Media news digest archive for July 2005

The economics of lab rat TV (July 29)
The ABC's Media Report recently had a look at the economics of producing so-called reality TV -- we think lab rat TV is a far more accurate term. Guest Mark Andrejevic pointed out, “It's actually a way of changing the business of how television production works, and making it cheaper by in effect, offloading some of the responsibilities of production that were performed by well-paid professionals on to selected members of the audience.” He went on to highlight some cases where the format of Survivor, Big Brother et al was used as a negotiating tool with the labour force in network television. See this link.

Lachlan Murdoch resigns (July 29)
From News Corp: Chief Executive Officer Mr Rupert Murdoch today announced that the company’s Deputy Chief Operating officer, Mr Lachlan Murdoch, has decided to resign from his executive roles with the company, effective August 31, 2005.
He will remain a director of News Corporation and will advise the company in a number of areas.
Lachlan Murdoch said: “I have today resigned my executive position at News Corporation. I will remain on the board and I am excited about my continued involvement with the Company in a different role.
“I look forward to returning home to Australia with my wife, Sarah, and son, Kalan, in the very near future. I would like especially to thank my father for all he has taught me in business and in life. It is now time for me to apply those lessons to the next phase of my career.”
Rupert Murdoch said: “I am particularly saddened by my son’s decision and thank him for his terrific contribution to the company, and also his agreement to stay on the board and advise us in a number of areas. I have respected the professionalism and integrity that he has exhibited throughout his career at News Corporation.
“His achievements include driving all of his reporting divisions to record profits and the New York Post to its highest-ever circulation. I am grateful that I will continue to have the benefit of Lachlan’s counsel and wisdom in his continued role on the company’s board.”
Mr Murdoch joined the company in 1994 and has served in various capacities, most recently as Deputy Chief Operating Officer of News Corporation and Publisher of the New York Post.
Note: Lachlan’s departure leaves brother James – who runs UK pay TV channel B-Sky-B – as the only Murdoch child remaining in an executive role in the business.

FBM journos out (July 29)
Journos working for Fairfax Business Media in Melbourne yesterday went on a snap strike over the closure of two publications (Shares and Personal Investor) plus the move of others to Sydney.

Philipines media in revolt (July 28)
The National Union of Journalists in the Philipines has taken the unusual step of publicly castigating President Arroyo for what it says were clumsy attempts to manage her first press conference in seven weeks, at a time when her position is being questioned. Foreign reporters were locked out of the event, while locals found their questions, submitted in advance, were heavily edited. The organisation's website says, “The incident just drove a bigger wedge between Mrs Arroyo and media, with reporters suspecting they had been 'used' in a propaganda stunt.” See this link.

Paid celebrities OK (July 26)
The celebrity-friendly OK! magazine is being exported from the UK to the USA with an initial 1.3 million print run and a war chest said to be US$100 millon to get itself established in an already crowded market. More interesting than the raw figures, though, is the declaration that the title will not only pay some celebrities for articles but will give them some editorial control – something which will outrage believers in journalism ethics. The top-selling mag in this segment is People, which sells around 3.5 million. OK! publisher Richard Desmond also owns the Daily Express and Daily Star in the UK. See this Reuters link for more info.

Beazley on diversity (July 26)
Federal Opposition Leader Kim Beazley has weighed into the debate over the Federal Government’s proposed new media ownership laws, the development of which is currently being steered by Senator Helen Coonan. He told the ABC recently, "An essential part of democracy is diversity in the media and the media laws that were put in place by the previous government at least guaranteed a certain diversity. It seems to me that what Senator Coonan proposes to do is to move away from that. That's not good for democracy here."

Al Jazeera recruiting in Australia (July 22)
Arab TV news channel Al Jazeera, which has gained some notoriety in the west and east for airing sometimes very unpopular views, is advertising in Australia for experienced journalists and production crew. The Qatar-based company is establishing a 24-hour English language news service with hubs in Kuala Lumpur, London and Washington. See this link for the website and our jobs page for more details.

News triples USA net reach (July 22)
From Information Week: “News Corp on Monday said it has agreed to acquire Intermix Media, which owns more than 30 e-commerce and media websites, for $580 million in cash, tripling News Corp's reach among US Internet users and making it a player in the online social-networking market.” See this link.

Pay per sale is a Snap (July 20)
USA internet entrepreneur Bill Gross is making public a new web search service at Snap.com. He is credited with coming up with early versions of the current pay per click model, where advertisers are charged when their link is distributed via relevant online search results. It is a model used by Google and others and now Gross says he’s taking it a step further. This time the plan is based on actual sales – if the lead generated by a search click actually buys something, the advertiser coughs up. It’s attractive on the surface, but not without its complications. Though officially launched in October last year, the site’s beta version is still operating and has recently attracted US$10 million in venture capital.

Potter rounds off Amazon decade (July 18)
Somewhere behind all the excitement over the July 16 launch of the latest Harry Potter book -- Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince -- online store Amazon.com has defied the many gloomy predictions of failure and celebrated its tenth anniversary. Its site says: “July 16th marks 10 years since founder and CEO Jeff Bezos opened the virtual doors of Amazon.com from his Seattle-area garage. Since 1995, the web site has expanded its product offerings to include everything from music and video to tennis rackets, live Maine lobsters and loose diamonds, and operates sites for customers in the United Kingdom, Germany, Japan, France, Canada, and China.” The coincidence of the Potter launch and the anniversary was a particularly happy one for Amazon, which says it had orders for over 1.5 million copies of the book, making it the company's largest new product release. Celebrations included promising to have celebrities such as Harrison Ford and Moby accompany the delivery of some parcels, plus a Seattle concert with high profile artists such as Bob Dylan and Norah Jones that was offered as a webcast.

Insurgents or criminals? (July 18)
Nick Cohen, a columnist for the Guardian newspaper, bewails what he sees as the over-cautious use of language by the BBC when it comes to describing terrorism. He argues, “The statement that: 'Insurgents killed 24 children in Baghdad yesterday' is entirely different from the statement that: 'Al-Qaeda and the Baathists killed 24 children in Baghdad yesterday.' The latter at least allows those members of the audience who want 'to make their own assessment about who is doing what to whom' to find out what al-Qaeda and the Baath party believe in and whether decent people should be on the side of the victims or the perpetrators. The former is castrated language which has been emptied of precise meaning. It gives the vague impression that what we're up against is the armed wing of Liberal Democrats…” See this link for the complete piece.

Media hits great wall (July 15)
Variety in the USA is reporting that China’s relationship with foreign media is taking on a new chill, with local partnerships with foreign companies now banned. Chinese firms however are still able to acquire overseas companies. According to the magazine, “Western media execs have regarded with increasing dismay China's retreat in recent months from what appeared to be a new era of openness last year under Xu Guangchun, the former head of the State Administration of Radio, Film & Television (Sarft).” See this link.

Ghost of Grokster to haunt Apple? (July 13)
The successful court action against online file-sharing service Grokster may have, rather than solving some copyright issues, made the situation more complex. Wired magazine speculates the decision could leave services such as Apple’s iTunes podcasting open to copyright litigation if it is seen to encourage the use of third party material which breaches ownership of content.
Wired article
Apple podcasting
Electronic Frontier Foundation on MGM v Grokster

Fairfax consummates a date (July 12)
Fairfax, owner of the Age, Sydney Morning Herald and the Financial Review has bought online dating service RSVP (which claims over 600,000 members) for $38.92 million. The company said in its announcement: “Launched in 1996, RSVP is the market leader in the Australian online dating sector, which has been growing at around 30% per annum. According to the Online Publishers Association, dating is the leading paid online content category in the US, worth US$470 million in 2004.”
Fairfax Digital
Purchase announcement
RSVP
Online Publishers Association

Leave it off (July 12)
The West Australian newspaper is moving to cut journalist leave back from the traditional 6 weeks per year to 4. This has already happened in other large media groups, but the fuss this time is over the type of duress being used – at a time when the fed government is saying looming industrial law reforms will not allow duress to be used as part of work contract negotiations. Click here for a report from The Australian newspaper.

Terrorism as entertainment (July 11)
John Whitehead's column at the Rutherford Institute website (USA) again raises the ugly question of how far should media go when reporting terrorism. He says, “While journalists have a responsibility to report the news accurately and honestly, they play right into the hands of the terrorists when they cross over into entertainment reporting with the kind of continuous coverage we have been experiencing with the London bombings.” See this link.

ASIO gags media -- ABC (July 8)
The ABC's Media Watch program asks the question: “In the aftermath of September 11, the ASIO Act was changed to impose tough prison sentences for reporting ASIO interrogations. Necessary for national security or a media gag?” The laws border on the absurd. Making any mention of some relatively public ASIO activities, no matter how apparently innocent or innocuous, can be a serious offence. They are so convoluted it appears even senior police are struggling to understand them. The laws are currently under federal parliament review, have implications which go far beyond media liberty, and are roundly condemned among publishers and law societies. For example, the Law Council of Australia has said: “The Law Council observed that under the regime the power to question and in some cases detain people applied, where a warrant was granted, even if a person was not suspected of any criminal behaviour…this created a regime where the basic liberties of a person could be infringed, though they are not necessarily suspected of any criminal behaviour or conduct.”
Media Watch story
Parliamentary review website

Flogging 9 not so easy (July 8)
Jane Schulze in The Australian newspaper's Media section suggests that speculation about the potential sale of the Nine TV network (if the fed government's revised media ownership regime allows) may be misguided, given the complex relationships the channel has with the allied print and particularly internet properties at ACP and Ninemsn. “In this evolving multimedia world, any sale of Nine is a far more complex negotiation than one simply based on price,” she concludes. Click here for the article.

MX spreads its wings (July 5)
News Ltd's free metro newspaper, MX (Metro Express), is spreading its reach first to Sydney and then to Brisbane and Adelaide in an effort to establish itself as a national brand. The free week-day tabloid is distributed mostly from public transport hubs in the central city and has been running in Melbourne for four years. It's modelled on similar publications run in Europe and saw off competition from a Fairfax rival in 2001. The Melbourne publication has yet to consistently run in the black, but the publisher believes this will change with the establishment of a broader market. The key to the publication is that it's a short and sharp read in a user-friendly tabloid format. It is also be seen as a way for newspaper publishers to capture a youth market -- something which for some years has been a thorn in their corporate sides.
MX website
Ninemsn news story

When to give up a source (July 4)
A debate is currently raging in the USA over how far reporters and their publishers should go to protect a confidential source. The case involves reporters from Time magazine and the New York Times, who have been supported for some months in court action to avoid revealing a source - but now Time has cried enough. A four-month jail term is potentially at stake, in addition to the whole debate over sources and shield laws.
Time mag statement
Time mag feature: When to give up a source
Poynter Online index

Media wildly inaccurate (July 2)
USA Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has said the media is painting a wildly inaccurate portrait of Iraq by concentrating only on conflict. "Everyone I talk to who goes to Iraq and comes back, say they are just amazed at the difference between their impressions from what they've heard in the media and see on television, and what they actually saw first hand in Iraq," Rumsfeld said. "I suppose part of that is because the news media seem to want to carry the negative, and the news media doesn't present on television every day the large number of people who are killed in car accidents, or the large number of people who are homicide victims in the United States every day. Maybe if they did, there would be fewer car accidents and less homicides." See this link from the Department of Defense website.

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