New evidence shows that arts journalism in Melbourne’s newspapers is saturated by PR content, writes Lucinda Strahan, lecturer in media and communication at RMIT University.
The Age
WikiLeaks tug of war: News Ltd v Fairfax
There’s nothing more demeaning for a journalist than a public accusation of getting your facts wrong, but that’s exactly what Fairfax’s Philip Dorling had to cop on Saturday courtesy of the front-page of the Weekend Australian.
Cafagna gig presents The Age with a Curly conundrum
The Age is bracing for a conflict-of-interest storm following the appointment of Josephine Cafagna — the wife of its veteran political editor Paul “Curly” Austin — as Ted Baillieu’s chief spin doctor.
The printing is on the wall for The Age, former execs agree
Former senior Age executives have backed the release of a document calling for a radical restructure of the ailing Melbourne daily’s management team, following the launch of a public campaign to save the newspaper from oblivion.
When advertising overrides editorial
An absolute shocker by The Age this morning. Hopefully part of the latest ‘transformation plan’ at Fairfax includes remembering that news should always over-ride advertising, writes Dave Gaukroger.
Leigh Josey’s Morning Media Maulings
In today’s Media Maulings Shepparton News issue a front page FAIL, The NT News combines a lost dog and a cave of crocs, First Dog on the Week strolls into The Age’s sport section and more.
Fairfax faces the future by going deeply vertical
Fairfax staff are bracing for a wave of “efficiency” gains across The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald after the company’s long-awaited investor briefing this morning relayed the widely-expected news that at least $10 million would be hacked out of the mastheads through a new corporate restructure.
The Age’s so-called ALP revelations
Hold the front page! The Age has “revealed” that the ALP keep a private database of tens of thousands of Victorians! Pity we’ve actually known about it for years and the timing of the story - four days out from an election - is a little suss, writes William Bowe.
Fairfax plans fundamental shift from print future
Fairfax’s effort for the next few years will be directed towards winding down print and scaling up the effort to get people to pay for content delivered to mobile devices.
The Fairfax wage war even the Herald Sun refuses to profit from
Journos’ union the Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance is alleging collusion between Australia’s two leading newspaper proprietors after an advertisement spruiking a rally in defence of striking Fairfax hacks was pulled from top-selling Melbourne tabloid the Herald Sun in the shadow of its deadline last night.
Media briefs: The Age’s downsizing … circulation pressure mounts …
The Age of getting smaller and smaller … pressure mounts on the Audit Bureau of Circulations … the Tocumwal “experience” … Google has cash for new media innovators …
Audit Bureau AGM announces circulation shake up
The Audit Bureau of Circulations convened its annual general meeting yesterday and announced that a special rules subcommittee would review current circulation definitions that enable cut-price secondary and tertiary sales to be hidden from advertisers in a publication’s average net sales figure.
How a footy forum troll ended up in The Age
BigFooty’s Jamie Johnstone regales the story of a friend, who by trolling on football forum BigFooty, had his lie duplicated by the mainstream media. In the end it cost Jamie a slab of beer…
Fairfax local pay dispute ignites tension company-wide
Fairfax Media is bracing for a wave of industrial action down the eastern seaboard, with a pay-parity dispute threatening to pull mastheads from letterboxes and engulf The Age and the Australian Financial Review.
Helen Liu leans on The Age to give up Fitzgibbon story sources
Helen Liu, the Chinese-Australian businesswoman at the heart of alleged national security concerns surrounding former Minister for Defence Joel Fitzgibbon, has taken legal action in the New South Wales Supreme Court in an attempt to find out the sources of information given to Age investigative reporters Nick McKenzie and Richard Baker.
The tell-all book: Oz editor offered to quit, Big Harto gawked at Mrs Garrett
Bruce Guthrie’s Man Bites Murdoch contains a treasure trove of titbits that will have media watchers feverishly scanning the index when it hits bookshops on Wednesday. Here are the the juiciest highlights.
Media briefs: The Age’s uni poison … SMH loves travel
Monday is normally a news graveyard but surely nothing can top the un-bylined drivel (David Rood’s name was later attached to the online version) trotted out in this morning’s Age. Plus, the advertisers want compo for Games and other media news.
Kohler: an exquisite media dilemma
The debate about paywalls and whether to charge for online journalism took an interesting turn this week when John Fairfax was accused of not charging for newspapers.
Fresh documents reveal full extent of The Age’s circulation strategy
Confidential Age circulation data shows Fairfax Media bulk-distributed more than 47,000 weekday copies of the newspaper to schools and universities in 2007, despite reporting just 1,640 education copies to the Audit Bureau of Circulations.
AFL crowd numbers stack up globally
The best-attended domestic sports league in the world is the National Football League. The AFL, with teams in just six or seven cities, was not that far behind, writes Ed Wyatt of Back Page Lead
The Age probed over real estate agent junkets
The Victorian Government will probe Fairfax Media over its real-estate junkets program, after the company decided to extend the controversial free-trips scheme into 2011.
The Age gets bitten by puppy ad scam
Fairfax has been enticed into prominently promoting an infamous classifieds rip-off in the news section of The Age, with a fraud expert confirming to Crikey that the ad for female English bulldog puppies was almost certainly a scam.
Media briefs: SMH our best paper (but Fairfax revenue bleeds) … 3D no-go …
Fairfax scoops paper awards. Plus, a disgruntled subbie’s joke at The Age, Look, we trashed our masthead for you Gaz! and other media news of the day.
Media briefs: The Age gets snubbed … no irony in the touch … tribute to Peter Bowers …
What are the best newspapers in the country (and the South Pacific)? Plus, Gillard “guest-edits” Women’s Day and other media news from around the globe.
Fairfax pondering online-only Age, SMH … or not
Could Fairfax Media seriously be considering eliminating hard copy versions of The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald, and distributing them only online and to mobile devices?
