Abbott’s freeze could devastate The Oz
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Tony Abbott’s plan to save $3.8 billion by hacking 12,000 jobs out of the federal public service could “devastate” The Australian newspaper, according to a well placed Canberra insider. The loss-making News Limited broadsheet, which is propped up by its more successful sister tabloids, relies on government recruitment and tender advertisements for over $10 million in annual revenue. The federal bureaucracy is by far The Australian’s biggest client. But under Abbott’s controversial target, which would be achieved by failing to replace fleeing mandarins, the re-advertising of new positions would be banned for two years, killing the paper’s key income stream. A government insider with specific experience placing APS jobs ads in The Australian told Crikey the government’s total non-campaign advertising spend was between $40-45 million last year, 80% of which was recruitment. Around 30% of that amount, or $8-10 million a year, ends up in The Australian’s coffers through its 300,000-selling Saturday edition. “Abbott’s plan has the potential to devastate The Australian,” the insider said. In his Budget reply speech in May, Abbott, a former editorial writer for The Australian in the 1980s, said the freeze would apply to all agencies except for frontline “uniformed” operations such as ASIS, ASIO and the Australian Federal Police. The paper’s challenge at the hands of Abbott would be somewhat ironic given its strong editorial support for the conservative side of politics. During The Australian’s long and sustained campaigns against the Rudd government’s profligate spending, Labor ministers often wondered why the taxpayer was effectively subsidising the attack organ to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars a week. One MP took a special interest in cutting back the ads. Crikey understands that caretaker Finance Minister Lindsay Tanner, in his razor gang guise, was a keen reader of The Weekend Australian on Saturday mornings and would often personally call senior Treasury officials to complain about the ads’ size and placement. Last July, Tanner introduced strict guidelines on non-campaign advertising which urged the use of online ads to replace newspaper splashes and banned the use of colour. A consolidated group of ads, under the “APSJobs” banner, replaced many of the expensive notices placed by individual departments. The result, according to the insider, was a reduction in total spend of about 20%. However, the Tanner ruling only applied to departments covered by the Financial Management and Accountability Act. Other agencies that fall under the Commonwealth Authorities and Companies Act, including the ABC, the Reserve Bank and the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Association, are exempt and continue to advertise freely. A Crikey analysis of The Weekend Australian’s May 29 edition shows a combined total of two full pages of APS job advertisements, which at the most-discounted card rate of $107.40 per column centimeter, equates to around $135,000 in revenue. A further full page of tender advertisements puts the total haul from the taxpayer for that edition at over $200,000. Media analyst Steve Allen from Fusion Strategy told Crikey that the demise of executive recruitment in The Weekend Australian would rip a “sizeable hole in their revenues” and that News’ successful online job ad operation would also be hit hard. Allen said that the paper would likely resort to the general recruitment market to fill the gap. Speculation has swirled for years about The Australian’s financial performance, with its revenue figures a closely guarded secret. In one year it was alleged to have broken even, although for the most part makes small losses, according to well-placed insiders. But News chief Rupert Murdoch seems keen to keep the masthead afloat, perhaps to retain a foothold in national political debates. The Australian wouldn’t be the only newspaper to suffer at the hands of Abbott. The Friday edition of the Australian Financial Review would also be wounded, with a predicted fallout of around $3 million a year. A spokesperson for The Australian’s ad sales department, Rachel Savio, told Crikey that it was difficult to comment in light of the current uncertainty in Canberra, but that the paper would “seek further insight into their full intentions” if an Abbott government seizes power. |
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60 Comments
Just desserts.
What! A conservative policy with unintended consequences?
Two words if it comes to pass. Poetic justice.
So, his chief cheerleader doesn’t know what Abbott is about either. Stranger and stranger.
Now that would be one of the best things to come out of this election. That and the fact that Tuckey has gone…Fielding will be gone in July 11…thank God (cant they change the Constitution to get rid of him earlier??? Please???) …and Tony Windsor confirmed that Barnaby Joyce is a fool…
I agree - just desserts but if the Australian goes also it may help raise the tone of reporting on the ABC’s Lateline. I have noticed that if the Australia is running a beat-up that Tony Jones on Lateline takes it up and runs with it also. Maybe if the ABC has to do its own research/reporting it may raise the tone and we may return to the ABC reporting on policies not just gossip.
The Australian’s profitability is already on a knife-edge, but I doubt Murdoch would let it go down as he doesn’t want to lose his political influence.
Good to see that Lindasy Tanner was looking at the OZ. I used to wonder why say an ad in the OZ for a job in an elctorate office was so large. I always felt like writing to someone in government to tell them how to save some money. Take the QLd govt ads. They are all consolidated into one ad with minimal details. One then has to go online or call a number. Couldnt understand why a similar approach wasnt used by cwealth govt in the OZ.
Another cliche to add to the mix:
“Be careful what you wish for because you might get it.”
Awful news, a sign of the times, it’s the only decent sized newspaper you could wrap fish and chips in.
Like publishers before him, Murdoch finances his newspaper losses from other business activities. While he may not rejoice in them, he’ll keep copping losses as long as he can lord it over whoever he imagines are his current enemies. For a megalomaniac, the alternative is simply unthinkable.
Why don’t the Govt . just set up their own website for all jobs , state ,federal and Commonwealth ??? Would save the “WASTE ” going into Rupert pocket !
What does the costings backdown signify? Perhaps three things:
1. Polling was showing that the electorate did not like his refusal.
2. He is serious about winning over the independents and is not necessarily looking for an early election (although he might want to engineer one in about a year).
3. The negotiations with the independents are going seriously awry and he needed to back down to get them going again. However, the incident has caused doubts about his judgement and style - with those independents and more broadly.
Good idea Harry but then when the set up the website for the BER and other programs not one in the media pack bothered to look and see the really good work happening all over the country.
How I so much want to be reading news one day about the recievers winding up limited news and the kingmaker.
One interesting phenomenon of the media magnate’s skewing the public’s knowledge and understanding is that like the UK, SA, Tasmanian and this election is he can scare the pants off of the punters but he can’t make them run to the fibs.
I daresay that if revenue is lost from less vacancy advertising phoney can all ways buy him off by spending another two billion on public funded fiberal advertising.
I almost want Abbott as PM LOL
The short term loss of advertising revenue is a bitter pill News Corp will happily swallow. How cares about losing 10 million when literally billions could be at stake here for NewsCorp over coming decades
As I’ve been pointing out all along, by far the biggest threat a minority Labour government poses to his commercial interests here in Australia is the continuing rollout of the national broadband network.
As long as the vast majority of backbone infrastructure in Australia is owned and controlled by large commercial entities like Telstra, Rupert can rest assured there will always be some clever distribution deal he can strike in order to create barriers to real competition in rich media delivery (both via Pay TV and fast Internut)
Once the NBN is in place, poor Rupert will find it increasingly difficult to maintain and grow his market share in a level playing field environment where innovative Internet TV start-ups will inevitably be able to gnaw away at both Foxtel’s Pay TV business and News Corps soon-to-be subscriber-based online business with cleverly packaged niche market product offerings.
Telstra are also absolutely crapping themselves at this prospect
Terry Goulden
It might be time for the ABC to have their own polling company instead of slavishly following the News Poll results in the biased Australian!
Freeze 12,000 Federal Public Service jobs - oustanding decision.
Just been to a conference were a few of them spoke. All of them are oxygen thieves and every dollar we save can be spent on worthwhile programs that develop Australia.
The Australian can pickup ad spots for real ads for real jobs that boost Australia
Rupert bleeding out, hoist on his own petard. Hifarkenlarious
What’s the German word: ah, yes - Schadenfreude…
Guess the 78 yo has lost his marbles, and his substandard staff aren’t up to snuff…
Unfortunately, it seems that Rupert has his mother’s genes and will probably live to 100.
It’s a terrible thought, but it may be another few decades before he drops the snow globe from his withered hand and, with his terminal breath, whispers “Rosebud”.
Well, isn’t that ironic. Especially given the allegation (by me) that News Ltd accidentally caused the Coalition’s failure to win the election.
By meddling with the Liberal leadership in 2009, causing the highly electable Turnbull to poll badly with really bad coverage (and therefore lose the leadership), and causing the barely electable Abbott to poll well by comparison because of good coverage (making him seem more like a winner than he really is), News Ltd has helped bring about the electoral stalemate we are seeing.
But they can relax. Although this meddling may have had the unintended consequence of ruining the Coalition’s chance at government, it seems it may have had another unintended consequence, of saving the advertising department.
Isn’t life just a comedy of errors.
Isn’t ‘oxygen thieves’ worthy of inclusion in Godwin’s Law?
Obviously a case of the Right-hand not knowing what the Right-hand is doing.
There was me thinking the Labor party had a monopoly on screwing over their ‘friends and members’?!
Freecountry:
I have never believed that newspaper editorials and tub-thumping have any effect other than on those who are already rusted on to the particular line being pushed.
I believe that swinging voters decide how they’ll vote each time on the merits of the parties as they see them, regardless of the noisemakers around them.
@ Holden Back
Yes, get rid of more than 12,000 and then the State Governments as well, and then we would have REAL ACTION in Australia and be moving forward at a clipping pace.
If a public servant is not as productive as their non public counterpart, sack them and re-deploy to growth industries that enhance our competitive advantage.
PS They may earn more and feel better about themselves
SOCRATEASE - I’m not talking about editorials. I don’t know anybody who wastes time reading them.
The story I tell is about something else entirely. A near blackout on any good word about Turnbull in the Oz while he was leading the Liberals. And Turnbull’s own contributions to the paper were presented so badly by the editors that he would have been better off not submitting them at all. Check it out, judge for yourself.
Dial T for troll
Boy whatever you do don’t criticise crikey!
I posted earlier that a coalition government would simply make up the difference with government advertisements about policy and it got removed ? Any one have an idea why that would be?
News Ltd doesn’t care. The Australian, is not, has never been nor will ever be about direct profit. Its about setting the political agenda in the country and its been more successful now than ever.
Its why so many people didn’t understand why Murdoch pursued the WSJ so hard and paid so much for it. Theres only so much low brow, dumbed newspapers and cable news networks can do. When it comes to more complex political issues where Murdoch wants to speak to policy makers more directly The Australian and WSJ are the way he does it. FOX news and stuff like the Herald Sun are great for putting pressure on political parties on simple issues the plebs can understand but those in the corridors of power do not take them seriously.
@Freecountry:
I did add tub-thumping in which I include partisan so-called journalists like Bolt and his ilk.
And any articles by a columnist that consistently pushes the editor’s (read owner’s) political viewpoint to the exclusion of others is, in essence, editorial.
@Socratease
It’s as much about how day to day news is covered or reported as it is about what editorials actually say. The media is the primary informing mechanism in our culture.
@Sausage
Well said but you know as well as I, the vast majority of the population dwell in an abyss of perpetual ignorance. Just look at how many people think they make up their own minds about every choice they make in life and are rarely influenced by advertising or public relations spin
Gee this NBN has such potential, could save us ALL MILLIONS.
Why don’t the Govt . just set up their own website for all jobs , state ,federal and Commonwealth ??? Would save the “WASTE ” going into Rupert pocket !
They could call it the Gazette.
And why are taxpayer funds being poured into such a biased media organisation?
Good grief what will I wipe my bottom with then
SOCRATEASE - Well in that case … Strip out the tub-thumping from any modern newspaper, and the ads better be interesting because they’ll have a lot of white space around them.
For many years, at least the Australian gave public figures exposure to do their own tub-thumping under their own names. But there’s exposure, and then there’s burying someone in snow.
For example - exhibit A. Select Title: Weekend Australian. Select Calendar: 7 March 2009. Front page.
Study questions:
1. How clear would you say the front page makes it, that there is an article by the opposition leader inside?
2. Do you think Dennis Shanahan does an encouraging promotion of Turnbull’s article, in his own article “Turnbull accuses PM of hypocrisy” at the bottom of the page?
3. Was there in fact any effective criticism of Rudd, or any exposure of Turnbull’s views on the economy, appearing in the News Ltd papers around that time?
How sweet that w0uld be.
For a moment I actually hoped Abbott would win. But then I thought again!
Freecountry:
I haven’t bought a newspaper for more than 3 years. The only newspaper material I glance at now is the sports section while waiting for my turn at the barber.
I have lost the newspaper habit altogether. I don’t even read the local rag.
So THAT’s how they recruited Godwin Grech. I didn’t think anyone read the Oz anymore.
“But News chief Rupert Murdoch seems keen to keep the masthead afloat, perhaps to retain a foothold in national political debates”
Retain a foothold?
Delicious understatement.
Murdoch also has a ‘toehold’ in my region, where just about the only newspapers available - free and paid - are News Corp.
Then I turn on Austar, where it’s Sky-only in Australian commerical TV. I guess that’s a ‘finger hold’.
Let’s face it. Mr Murdoch, his hacks (and his backers) are all over us all, almost all the time, like a contagious disease.
How uplifting that Crikey kicked-off today’s edition with a Good News (Ltd) Story. It’s cheered me considerably.
@ Socratease (2.49pm)…. “Rosebud”
That made me laugh almost as much as Guy Rundle’s latest offering.
HARRYBELBARRY
Everything has to be gazetted.
http://www.apsjobs.gov.au/
The states and locals would have sites as well.
I assume the advert’s in the papers are part of general strategy to attract the best candidates.
There’s no chance of this happening. If Abbott leads a minority govt, he will reward the Australian with plenty of advertising. Surely that’s obvious?
Interesting article Andrew. However, I’ve always had the feeling that the Oz means something to Rupert-I realise the thought of Murdoch having a soul is faintly ludicrous-but it has been running in the red nearly all its life.
All he has to do is hive off some of the profits from one of his tabloid tribunes to keep the Oz alive.
The Australian is just about the only thing Rupert has ever created himself, and stuck by. Hell, when he began it he was mildly left-wing. This gives one the feeling that it was a long time ago. Frankly, I’m surprised he hasn’t let it go long before this.
Could there be a vestigial trace of humanity left in the man?
So here it is taxpayers. The Australian newspaper takes 10 MILLION DOLLARS a year of your money.
This is a disgrace.
Stop all adveritizing in this disgusting newspaper - now.
I urge everyone reading this, everyone, to take some time to write to some of these government departments, and DEMAND that they stop.
With the internet etc available, there is no excuse. No more government advertising for the australian!
Start writing now to protect your wallets.
The fact these animals at the Australian receive even one dollar of my taxpayer money makes we want to vomit. Every taxpayer, start writing now to the government contacts responsible for this - we have the power under FOI to make them accountable. No taxpayer funds for the Australian!
“Just look at how many people think they make up their own minds about every choice they make in life and are rarely influenced by advertising or public relations spin”
I used to be this way but like one of those humans trapped in the Matrix, I took the red pill (Crikey) and woke up to what was going on.
It was partly the reason why I voted informal last Saturday. I hope News Ltd fails badly in Australia and buggers off to Delaware for good…
Loved Jimmy Barnes comment on Better Homes and Gardens last night. He revealed his scarecrow is named Rupert - because he is useless and is stuffed full of old scrunched up papers.
The reason for recruitment advertising in the Australian is simply to get better quality recruitment. We want the best public servants, don’t we? Government gazettes are a form of classified advertising, and as such, they only catch a self-selecting audience — people who go out of their way to look for a government job.
If you want to get better people you need some kind of streetcar-advertising technique, such as putting eye-catching ads in a newspaper that executive types are likely to read. The kind of newspaper that reflects the range of views of potential quality recruits.
But … the technique breaks down if the newspaper gets too preachy. If it starts to become a single-party mouthpiece — or even worse, a mouthpiece for certain factions within a single party. Then the medium ceases to be an effective hook the right kind of attention, and becomes instead a political filter. Only readers who can stomach all the narrow preachiness are likely to see those recruitment ads and apply for the government jobs.
Up until around the 2001 election campaign, the Australian was the best newspaper in the country. A big factor in this was that it didn’t waste time chasing the imaginary ideal of “balance”; instead it opened itself up for members of the public — some of them famous, others unknown but with some special knowledge to share — to say their piece in their own words and under their own names. The Australian in 2001 did not allow government or political parties to set its agenda; it was open to whatever the public were interested in, and parties ignored it at their peril.
Since then there’s been a significant narrowing of the views in the Australian, and even the flavour of the newspaper’s political core — which had been right-of-centre for some years — has all but disappeared, replaced by blind loyalty to a particular party institution. A party institution which is nominally right-wing but which has only a nodding relationship with any coherent body of economic or philosophical guidance.
As a right wing economic rationalist myself, who loathed the Rudd-Gillard government and dreads more of the same, it’s amazing to me when I just can’t bring myself to read the Australian before lunchtime any more, because its fawning servility towards the current Liberal leader — no matter how stupid his ideas of paying up to $75,000 baby bonus or rewriting the Constitution — turns my stomach.
What kind of potential government executive material can get through that in the morning without losing his breakfast, is anybody’s guess.
I dunno about government poobahs, but the place job seekers look these days is seek.com.au
A much better Australian this morning. And not a single piece of Dennis Shanahan polemic in sight.
Now if anyone from the business side of News Ltd would like to consider my above comments, and the background I gave to those comments, you might start to wonder if the good Mr Shanahan could do the newspaper’s circulation a great service by handing over the political-editor reins to someone else. Someone like Paul Kelly, perhaps.
There’s nothing wrong with the work of a journalist or editor reflecting the way he sees the world. In truth, it’s a mark of honesty.
The problem is when an editor uses his position to intercept and spike, or otherwise obscure, material which does not suit his agenda for the country. Especially when that agenda is based on individual politicans (I’m talking about the ill-fated 2009 Costello for PM effort here) rather than policies or philosophies.
The Australian has paid for this narrow-mindedness with the second biggest fall in Mon-Fri broadsheet circulation — second only to the Canberra Times — in the year to May 2010, according to ABC circulation data.
And The Coalition has paid for this meddling even more dearly, fooled by distorted polling results into appointing a leader who was all but unelectable, despite widespread electoral dissillusionment with the Labor government.
Give us our national newspaper back. Make Dennis Shanahan an ordinary columnist, without the power to spike other journalists’ work. Appoint someone more broad minded like Paul Kelly to the role of chief political editor. Paul Kelly would turn the newspaper back into what it once was, the best in the country.
@ freecountry
“…turn the newspaper back into what it once was, the best in the country.”
I regret once this degree of decay has set in the patient cannot be revived. However, if the newspaper had a new owner it would be a start.
Free country , let’s just put it out of its misery and put it down. Upside would be more trees and less bullsh@t in OZ.
ANDREW CROOK: Would the Melbourne Age receive an amount of money for all Victorian civil servants of the future?
Also, if the Oz went under, perhaps the government could produce it’s own special, on-line and printed version of the ads currently handled by the Oz.
With apologies to anyone who has had the same idea but I seem to be running on the spot, at the moment.
Venise - Streetcar advertising, as I said. The government already prints gazettes, but the idea of Oz ads is to catch the eye of people who aren’t looking for it. If you want the best people, you don’t advertise only to the unemployed and the unhappy; you cast the net wider, to catch those who are doing just fine but might be tempted by a better offer.
FREECOUNTRY: Sorry for the delay, but I’ve had the virus that’s going around.
Yeah,
What you say makes a lot of sense. I’m only half joking when I say perhaps someone should amalgamate the Government Gazettes with Sporting Bet??
Cheers
Venise
FREECOUNTRY: Sorry for the delay, but I’ve had the virus that’s going around.
I’ve just read the following comment of yours “”The only Liberal name appearing in a positive light in the papers at that time was Costello, writing commentary under his own column.”“
Purlese don’t tell me your refer to Peter Costello’s idiosyncratic little bits of natter which are printed in the Melbourne Age from time to time?
I am refusing to jump to conclusions. However, if these are indeed to what you refer, could you please tell me what is positive about these assorted pieces of venom?
Yours faithfully
Venise
VENISE, I’ll rephrase:
During the Turnbull leadership, the only Liberal figure who received much helpful exposure in the News Ltd papers was Peter Costello.
FREECOUNTRY: Oops! Thanks for the explanation.