One Northern NSW perspective on the COVID-19 pandemic as it is unfolding in Australia

The Echo is one of only a very few independent online & print newspapers left in north-eastern New South Wales which has a genuine 'opinion' writer.

Here is Mungo MacCallam writing five days ago.......

Echo Net Daily, 30 March 2020:

Thus Spake Mungo: Isolation days

Last week I could have my hair styled, but I couldn’t get a kidney transplant. I could take my kids to school, but not to church. I could invite nine mates to a funeral, but only four to a wedding. I could attend a bootcamp, but I could not meet my friends in a park. I was told to vote in local elections if I lived in Queensland, but not in New South Wales.

Well, actually, I couldn’t do any of the above even if I wanted to – I am in isolation. But I am not considered ill and I will not be tested. Indeed, I can order cocktails delivered to my door.

And I am expected to work. All workers are essential – until they are not, until Scott Morrison bans or restricts some occupations and the previously essential workers are sent off to join the queues at Centrelink, where they will maintain social distance – or not.

It was beyond confusion, beyond parody. And when journalists tried to make sense of the chaos, a snarly Morrison slapped them down; any attempt at interrogation of government edicts was not helpful, verging on unpatriotic, even unAustralian. Shut up and do what you’re told.

In his so-called National Cabinet, Morrison bullied the state premiers to yet again postpone the inevitable

Clearly this situation could not go on, but it did. In his so-called National Cabinet, Morrison bullied the state premiers to yet again postpone the inevitable.

Well before the end of the week it was clear that the federal government was reluctantly moving to impose a near total lockdown of the kind already in place in many other countries. The premiers may have disagreed about the urgency, but all accepted it was going to happen. So did business: any resistance was minimal, the real debate was about who would be compensated, and by how much.

The National Cabinet was supposed to produce national policy, but Morrison is now extolling the idea that state differences are actually a good thing

And the premiers of the biggest states, Liberal Gladys Berejiklian, in New South Wales, and Daniel Andrews, in Victoria, have made it clear that they are preparing to move soon, even if Morrison will not. The National Cabinet was supposed to produce national policy, but Morrison is now extolling the idea that state differences are actually a good thing. Talk about making a virtue out of necessity.

The schools were spending more effort on home learning than supervising their dwindling numbers in the classrooms; few believed that schools would reopen after the impending holidays. The overall mood was that something close to total lockdown was only a matter of time, so we might as well get on with it.

But Morrison was determined to string out the phoney war for as long as possible, perhaps because he was all too aware that the cost of a lockdown will be horrendous, in economic, social and crucially, political terms.

Unemployment will soar, certainly to over ten per cent, with some estimates reaching 15 per cent – which means two million Australians out of work. This is not just a recession – it is getting into serious depression territory, and it will not be over in six months, as Morrison previously optimistically predicted.

The cost to Treasury will be enormous in lost tax revenue, and increased welfare payments, even without the third and subsequent stimulus packages that will be required

The cost to Treasury will be enormous in lost tax revenue, and increased welfare payments, even without the third and subsequent stimulus packages that will be required. There will be no talk of surpluses in the foreseeable future. But there is no real choice – in spite of Morrison’s insistence that we must act to protect both health and the economy – lockdown is the only serious idea on the table if we are to save hundreds, perhaps thousands, of lives.

And the economic and emotional pain will be immense and long-lasting. Very little of this will be Morrison’s fault; the worst he can validly be accused of is procrastination and dithering, and given that those have characterised his entire time as prime minister, the electorate can hardly claim to be shocked.

But his will be the hand that signs the paper that authorises the lockdown, and the misery to follow. He is the officer on watch, and a lot of voters will not forgive him; they will remember the leader’s burden – that the buck stops here. Morrison will be remembered as the prime minster who dumped them in the mire, just as the equally innocent Jimmy Scullin was remembered in the Great Depression.

ScoMo’s legacy will be far darker than that of Kevin Rudd, who blew the budget to manage the Global Financial Crisis, or Paul Keating, who oversaw the recession we had to have. In time, Morrison may be condoned – he may even win another election, like Keating did in 1993, with the aid of John Hewson’s GST. But he will not be forgotten, and it will not be the epitaph he craves.

So, is he preparing to spread the blame? For no apparent reason he has convened what he calls the National COVID-19 Coordination Commission, to solve problems

So, is he preparing to spread the blame? For no apparent reason he has convened what he calls the National COVID-19 Coordination Commission, to solve problems. It was picked by him alone, mainly consisting of business cronies, with a couple of supportive bureaucrats, none of whom have any known expertise in managing a pandemic. Ironically, the only one who might have relevant experience is the token lefty, Greg Combet, who was a minister during Rudd’s bailout in the GFC. But he will be hopelessly outnumbered by the corporate free-enterprise number crunchers.

And the greatest irony of all is that the people elected to do the job – the members of the federal parliament – have been sidelined for the duration. Barbers are considered essential, but the MPs are considered redundant in a way that they have never been, not during wars, depressions or previous pandemics.

Naturally there is resistance, and not just from the Labor Party and its allies. And no reasonable justification for the extraordinary move has been advanced – other parliaments continue to sit around the nation, and indeed around the world.

There should be outrage – a demand that our representatives are brought back to do their job!

But there should be outrage – a demand that our representatives are brought back to do their job! Unfortunately, a shell-shocked, confused and frightened populace seems to be copping it as part of the ongoing madness, as they are assured by the partisan commentariat that Morrison knows what he is doing – and that unity is vital, we must all stick together, and we should be ready to accept sacrifices in the name of – well, what?

Morrison tells us that our health, our immediate physical survival, is not the overwhelming priority; preserving the economy is at least equally important. So just like some businesses, democracy must be placed in hibernation for the duration. And preserving his political dominance might also have something to do with it. Whatever it takes.

In Australia 90% of the population read news media

Excerpt from AUSTRALIAN NEWSPAPER HISTORY GROUP, NEWSLETTER No. 95, December 2017:

The Australian Financial Review’s weekday edition increased its print readership by 14.9 per cent to 347,000 people during the 12 months ending in August. The AFR Weekend rose 4.8 per cent to 130,000 people. The weekday Australian increased its print readers by 5.6 per cent in the past 12 months. The paper’s weekday audience rose 26,000 to 494,000, while the Weekend Australian was up 2.8 per cent to 590,000 for the 12 months ending in August, according to the Enhanced Media Metrics Australia statistics.

The Sydney Morning Herald fell 3.5 per cent to 640,000 people Monday to Friday, while its Saturday edition was down 8.4 per cent to 655,000. In Melbourne, weekday print readership of News Corp’s Herald Sun fell 5.1 per cent to 1.190 million, while the paper’s Saturday edition dropped 7.3 per cent to 974,000 readers. The Age fell 8.7 per cent to 549,000 readers, with the Saturday edition down 11.4 per cent to 522,000.

The Australian’s total combined audience across print and digital platforms was 3.159 million, down 4.1 per cent on the year. Sydney’s Daily Telegraph was the best performing of the state-based News Corp papers, with its Monday-to-Friday edition up 1 per cent to 1.003 million readers; its Saturday edition rose 4.7 per cent to 798,000 readers. The Sunday Telegraph print readership fell 5 per cent to 1.027 million readers.

Emma found 13.1 million Australians — 70 per cent of the population — read news media electronically on smartphones, tablets, mobiles or computers. Across all platforms, including print, news media was read by 16.7 million people, 90 per cent of the population.

The Daily Examiner: methinks it stinks!

The Daily Examiner, 31 December 2014, Page 3:

While the voting numbers varied between our online poll and votes lodged directly with The Daily Examiner, we decided to weight these views differently because many online voters were not buyers of our newspaper.

We're pleased to be supporting a majority of Australian-made cartoons - including Zanetti on our opinion pages - and we look forward to your feedback.

On the same day Bill Dickinson took to Facebook to express his displeasure - thereby joining a growing band of valley residents unhappy with a range of APN News & Media’s decisions:

Bill of course could have added that there is only one regular opinion page in the old Egg Timer and that page only carries one political cartoon per issue, despite the liberal use of plurals in The Daily Examiner quote at the top of this post.

He could have also pointed out that The Daily Examiner has an ePaper which is purchased online.

As far as the financial integrity of those who lodged votes directly - its an open secret that traditional print copies of the newspaper are often shared between households (sometimes between up to half the houses in a short street) with only one person being the purchaser, so there is no guarantee that the person voting directly in Grafton or by mail actually paid for the newspaper.

Ex-serviceman takes cravenly anonymous letter writer to task

The convention has always been that in the print media, as opposed to the anonymity allowed on digital platforms, one must correctly identify oneself by name and town.

This is John Edwards response on 29 April 2014 to one cravenly anonymous letter writer given space by The Daily Examiner in its letters to the editor section:

Murdoch media's welfare recipient bashing comes undone

Adjudication No. 1568: Margaret Moir/The Advertiser (September 2013)  

Document Type: Complaints

Outcome: Adjudications

Date: 5 Sep 2013

The Press Council has considered a complaint about an article “Welfare fraud costs us $78m” in The Advertiser and the adelaidenow website on 18 January 2013. The words “Single-parent women most likely to cheat” appeared above the headline. The first sentence said “South Australian welfare recipients have ripped off nearly $80 million from Centrelink in the past financial year and most of the fraudsters are women”.

After the article appeared, the Federal Department of Human Services (which had supplied some data for it) told the publication that fraud-related debt in South Australia in the past year had been about $2.5 million, not $78 million. The article was then removed from the website and a “clarification” was published in the newspaper on the following day.

Margaret Moir complained that the $78 million figure in the original article was “grossly inaccurate”. She said the subsequent clarification lacked prominence, especially given the prominence of the original article, the seriousness of the inaccuracy, and the linkage made with sole-parent women.

The publication acknowledged the mistakes but pointed to its action to correct them. It said page 2, where the clarification appeared, is one of the most read pages and is more prominent than page 5, where the original article appeared.

The Council’s Principles require publications to take reasonable steps to ensure that reports are accurate, fair and balanced. The Council has concluded that the inaccuracies arose from a failure to distinguish between the amount of overall debt and the small proportion of that amount which is due to fraud. They were aggravated by the inaccurate estimate of the share of the national debt total which was owed by South Australians. In addition, when stating how much the debt “costs us”, no account was taken of the fact that the department says most of it is being recovered.

The Council acknowledges there was some ambiguity in the way in which the department responded to the newspaper’s original request for information. In addition, two subsequent sentences in the article avoided to some extent the errors described above by saying that “welfare recipients in this state owe $78 million in fraudulently claimed and incorrectly overpaid benefits” and “only $43 million of this money is being recovered” by Centrelink from recipients. But they were not sufficiently clear and prominent to compensate for the serious errors in the headlines and first sentence.

Accordingly, the complaint on the ground of inaccuracy is upheld.

The Council’s Principles also require serious inaccuracies to be corrected promptly and with due prominence in order to neutralise, as far as possible, any damage caused by the original article. The Council concluded the “clarification”, while it may have addressed the Department’s concerns, did not effectively explain the errors for other readers. In addition, it should have been frankly headed as a “correction” and with words such as “welfare fraud” to help attract the attention of people who might have read the original article. It should have been positioned more prominently – for example, in the top half of page 2 (or any other page up to page 5, at the top of which the article itself had appeared). These aspects were especially important because of the link in the headlines between the alleged amount of fraud and the involvement of sole parent women.

Accordingly, the complaint about the “clarification” is upheld. The Council acknowledges, however, that the publication responded promptly when it became aware of the error, both by removing the article from its website and by publishing the “clarification” the following day in a genuine attempt to address the concerns which had been brought to its attention at that time.

Note (not required for publication by the newspaper):

The Council considered the publication’s online response. By swiftly removing the article from its website, it had ensured that the error did not continue. But readers who saw the original article online and did not see the clarification in print would not have been aware of the correction. The Council will consider specific standards for online corrections in order to address this type of problem.

Relevant Council Standards (not required for publication by the newspaper):

This adjudication applies part of General Principle 1: “Publications should take reasonable steps to ensure reports are accurate, fair and balanced.”; General Principle 2: “Where it is established that a serious inaccuracy has been published, a publication should promptly correct the error, giving the correction due prominence”; and Note 2: “The Council interprets ‘due prominence’ as requiring the publication to ensure the retraction, clarification, correction, explanation or apology has the effect, as far as possible, of neutralising any damage arising from the original publication.”

What the New Zealand Herald is telling its readers about Australian Opposition Leader Tony Abbott

Having a wife who hails from New Zealand does not confer an advantage on British-born Australian Opposition Leader Tony Abbott.

The New Zealand Herald 3 August 2013:

…derided as the Mad Monk for his Jesuit past and moral conservatism, and parodied for elephantine ears and his red surf lifesaving budgie smugglers, Abbott remains one of the most unpopular leaders in the polling history of federal politics.

Even many Liberal supporters do not like him. Most, like the rest of the nation's voting public, would far prefer Malcolm Turnbull, ousted by Abbott by a single vote in a bitterly contested 2009 challenge.

He trailed former Prime Minister Julia Gillard in both popularity and as preferred prime minister for much of her time in office, despite the Opposition's all but unshakable ascendancy over the Government. He is now a distant second to Rudd…

…Abbott's portrait is one of a shallow and ruthlessly ambitious politician, lacking in conviction and policy….

Voters have trouble deciding how Abbott would emerge as prime minister. In Opposition he has been contradictory, divisive and ruthless, his style marked by negativity, simplistic sloganeering and a policy vacuum.

His knifing of Turnbull was every bit as nasty as Gillard's assassination of Rudd. And, like Gillard, he has backflipped on policy ranging from parental leave to public funding and parliamentary pairing.

He relentlessly pursued former Labor MP Craig Thomson over allegations of fraud. But he refused similar condemnation of Liberal trangressors….

How far Abbott's moral and social values would influence government policy concerns many voters. He refuses to allow his MPs a conscience vote on gay marriage, for example, and has a historical list of radically conservative quotes on issues such as the monarchy, climate change, premarital sex, and women's rights, roles and employment….

It is the uncertainty that hurts Abbott - and the reality that, to paraphrase the late disgraced US President Richard Nixon, he doesn't have Julia Gillard to kick around any more.

Let's run an online poll for our readers.....

 

Poll: What's your favourite part of Thursday's DEX?

 

Occasionally The Daily Examiner runs a poll on its website and if a reader has signed in his or her vote will be recorded against their name/pseudonym.

 

Here is the voting history of one such reader:

Voted in a poll 3:10pm Oct 31st
Do you use your mobile phone when driving?

Voted in a poll 5:03pm Oct 30th

Choose your top 10 rules that should be applied to Jaca Thursday and we’ll print them in Thursday’s DEX.

Voted in a poll 12:30pm Jul 27th

What's your favourite day of the week?

 

Voted in a poll 5:25pm Jul 25th

What's your favourite part of Thursday's DEX?

 

Voted in a poll 11:32am Jun 26th

What should we put on the cover of our On Track magazine?

Voted in a poll 9:09am May 25th

How do you spell it:

 

Ooops! Did I say reader? I meant the voting history of the editor of the newspaper conducting these polls.

The editor is not alone. A senior journalist at The Daily Examiner has voted in a number of the same polls, another has a penchant for the political when it comes to the polls he adds his mite to, yet one more has voted only twice and one other three times. However, the journalist who wins hands down has voted 33 times.

Just how many polls in this newspaper are being padded out by staff?

Newspaper typo accidentally creates a gang of four on council :-)

The Daily Examiner 26 September 2012 at 6am

Clarence Valley Council’s new EE&C Committee membership is reported correctly above, with the exception of omitting Mayor Richie Williamson from inclusion on this committee.

However, membership of the C&C Committee should now read, Williamson, Kingsley, Simmons, Challacombe and Toms.

A sitting mayor has a permanent seat on both committees and the remaining members of both committees were decided at the extraordinary meeting on 25 September.

The first committee meetings are scheduled for 9 October 2012.

Anybody else smell a whiff of McDonalds 'greasy PR?

 

This was up on The Daily Examiner website on 13^th July 2012:

“Can Maccas come back?

IT WAS a Whopper of an argument that may have been solved by a Big Mac.

Police have responded to a call about a dispute over the price of a Whopper burger at a Hungry Jacks store in Rockhampton.

Initial reports indicate the issue was resolved by the aggrieved customer going to a nearby McDonald's store.”

The one thing I smell is APN head office doing a transfat-laden Clayton’s advertising deal with Maccas Australia.

 

APN's Peter Chapman turns even nastier than usual on the Fraser Coast

Excerpt from the Fraser Coast Chronicle on 13 April 2012:

Which...

...high-profile candidate is so worried about Election Gossip that he has been digging for some dirt of his own?

This man has even gone so far as to make calls to certain people in Grafton, New South Wales, in a desperate attempt to find anything at all he thinks he could use as a shield.

If this candidate believes he can spare himself the scrutiny of the Chronicle, he had better think again.

Stay tuned...

...the Stealth Reporter hears all...

It doesn’t take a genius to see the visage of Fraser Coast Chronicle Editor, Peter Chapman, behind this ‘column’ which appears dedicated to anonymous and scurrilous gossip concerning mayoral and councillor candidates in the Fraser Coast Regional Council Election called for 28 April 2012.

The Clarence Valley would not tolerate the ugly side of Mr. Chapman’s editorship of Grafton’s The Daily Examiner and told him so early and often. He left the Valley after less than fifteen months at the newspaper and went north into Queensland – sped on his way by widespread community dislike of his divisive journalistic personality.

I suspect that the Fraser Coast is now paying the price for not following the Valley’s example.

* Graphic from The Fraser Coast Chronicle

Preview of Granny Herald's changes to banner and editorial policy?

Dan Ilic provides a laugh with this alternative front page for the Fairfax media's flagship - The Sydney Mining Herald 

Click on page to grow the joke

Do you know the truth or do you read the tabloids?

News Limited is rapped over the knuckles by the Australian Press Council:

Adjudication No. 1515: Jamie Benaud/The Daily Telegraph (December 2011)

Document Type:

Complaints

Outcome:

Adjudications

Date:

22 Dec 2011

The Australian Press Council has considered a complaint about three articles in The Daily Telegraph on 9 June, 17 June and 6 July 2011 concerning aspects of the National Broadband Network (NBN). The articles appeared with the headlines shown below, although the first article also appeared in other News Limited newspapers under a different headline.

“Australian taxpayers’ latest NBN horror show”

Jamie Benaud complained this article understated the number of customers who had taken up NBN offers and accordingly overstated the ratio of NBN staff to customers. He also said the claim that during the trial period customers and internet service providers (ISPs) were accessing NBN services without charge was not true in Tasmania. The newspaper said the customer figures were based on the latest available to it at the time of publication and that free access applied in all mainland States.

The Council considered the newspaper should have made greater efforts to get up-to-date customer figures, although the error did not substantially affect the point being made. It considered the assertion about the staff/customer ratio was misleading and unfair as the company was at a very early start-up stage. These errors may well have been considered minor in themselves but the Council noted the forceful nature of the headline and concluded that the complaints about this article should be upheld.

“Join the NBN or you’ll be digging deep”

Mr Benaud complained this article implied inaccurately and unfairly that customers who do not sign up for NBN at the outset would have to pay an "estimated" $900 a day to get the cable laid to their house at a later date and then up to $140 per month to get an ISP connection. He pointed out that NBN said the later cable-laying would still be free "for standard installation" and that ISP connection costs might be as low as $30 per month. The newspaper agreed its statement about cable-laying costs may have been misread (publishing a clarification as a result) but defended mention of only the upper ISP price as being fair and a common practice.

The Council considered the statement about the cable-laying cost was clearly and seriously inaccurate. It noted the newspaper had attempted later to clarify the matter even though it believed residents had been given the reported information. However, in so doing, it implied incorrectly that the $900 would have to be paid to an ISP. The Council also considered that describing the ISP connection fee as “up to $140” was unfair and misleading when the range was as wide as $30-$140, and the minimum fees had also been well known. Accordingly, the complaints against this article are upheld.

“Low interest in high speed internet”

Mr Benaud complained about this article comparing a particular consumer’s current internet costs of $39 per month with what it said would be $53 to more than $130 per month if he signed up for NBN services. The latter range was actually for a combination of internet and phone services, not internet alone, and, as the consumer has a phone service, he would currently be paying much more than $39 in total for internet and phone. The newspaper said that the customer himself had no issue with the accuracy or portrayal of his words.

The Council considered that, by omission of the costs for combined phone and internet services, the comparison was misleading. Accordingly, the complaint against this article was upheld.

The Council expressed concern that within a short period of time three articles on the same theme contained inaccurate or misleading assertions. It considers that this sequence of errors should not have occurred and that they should have been corrected promptly and adequately when brought to the newspaper’s attention.

Note (not required for publication by the newspaper):
This adjudication applies the Council’s General Principle 1: “Publications should take reasonable steps to ensure reports are accurate, fair and balanced. They should not deliberately mislead or misinform readers either by omission or commission”. It also applies General Principle 2: "Where it is established that a serious inaccuracy has been published, a publication should promptly correct the error, giving the correction due prominence”.

Adjudication No. 1517: Penny Campton/Northern Territory News (December 2011)

Document Type:

Complaints

Outcome:

Adjudications

Date:

22 Dec 2011

The Australian Press Council has considered a complaint about words on the front-page of the Northern Territory News on 5 August 2011. The words, ASYLUM SEEKERS THREATENED TO KILL AUSSIES, COURT TOLD, were a pointer directing readers to an article on page five about the sentencing of an asylum seeker who “threatened to kill Australians” days before stabbing two security guards in a detention centre.

Penny Campton complained that the words in the pointer were inaccurate and unfair because they implied that a number of asylum seekers had made the threats, whereas the article itself mentioned only one such person. She sought an apology and a retraction of the pointer.

The newspaper said that the use of the plural in the pointer was an error made in the production process. It said that the newspaper encouraged compassion towards asylum seekers and cited an editorial from 22 July and subsequent articles in support of that contention. The newspaper thought the error was not sufficiently serious to warrant a correction or an apology, but it offered to publish a letter from the complainant. She declined on the ground that the newspaper itself should admit and correct the error.

The Council concluded that the pointer was clearly a serious inaccuracy demanding an immediate correction, accompanied by an expression of regret. Offering to publish a letter from the complainant was not considered to be sufficient for this purpose. Accordingly, the complaint is upheld and the Council calls on the newspaper to take the remedial action that should have been taken immediately after it became aware of the mistake.

Note (not required for publication by the newspaper):
This adjudication applies the Council’s General Principle 1: “Publications should take reasonable steps to ensure reports are accurate, fair and balanced. They should not deliberately mislead or misinform readers either by omission or commission”. It also applies General Principle 2: "Where it is established that a serious inaccuracy has been published, a publication should promptly correct the error, giving the correction due prominence” and part of Principle 6 "... headlines and captions should fairly reflect the tenor of an article ...".

Australian Journalism 101: Never let the facts get in the way of a good rant

A published letter to The Daily Examiner editor by Holly Shiach on 23 January alerted me to the many errors packed into so few lines by one notorious repeat offender employed by the APN regional media group.
See how many factual errors you can spot in the opinion piece below after reading a little about Greenpeace.

Whale of a PR machine by Graham Orams on Page 8 of The  Daily Examiner,  16 Jan 2012:  

WHALE activists aren't doing themselves any favours with some of their antics.

Greenpeace activists are losing a lot of support among the mainstream public because of their eco-terrorism approach to this matter.

For a start, despite its ostensible outrage, Greenpeace would have been rubbing its hands together when three of its crew members were detained on board a whaling ship recently.

In fact, I wouldn't mind betting that was the plan all along.

After all, a big PR firm like Greenpeace needs to constantly find new and exciting ways to get media attention.

That's not to say whales are not worth saving; it's just funny how activist organisations like Greenpeace never seem interested in saving endangered spiders, for instance.

That type of endeavour would unlikely stir the public's emotion enough for them to donate money (cynical, aren't I?).

And having to send an Australian rescue team to bring the "captured" activists back to Western Australia hasn't gone down well with many in the community, who are less than impressed at the cost to taxpayers.

Now we hear anti-whaling activists are throwing acid at Japanese whaling boats to get their message across.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't Greenpeace claim to care about the environment?

I'm no marine biologist but isn't it bad for our oceans to have acid poured into it?

No matter what I say, though, there are many people who believe the means justifies the end.

But all too often that attitude amounts to hypocrisy.

How far does Australian mainstream media masthead readership reach?

From the AUSTRALIAN NEWSPAPER HISTORY GROUP NEWSLETTER No 65 December 2011:

MASTHEAD READERSHIP: PRINT AND ONLINE COMBINED

Roy Morgan Research has released a new readership metric for newspapers, combining print and website audiences into one "masthead readership" number to meet demands from the publishers for data that quantifies their total reach (Australian, Media section, 14 November 2011, p.25). According to the latest Roy Morgan Single Source data (July 2010-June 2011), Melbourne's Herald Sun has the highest net masthead readership in Australia: nearly 2.7 million. This is 258,000 more readers than the Sydney Morning Herald (with a masthead readership of nearly 2.4 million), which is just ahead of Sydney's Daily Telegraph (with a masthead readership greater than 2.3m). Brisbane's Courier Mail ranks fourth with a masthead readership of over 1.84m, placing the Brisbane title just ahead of Melbourne's Age with its masthead readership of nearly 1.78m. Seventy-one per cent of the Australian's masthead readership read the printed version; the website, theaustralian.com.au, has a readership of 619,000 readers, which is more than 4.6 times the readership of national rival, the Australian Financial Review's website, afr.com. The Australian Financial Review's masthead readership appears to owe more to its printed version of the newspaper than its website. Eighty-two per cent of the Australian Financial Review's masthead readership read the printed version of this newspaper, but only 30,000 readers (or 5pc of its total masthead readership) read both the printed version and the website. Perhaps there is a connection between the existence of a paywall on afr.com, and that this newspaper brand has the lowest duplication of readers between its printed version and website. With a readership of 1,115,000, smh.com.au has the highest readership of all the Australian metro daily newspaper websites.

Tweed News going to Saturday only, Coffs Advocate being stripped down to giveaway - which APN masthead is next?

About the only advantage coming out of APN’s surgical strike on its NSW North Coast newspapers is that the online presence still remains for those pale print ghosts, the Tweed Daily News and Coffs Coast Advocate.

mUmBRELLA 21^st November 2011:

“Tweed’s 123-year-old Daily News and the 104-year-old Coffs Coast Advocate will both move to reduced frequency, while free titles the Gold Coast Mail and Robina Mail will be closed in a move that will lead to 35 redundancies.

In the latest set of Audit Bureau of Circulations figures, the Daily News was selling just 3,689 copies. The paper started life in 1888 as the Tweed and Brunswick Advocate. It became The Tweed Daily in 1914. At one point it was one of only two daily newspapers in Australia to have an offset printing press.

Instead the Daily News will sell a print edition only at the weekends with a cover price of 50 cents instead of the current $1.30. It will go on offering readers online updates via the mydailynews across the week….

the free weekly Tweed Border Mail will continue to be distributed during the week to 30,000 households in the Tweed/ Coolangatta/ Murwillumbah region.

APN has also swung the axe in the Coffs Coast market with the 104-year-old daily Coffs Coast Advocate, which covers the NSW mid north coast, becoming a twice weekly freesheet, circulating on Wednesdays and Saturdays. On its paid for days it had been averaging 2,959 sales.

In a statement, Warren Bright, CEO of APN Australian Regional Media said: “In each of these markets, although the audience for paid daily newspapers has been declining there remains very strong demand from both advertisers and the community for the twice weekly newspapers that we are retaining.

“We also have strong digital audiences in each market so it makes sense to combine a constantly updated digital news service with this modified print offering.”

APN said there were no further plans to make closures in its other markets.”

Granny Herald on 22^nd November 2011:

“APN recorded a $98 million loss in September.

The Coffs Harbour mayor, Keith Rhoades, said the job losses would be felt in communities already reeling from hundreds of job losses in Grafton.

''The disappointing part would be for … particularly the elderly community who may not be fully conversant with online.''

The West Australian newspaper gets a well deserved rap on the knuckles

Press Council of Australia Adjudication No. 1502: Kate Swanton/The West Australian (August 2011)

Document Type:

Complaints

Outcome:

Adjudications

Date:

12 Aug 2011

The Australian Press Council has considered a complaint by Kate Swanton about an article in The West Australian on 17 March 2011 concerning the transfer of some asylum seekers from Christmas Island to Darwin after a “riot” on the island on 16 March. The article stated that “the transfer to Darwin of the core group of troublemakers” happened after “immigration officials caved in to their demands”.

Ms Swanton complained that the article was inaccurate and unfair. She pointed out that on the same morning as the article appeared the Immigration Minister denied that the transferred people were the organisers of the actions by asylum seekers or were “the core group of troublemakers”. He said that he would have made this denial earlier if he had been asked.

Ms Swanton also complained that a number of letters to the editor published on 21 March assumed the article to be true and made very strong criticisms of the transfer to Darwin, but the newspaper took no action to correct or clarify the article by mentioning the Minister’s denial.

The newspaper responded that the principal author of the report witnessed asylum seekers boarding a plane to Darwin and obtained the information from “sources in the Australian Federal Police and the Immigration Department that the people boarding the flight had been involved in the riots”. It added that the report did not describe those on the flight as “organisers” or “ringleaders” of the riot, but as “a core group”, and that the Minister had said some of them were possibly involved in the riots.

The Council has concluded the article’s assertion that the people flown to Darwin were “the core group of troublemakers” does not accurately reflect what the newspaper says it was told, namely that they “had been involved in the riots”. It notes also that the article gave the views of an official spokesperson for the Immigration Department on another matter but did not do so on this issue despite its central importance.
The Council has also concluded that the situation was aggravated when the newspaper did not report the Immigration Minister’s subsequent denial of its assertion but published several letters to the editor all of which relied on the assertion and protested that the transferred people had been "rewarded" for leading the “rampage”. In consequence, the newspaper’s coverage of the issue was unfair and unbalanced.

Accordingly, Ms Swanton’s complaint has been upheld.

http://www.presscouncil.org.au/document-search/adjudication-no-1502-the-west-australian-aug-2011/?LocatorFormID=677&FromSearch=1

August 2011 media release concerning complaints to the Australian Press Council

The Australian Press Council has released preliminary data about the numbers and

outcomes of complaints considered by it during the year 2010-11.

Highlights include:

• The number of complaints considered by the Council rose by 7% to a total of 437 (excluding 129 which were outside its jurisdiction or were referred elsewhere).

• Mediation or adjudication by the Council achieved remedies for complainants in 194 cases.

• Mediated remedies included 98 apologies, retractions, corrections or similar action. In another 36 cases the newspaper agreed to publish a response by the complainant.

• Where mediation failed and the matter went for adjudication by the Council, 71% of complaints were upheld.

• This proportion of upheld complaints compares with 43% in the previous year and an average of 46% over the preceding decade.

• All adjudications by the Council were published in the newspaper or magazine to which they related, although not always with due prominence.

Further details are available on the Council’s website.

Information about types of complaint and other aspects will be provided in the Council’s Annual Report later this year.

For further information or comment by the Council's Chair, Prof Julian Disney, contact:

Derek Wilding (Director, Standards)

02-9261-1930; 0425-242-401; derek.wilding@presscouncil.org.au

Hartsuyker attempts to deceive Parliament

This is the Nationals Federal MP for Cowper, Luke Hartsuyker, according to his own media release on 25 August  2011:

Federal MP Luke Hartsuyker tonight (Thursday) has told the Federal Member for Lyne Rob Oakeshott that it’s not too late for him to change his position on the carbon tax and start reflecting the views of his electorate.

During a speech in the House of Representatives, Mr Hartsuyker said a poll which appeared in the local newspaper – the Port Paper - confirmed Mr Oakeshott was ignoring the views of his electorate. “We come to this place to represent our electorates. We come to reflect the hopes and aspirations of the people from our communities, and a member of this House occupies their seat at the pleasure of the voters in their electorate,” Mr Hartsuyker told the Parliament.

“A member who acts contrary to the wishes of their electorate will ultimately be judged at the ballot box. Today's headline in the Port Paper, 'Oakeshott support plummets', says it all. We see in today's paper a reflection of what everybody on the North Coast knows. The people of Lyne know that they have been abandoned by their local member. The people of Lyne know—and I will use their words—that they have been betrayed. The people of Lyne know that they have a representative in this House voting against their interests.

As Clarrie Rivers posted last week, the Port Paper appears to be a front for the Nationals.

When Hartsuyker rose to his feet in the House of Representatives and told Parliament The people of Lyne know—and I will use their words—that they have been betrayed he was knowingly directly quoting a Port Paper article written by the editor who is a National Party member and former staffer of three Nationals MPs (including Hartsuyker until May this year).

An article Port Paper displays online at a domain address registered by yet another Nationals staffer.

Hartsuyker would have also known that the survey commissioned by Port Paper and conducted across the Federal electorate of Lyne on Tuesday night (23rd August) used fully automated voice broadcast to contact the 448 respondents. Even right-wing journalist Andrew Bolt hedges his bets on this polling technology.

One has to wonder why Hartsuyker has such little regard for the Australian Parliament that he would attempt to deceive it in this manner.

Teh Big Gra complains

“Graham Young is chief editor and the publisher of On Line Opinion. He is a writer, and a former vice-president and campaign chairman of the Queensland Liberal Party.”

Teh Big Gra is also listed prominently in Google’s search index:

Gra is also a regular writer for The Australian - a national newspaper with a circulation of 130,000 plus.

But he’s afraid, very afraid, that he is being shunned and silenced by two (I repeat, two) members of the blogotariat.

RORFL!

The Australian and Sheridan create a ranting LOL

This is what The Australian says in About Greg Sheridan……….

Greg Sheridan, The Australian's foreign editor, is the most influential foreign affairs analyst in Australian journalism.
After 25 years in the field, he is a veteran of international affairs who has interviewed leaders all over the Asia Pacific and America.

This is what Greg Sheridan writes in Fraser's unreliable memoirs rewrite history on 26 May 2011…….

Snapshot taken 26 May 2011

But even Henderson's splendid industry omits many of Fraser's howlers. Fraser claims the neo-conservatives wielded great influence in the Bush administration of the 90s. But George W. Bush was not even elected until November 2000.

Now 25 years in the field takes Sheridan the journalist back to around 1986. Surely that’s long enough for him to have formed a memory of the Forty-First U.S. President George H. W. Bush (term of office January 1989 - January 1993) who in 1991 sent 425,000 American troops into Kuwait as part of the multinational force taking part in Desert Storm, which resulted in the rout of Saddam Hussein’s military forces and their retreat back into Iraq.
Sheridan post-rant might even recall the that neo-conservatives existed prior to November 2000.