality and reflection with the speed of a weekly, but the depth of a monthly. The magazine will absolutely make and break the news, but in a way thats honest, witty, emotive and fun, Veness-McGourty said today. “Grazia will never be predictable or formulaic and it’s this core proposition that excites us the most, and we believe will excite Australian readers,” she said.

Compare & contrast #2: Stipple pre and post crisis. Even The Wall Street Journal’s famed stipple portraits (known internally as “hedcuts”) aren’t immune from the bummer that is the credit crisis. Here’s Citigroup CEO Vikram Pandit in a June 7 story about his move to cut costs by closing branches in Japan. “Hey! I get to fire some people!”

Five days later, Pandit’s visage has turned grim on page one as his own job comes under scrutiny. It seems Citi is shutting down the hedge fund he created because of its poor results.

 —   read more at Columbia Journalism Review

New York Post and Daily News to combine forces? Rupert Murdoch, whose News Corporation owns The New York Post, and Mortimer B. Zuckerman, the real estate developer and owner of The Daily News, who for years have been bitter tabloid competitors, are considering the unthinkable: cooperation. Representatives of Mr. Zuckerman and Mr. Murdoch have been in discussions for several weeks to find ways to combine some business functions of The Daily News and The Post, according to people briefed on the matter. They spoke anonymously because the talks are at a sensitive stage and both sides had hoped they would remain confidential.

Fox News anchor plans exit. Fox News Channel’s lead anchor, Brit Hume, plans to step down from his role hosting the nightly newscast Special Report following the presidential election, according to a report on TV Decoder. Hume is 65, so age could be a factor. Despite gains made by CNN and MSNBC this year, Special Report remains the No. 1 cable news show in its 6pm time slot, handily beating CNN’s Situation Room and MSNBC’s new Race for the White House. — Portfolio

Bad cap watch. People always get shirty at the Crikey series Satin Watch. It’s sexist, don’t denigrate female newsreaders, etc. Well just to show we’re equal opportunity fashion police, today we gong Stephen Mayne for his awful, awful cap. Here he is on The Mayne Report arguing for Glenn Milne to be booted from the ABC. Unless you’re American, a golfer or there’s sun inside, we say boot the headwear.