Crikey

Salvo fires a salvo at Churchill. Professional stuff from beleaguered Age CEO Don Churchill, who sent this extraordinary spray admonishing a reader last week after they dared criticise Fairfax’s decision to sack 45 subeditors.

In the unsubbed, error-riddled response, Churchill spells sometimes “some times”, misunderstood “miss understood” and then slams the reader for not deducing his gender from his non-gender specific “DChurchill@theage.com.au” email address.

“A good subeditor might have picked up on this mistake. They might have also toned down your childish and somewhat sarcastic response,” the reader noted. We agree. — Andrew Crook

ABC News Breakfast serial mistake by Pagemasters. Pagemasters, the outsourcing operation where The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald’s subbing will go to die, got into all sorts of strife last week after a staffer sidestepped usual procedures and inserted a series of dick jokes into the Canberra Times’ popular quiz. But it appears the firm isn’t even up to the most mundane tasks.

More than three weeks after ABC News Breakfast moved across to ABC1 from ABC2, The Age’s TV guide — produced by Pagemasters — still hasn’t noticed the change. Instead, something called “ABC Kids” is listed from 6am to 10am. It’s true that in a certain light News Brekky host Virginia Trioli resembles Play School’s Benita, but still. — Andrew Crook

Fairfax’s City Weekly strongly criticises Fairfax. Valiant protests from Fairfax staff over the sacking of their subeditors has managed to capture the attention of luminaries like John Cain, Father Bob Maguire, Derryn Hinch, Ted Baillieu, Malcolm Fraser and Wil Anderson. But one place you wouldn’t have read all about the fracas was in Fairfax’s publications themselves. Until this morning, that is.

In his regular column, crazy brave City Weekly columnist Rick Molinsky made an emotional plea to save the subs on The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald, condemning his superiors’ short-sightedness and wondering what a world would be like without the “people behind my words”.

No word as yet on Age CEO Don Churchill’s reaction to the takedown, presumably tapped out  in a neighbouring corral at Fairfax’s Media House HQ. — Andrew Crook

State vs state rates through the roof. A record night for the Nine Network and its regional affiliate WIN: preliminary ratings from coverage of the first State of Origin rugby league games show more than 3.5 million people watching it across the country. Over 2.2 million people watched it in the five metro markets (the highest since the current ratings system started back in 2001, and back to 1998 under the old system). A further 1.301 million people watched in regional areas, including Tasmania and WA — a rise of more than 8%.

That made a total of 3.528 million, which would be close to if not the biggest national audience so far for an Origin game. It was the seventh time the audience has topped the 2 million mark in the five metro markets. Game one last year averaged 2.123 million.

A record 820,000 people watched in Brisbane (where it gave Nine a 54 share). In Sydney the audience jumped to 1.054 million (44 share); only the sixth time it has topped the million viewer mark since 1998. It was the highest audience for Sydney since 1999 when the audiences for games 2 and 3 were 1.108 million and 1.141 million respectively. Melbourne’s audience was 296,000, the highest since game one of last year when 310,000 watched.

As popular as Origin is, the biggest metro TV audience for a rugby league game remains the 2005 grand final between Wests Tigers and North Queensland which averaged 2.563 million. So those league boosters who argue that Origin is bigger than the grand final are wrong. It’s a message to the TV networks as they jostle for position for the next NRL rights contract. —   Glenn Dyer

Front page of the day. The Port Douglas & Mossman Gazette … brilliant:

Revenue boost for online ads from Nielsen ratings

“Online advertising display revenues could jump by as much as $150 million this year following the appointment of The Nielsen Company yesterday as sole preferred supplier of website audience measurement data — the equivalent of TV ratings for the web.” — The Australian

Facebook page locates Joplin tornado survivors

“After a massive tornado roared through Joplin, Mo., Sunday night, much of the city was left isolated without electricity, telephone service, or Internet connections … So the city’s newspaper — the Joplin Globe — established a Facebook page to link tornado survivors with their family members and friends.” — Poynter

Google butts heads with Sarkozy at eG8

“Speaking at a gathering of the world’s top internet leaders ahead of the G8, Mr Schmidt said: ‘Before we decide that we need a regulatory solution to these problems, lets ask, ‘Is there a technological solution that can scale, that can work globally, and move very quickly?’” — The Telegraph

The problem with print interviews

“Strange bonds of trust and self-deception tend to grow between journalists and their subjects. Janet Malcolm examines these fraught encounters in a fascinating book, The Journalist and the Murderer, which focuses on the relationship between Joe McGinniss, the best-selling author of Fatal Vision, and Jeffrey MacDonald, a Green Beret physician convicted of murdering his pregnant wife and two young daughters.” — Huffington Post

Twitter to alert accused tweeters of gagging order breaches

“Twitter will notify its users before handing their personal information to UK authorities seeking to prosecute them over alleged breaches of privacy injunctions, a senior executive at the company said on Thursday.”  — The Guardian