Crikey

How did Latham even end up at Nine? So will Nine Network boss David Gyngell now conduct the usual witch hunt that happens after a silly idea blows up in everyone’s faces, as the hiring of Mark Latham by 60 Minutes has done for the network? It’s a reflection on the management of the news and current affairs division of Nine and to an extent Gyngell, when Laurie Oakes makes the most obvious points on his own network about the damage from the employment of the fallen Labor leader.

Oakes said on Nine News last night (at least in Sydney) he was ”more concerned with how damaging he is for the Nine Network”. In an extraordinary comment that even seemed to take newsreader Peter Overton by surprise, Oakes railed: ”Nine CEO David Gyngell was right to say Mark Latham crossed the line and to apologise. The trouble is that I am not sure Mark Latham knows where the line is. He’s not a journalist; he’s still full of bile and settling old scores. I don’t really think it does 60 Minutes or the network much of a favour really to have him posing as a journalist.”

Firstly, we have to presume, until corrected, that Gyngell knew about the hiring of Latham. Secondly, unless otherwise advised, we have to assume it wasn’t mentioned to Oakes. Hamish Thomson is the EP of 60 Minutes, former EP John Westacott has been consulting to 60 Minutes since his retirement earlier this year, and Mark Calvert is the Network’s news and current affairs director. He’s also British, has shown himself to have a strong tabloid streak and, being a foreigner, would not have the background to Latham and his time as federal opposition leader.

Since Graham Richardson defected to Seven three weeks ago there has been no one at Nine in Sydney with any political nous who would have been able to warn 60 Minutes and Gyngell. Only Oakes has the experience and political smarts to understand the foolishness of the decision, as he made clear to Overton last night. Finally, for a TV network that has shared in the $250-300 million of licence fee rebates from the Labour government, and from the estimated $28-30 million of political advertising from the campaign (and the extra minute of political ad time per hour in prime time), you’d reckon Nine would have a better way of not biting the hand that has been feeding it. Talk about payback and ingratitude. If Labor wins the election, Nine can expect some pain over the Latham debacle. — Glenn Dyer

Miranda goes national, but not for cheap. What’s a couple of columns from Miranda Devine worth? Fairfax paid around $240,000 a year, Crikey understands, and while the conservative provocateur won’t reveal how much it cost News Limited to lure her to its stable it’s no doubt much more than that. But it’s not the size of the pay cheque that drew Devine to News’ tabloids, she insists, it was the size of the stage. As she told fellow Fairfax defector Caroline Overington on Friday:

“It’s hard to pass up being a national correspondent. I told [SMH editor] Peter Fray this week, and although it was nice to be asked to stay, Fairfax is a small company. It’s basically the Herald, and Victoria, and radio, and News Limited was offering a bigger role. It wasn’t about money. The money isn’t what motivates me. I was impressed by Garry [Linnell, Daily Telegraph editor], that’s the truth. And I’d been at the Herald nine years, and it was time.’’

Certainly, few columnists will have the reach of Devine. Her columns will appear in News’ well-read Sunday tabloids, and a mid-week rant syndicated across all the metro dailies. Linnell calls the former Tele reporter “vibrant” and gloats of Fairfax’s loss: “…it means they don’t have anyone like her, who attracts debate, and makes you feel something.”

Anger, mostly, if last week’s column on the David Jones scandal is any guide — a story she boasted on Twitter was the most-read on the SMH website. More than 300 comments have been registered, many of them ropeable at Devine’s characterisation of the publicist at the centre of the storm and linking the case to Tony Abbott’s ‘no means no’ comment. She wrote:

“Now Abbott is no better than a rapist. What an insult to a family man who is anything but anti-women. It is just this kind of hysterical overreach that is behind the $37 million sexual harassment lawsuit launched against David Jones by its former publicist, Kristy Fraser-Kirk, 27. By claiming that absurd amount, she has lost credibility. The sympathy and respect she earned from her initial dignified and private handling of the case flew out the window. She is no longer seen as a victim but as another litigious, gold-digging, high umbrage woman egged on by lawyers using feminism to advance a personal cause.”

Fair to say some inside Fairfax — who will also remember her famously accusing greenies of murder on Black Saturday in 2009 —  won’t miss articles like that. Crikey knows of at least one angry newsroom altercation a couple of years back between Devine and left-leaning political writer David Marr over her published comments on the Bill Henson naked children exhibition. Marr was writing a book defending Henson and has since had some choice words to say on Devine’s role in the scandal (we couldn’t get hold of him to find out whether he had any parting shots for his departing colleague).  —  Jason Whittaker

Life on the campaign trail: early starts and filing fast

“Every day starts the night before with a text message at bedtime telling you when to get up. If it also says to pack your bags, you know you will be moving on somewhere, although not where you will be going or why.” — The Australian

How The Economist cultivated an enviable readership

“The newsweekly, a bible of global affairs for those who wear aspirations of worldliness on their sleeves, did not become a status symbol overnight. It took 25 years of clever advertising that tugs at the insecurities and ambitions of the status-seeking reader to help the magazine get there.” — New York Times

Print isn’t dead — at least in niche areas

“Despite the falling sales of major titles, the popularity of niche magazines continues to grow, suggesting not only that the public still wants print but that the print they want is increasingly exploring very specific personal interests.” —  The Guardian

Science mag uses science on its readers

“Magazines have long used focus groups to tailor their package. New Scientist took another route for its latest issue, testing whether neuromarketing, which examines the brain’s response to products and brands, could help make the magazine more appealing.” — New York Times

The Sun backs the wrong Russian donkey

“A Russian businessman has made an ass out of the Sun, according to reports in Moscow.” — The Guardian