Two stories in The Australian Financial Review and other papers this morning illustrate just how out of touch both the paper and the Australian trade union movement are with the economy.
Australian Financial Review
National newspapers fall off a cliff, bury news
Australian newspaper buyers have punished the national papers, The Australian Financial Review and The Australian in the latest audit period, but basically spared the rod on their state-based competitors.
Pot boils over at the Financial Review
Crikey’s story on The Australian Financial Review’s internal culture of bans and back scratching has stroke a note with many disgruntled insiders. The favouritism and cushy cliques continue…
The AFR’s internal culture of favouritism and cushy cliques
The world’s most expensive financial tabloid, The Australian Financial Review, has been accused of many things in its 58-year history, but its internal culture of ruthless favouritism and cushy cliques has for the most part escaped scrutiny, writes Andrew Crook.
All the powerful ladies, now put your hand up
How does feminism mix with power and the media? Now female pollies get the photoshopping treatment, but where are all the ladies on the Fin Review’s Power 2009 list? asks Helen Westerman
Fairfax knee-cappings and The AFR’s power lunch
The AFR Magazine today has produced its annual Power edition, which is a great read but misses a few key points.
Twitter’s unethical, according to the AFR’s new code
Staff at the Australian Financial Review are being asked to sign up to an ethics policy under which they could be disciplined — even sacked — for taking part in political debates.
Vale Fred Benchley
The Brisbane Times pays tribute to its former columnist and former Australian Financial Review editor Fred Benchley, who died on Saturday, age 67.
Kohler: Don’t flatter yourself, AFR
Business Spectator’s Alan Kohler responds to claims the site is plagiarising from the Fin Review by publishing article extracts: we aren’t, he says, and no-one’s reading them, anyway.
Advisers revel in Origin largesse
If there was any doubt whether investment bankers prefer to be acting for vendors or purchasers, those reservations would have been quashed after noting how much Origin Energy allegedly paid its financial advisers.
Has the Teflon Knight finally lost his lustre?
The likely decision to walk away from the ANZ chairmanship, one of the most sought-after boardroom roles, may signal the end for Eddington.
Banks — and AFR — do the ground work for a tax-free grab
The Australian Financial Review was quick to grab and endorse a much bigger grab for the public purse by the banks, led by Cameron Clyne of the NAB.
Latham lambasted for “meathead” diggers comment
From the grave, Latham has unburdened himself in the AFR on everything from Therese Rein (“less than glamorous”) to “meathead” diggers and their “limited intelligence”. He has been widely condemned.
Don’t fret the debt — an open letter
Twenty-one authors have signed a Nicholas Gruen-instigated opinion piece in today’s AFR, arguing that modest levels of government debt are a perfectly appropriate response to a major downturn.
AFR defends the indefensible on bank fees
Australia’s leading banking journalist, the Financial Review’s Andrew Cornell, undertook a valiant, albeit flawed defence of banking exception fees yesterday.
A tax rort is a tax rort, unless the AFR says it isn’t
Everyone loves economic reform until it affects them, at which point the excuses and justifications for the status quo — the claims that sounded so hollow when made by others — start coming out.
ACTU’s rebranding strategy undermined from within
The ACTU’s “growth and campaign” revitalisation plan, the bare bones of which were leaked by dissident unions to the AFR on Monday, could end in tears,.
Falling Timbercorp leaves investors in the lurch
Timbercorp’s failure places the entire managed investment scheme sector in jeopardy.
Crikey’s Anti-DreamTeam of company directors
Adam Schwab and Crikey present a list of current directors who have managed to involve themselves in multiple company disasters.
Rental yields a fools gold: but don’t tell the AFR
Another bemusing set of real estate data has been regurgitated verbatim by the mainstream media, writes Adam Schwab.
Tough boardroom choices in this writedown avalanche
Inflated balance sheets are about blow up as goodwill evaporates, and the media’s only just starting to cotton on, writes Stephen Mayne.
Fairfax classifieds in free fall. What next?
Goldman Sachs JB Were claiming dramatic falls in classified advertising in Fairfax’s traditional metro papers for December, writes Peter Cox.
ASX complicity on the “Macquarie Model” under the pump
The ASX Guidance Note talks tough on future floats but this is largely irrelevant because the “Macquarie Model” is a dead parrot., writes Stephen Mayne.
The Daily Verdict: Day 31 and self interest proves a loser
Yesterday’s Daily Verdict, and my doubts about being praised as responsible notwithstanding, was a clear win for Labor, writes Richard Farmer.
Newspaper sales: the not so simple truth
The latest newspaper circulation figures are out tomorrow, and soon we will doubtless be subjected to the usual hype and spin on the figures by the various mastheads. A superficial look suggests things are going quite well, for some titles at least, with modest increases from the previous quarter.
