The Sydney Morning Herald & The Age refused to print this editorial

The Guardian on 6 December 2009 concerning the 'Fourteen days to seal history's judgment on this generation' world-wide editorial:

Two Australian papers, the Age and the Sydney Morning Herald, pulled out at a late stage after the election of climate change sceptic Tony Abbott as leader of the opposition Liberal party recast the country's debate on green issues.

To rectify in some measure this doubtful call by these newspapers here is an excerpt from that editorial of 7 December 2009:

Today 56 newspapers in 45 countries take the unprecedented step of speaking with one voice through a common editorial. We do so because humanity faces a profound emergency.
Unless we combine to take decisive action, climate change will ravage our planet, and with it our prosperity and security. The dangers have been becoming apparent for a generation. Now the facts have started to speak: 11 of the past 14 years have been the warmest on record, the Arctic ice-cap is melting and last year's inflamed oil and food prices provide a foretaste of future havoc. In scientific journals the question is no longer whether humans are to blame, but how little time we have got left to limit the damage. Yet so far the world's response has been feeble and half-hearted.
Climate change has been caused over centuries, has consequences that will endure for all time and our prospects of taming it will be determined in the next 14 days. We call on the representatives of the 192 countries gathered in Copenhagen not to hesitate, not to fall into dispute, not to blame each other but to seize opportunity from the greatest modern failure of politics. This should not be a fight between the rich world and the poor world, or between east and west. Climate change affects everyone, and must be solved by everyone.
The science is complex but the facts are clear. The world needs to take steps to limit temperature rises to 2C, an aim that will require global emissions to peak and begin falling within the next 5-10 years. A bigger rise of 3-4C — the smallest increase we can prudently expect to follow inaction — would parch continents, turning farmland into desert. Half of all species could become extinct, untold millions of people would be displaced, whole nations drowned by the sea. The controversy over emails by British researchers that suggest they tried to suppress inconvenient data has muddied the waters but failed to dent the mass of evidence on which these predictions are based...........
Overcoming climate change will take a triumph of optimism over pessimism, of vision over short-sightedness, of what Abraham Lincoln called "the better angels of our nature".
It is in that spirit that 56 newspapers from around the world have united behind this editorial. If we, with such different national and political perspectives, can agree on what must be done then surely our leaders can too.
The politicians in Copenhagen have the power to shape history's judgment on this generation: one that saw a challenge and rose to it, or one so stupid that we saw calamity coming but did nothing to avert it. We implore them to make the right choice.

Full text of editorial here.

The ups and downs of online paywalls for an American small town newspaper

It is starting to look as though Rupert Murdoch is determined to hide much of the news content on his media websites behind paywalls, no matter how many times he's told that this is rather a bad idea.

He will not be the first to do so.

Here is The Newport Daily News June 2009 paywall pricing strategy courtesy of Nieman Journalism Lab:

The 12,000-circulation Rhode Island newspaper is old school — it still publishes afternoons on Mondays through Fridays, with a morning edition on Saturday. Last month, the newspaper announced a new three-tier pricing structure for subscriptions. Want home delivery of the print paper? That's $145 a year. Want home delivery and online access? That's $245. And if you want just online access — to an electronic edition that duplicates the appearance of the print product — it's a whopping $345.

While some online content is still currently free on the website of this unashamedly parochial newspaper, there has been an initial significant drop in daily unique online reader numbers to a mere 500 - around a quarter of the former online readership.

What circulation growth there is appears confined to casual readership via the news agent (which may not survive adverse weather conditions normal in northern hemisphere winter months) which is rather mixed news for featured advertisers as its new circulation figures only roughly equate with where the paper was ten years ago.

The sudden fall in online readership saw The Newport Daily News offer readers (from outside the county) a yearly limited time online news subscription for about $129.

Taking advantage of the fact that online readership was up for grabs, a month after the paywall went up, Island Communications Inc. launched a free online news website, Newport-now.com.

This blog-style site presents its own version of local news but also pokes its tongue out at The Newport News by running a short daily sidebar rundown on TNN's major stories under the banner Other Headlines.

It does the weather and obits which are standard fare in print newspapers and, it is likely to attract those advertisers following any changing online allegiance.

Newport-now is not the only free local site out there - a celebrity gossip website is also available.

All in all, a rather unpromising scenario Australian regional newspapers might have to take into consideration if they foolishly decide to jump on the paywall bandwagon - there's always someone else ready to offer local news for free.

If you are reading this you might be one of Ruperty Pooh's "flat-earthers"

News Corporation put out a press release of its master's words on the occasion of

the World Media Summit in Beijing, China.

Here are the really funny bits from Rupert Murdoch's speech:

"Too often the conventional media response to the internet has been inchoate. A medium once thought too powerful has often seemed impotent in the past few years. Of course there should be a price paid for quality content, and yet large media organizations have been submissive in the face of the flat-earthers who insisted that all content should be free all the time. The sun does not orbit the earth, and yet this was precisely the premise that the press passively accepted, even though there have been obvious signs that readers recognize the reality that they should pay a price. There are many readers who believe that they are paying for content when they sign up with an internet service provider, presuming that they have bought a ticket to a content buffet. That misconception thrived on the silence of inarticulate institutions which were unable to challenge the fallacies and humbug of the e-establishment. The value of content has been volatile in the past decade but we are entering another decisive phase in which device makers are again courting the creators of content. I have sensed that shift in recent days during my travels in Japan and South Korea where I met some of the world’s leading electronics manufacturers. These companies don’t want their customers to be served a diet of digital dross, and yet that will be the inevitable consequence if the worth of content and creativity are not appreciated. The Philistine phase of the digital age is almost over. The aggregators and the plagiarists will soon have to pay a price for the co-opting of our content. But if we do not take advantage of the current movement toward paid-for content, it will be the content creators, the people in this hall, who will pay the ultimate price and the content kleptomaniacs will triumph. "

What a difference a change of editor makes

Under former editor Peter Chapman The Daily Examiner at times indulged in barely concealed Koori bashing, so this opinion piece by new editor David Bancroft was a welcome read last Wednesday:

Click image to enlarge

Original The Daily Examiner article about young Kaleesha Morris (pictured) Grafton teen a future PM? by journalist Marsha Neville on 16 September 2009.

Another APN newspaper gets it in the neck from ABC TV 's Media Watch

ABC TV Media Watch on 31 August 2009 featured an assessment of last Saturday's Tweed Daily News exploitative front page, which targeted a vulnerable person with a disability and allegedly resulted in that person's hospital admission.

Media Watch received no answer when it contacted Tweed Daily News with the usual invitation to supply justification.

What could the newspaper say? After all: by taking advantage of the confusion and distress of an ordinary person; by needlessly identifying him in a frontpage photograph and exposing him to condemnation, ridicule or gossip; by focussing on the supposed alarmed reaction of its female journalists; the newspaper was only obeying APN News & Media's Readers First guidelines which in practice pander to ignorance and dumb down the news.

With circulation figures and advertising income the principal drivers for this 'new' journalism, what better way to boost its supposed Saturday circulation of 10,000 sold papers than having a full monty on Page One.

The Media Watch presenter called the 120 year-old Tweed Daily News a wretched little rag.

Perhaps he should have also taken APN to task for the very flawed publication philosophy it has foisted on its editors, may of whom cannot always walk the frequently fine line between exploitative and ethical news reporting.

Daily Examiner editor leaves the building: don't slam the door on the way out

Daily Examiner editor leaves the building: don't slam the door on the way out

When Peter Chapman took over as The Daily Examiner editor little was known of him locally in the Clarence Valley except that he hailed from other climes in recent years, was a former television sports commentator and had been rapped over the knuckles by an ABC TV Media Watch program in the 1990s.

I think I can safely say that a number of residents looked forward to having a new editorial voice at the helm of their only local daily newspaper on the grounds that a change was as good as a holiday.

So at first some Daily Examiner readers were puzzled by the odd discordant notes hit by Chapman in his early articles and comments.

Puzzlement quickly turned to something close to outrage in certain quarters, as those odd notes turned into frequent reports and opinion pieces which attempted to either demonise and marginalise segments of the Valley community or blatantly bag various small towns, villages and community facilities.
While an increasing number of so called news reports, whose raison être seems to have been advertising goods or services, tried the patience of many.

What wasn't widely known at the time was the fact that Chapman was using an APN News and Media running sheet benignly called Readers First. [APN version Ewart version Press Council version]

This publishing philosophy calls on editors and journalists to report news which is more responsive to and reflective of the needs and interests of a newspaper's readership, to make advertising an important part of the editorial/news team and have journalists give a less detached account of events or embed themselves in their stories.

However, in Chapman's rather clumsy hands this meant that The Daily Examiner abandoned editorials, began to pander to perceived community bias and prejudice, published blatant advertorials and allowed hearsay or downright gossip to form the basis of a significant part of the news in some issues (with a tinge of racial profiling or chauvinism often thrown in for good measure).

The Clarence Valley reacted in various ways - by simply shrugging shoulders as they turned the page, challenging the editor in the letters column, phoning him directly to refute some of his more outrageous assertions, complaining to senior management, contacting watchdogs, stopping any engagement with the newspaper or laughing outright at claims that newspaper circulation was rising rapidly rather than merely marking time as it has done since the turn of the century.

It was noticeable that some of the goodwill garnered by the 150 year-old newspaper was being needlessly dissipated under the Chapman editorship, but a few locals still tried to support this North Coast icon with news tips even when personal irritation levels were high and rising higher.

After less than fifteen months as editor Peter Chapman officially left The Daily Examiner this week as far as I can tell.
He is heading back to Queensland to take up the position of editor at yet another APN masthead, the Fraser Coast Chronicle.

Memo to Dear Rupert and the Mainstream Media

These past few months I've been reading a lot of online chatter about how mainstream media needs to recoup the costs of providing news, make a profit for shareholders and stop advertising revenue haemorrhaging.

I've also been reading items on the expense associated with researching in-depth news stories and how unfair it is that bloggers apparently get a free ride on the backs of MSM journalists.

Now I can't answer for every other blogger or online news website visitor, but I think that Rupert Murdoch and other print media owners are allowing their financial problems to overly colour commercial responses to emerging trends in how ordinary people access/receive their daily news.

I suspect that part of the reason that traditional media owners are so blinkered is that their own editors and journalists are not being entirely honest with them about how they come by some of the facts which end up in published articles (and it's not just that some journos surf the blogs looking for information or ideas for a story).

The reality is that not all bloggers or online news readers simply take from the MSM without giving back.

Whenever I come across something of significant political, environmental or social interest and, after I have gathered together a parcel of research on same, I often pass it on to journalists at no cost and for no glory.

I do this because I feel the material is important and traditional media still has a readership reach that I, as a small blogger among many millions world-wide, cannot hope to emulate.

It is not unknown for my research to form the body of a Page One or Page Three article in local and sometimes even national newspapers.

I rather suspect that I am not unusual in doing this and, I also expect that Australian bloggers like myself will no longer feel inclined to pass on what has often been many hours of research (including emails/long distance phone calls to confirm documents) if the likes of News Ltd or Fairfax decide that MSM news will no longer be free to view online.

So Mr. Murdoch, be prepared for the possibility of an inexplicable spike in costs associated with news gathering and 'scoops' if you go ahead with user-pays news online. Bloggers may just decide that giving you something for nothing is no longer a good idea.

At least Chris Ahearn, President, Media at Thomson Reuters realises that matters are not as black and white as Murdoch suggests when he writes Why I believe in the link economy.

Northern New South Wales first quarter 2009 newspaper readership and circulation figures

Roy Morgan Report, June 2009: North Coast Newspapers.

Table showing Readership April 2007 to March 2009 (1st column) and Circulation January to March 2009 (2nd column)

Northern New South Wales
Tweed Daily News, M-F	11,000	4,593
Tweed Daily News, Sat	10,000	5,182
Lismore/Northern Rivers – The Northern Star, M-F	37,000	14,903
Lismore/Northern Rivers – The Northern Star, Sat	56,000	23,164
Grafton/Clarence Valley – The Daily Examiner, M-F	16,000	5,596
Grafton/Clarence Valley – The Daily Examiner, Sat	15,000	6,397
The Coffs Coast Advocate, Mon/Tue/Thu/Fri	10,000*	3,293†
The Coffs Coast Advocate, Wed/Sat	45,000*	31,194#

Source:
Readership – Morgan Mar 09; M-F av. and Sat; APN total distribution area *Average readership
Circulation – ABC Jan to Mar 09; M-Sat av. and Sat †Publisher's claim #CAB Oct 08 to Mar 09

Now The Daily Examiner editor, Peter Chapman, is very fond of bragging that 'his' newspaper was the fastest growing daily newspaper in regional Australia in the first quarter of 2009.

However, if one compares circulation figures (average net paid sales/net circulation) for the first two quarters 2008 with the first quarter 2009, then it works out that each week The Daily Examiner managed to sell 76 extra newspapers, as 2009 Saturday circulation figures have actually fallen.

Compared with The Daily Examiner circulation figures for the last two quarters of 2004 these current figures are even less impressive, in view of the painfully slow circulation growth up to and including January-March 2009.

If one compares The Northern Star across those same quarters in 2008 and 2009 then a different story unfolds. It has shown circulation growth both Monday-Friday and Saturday and, therefore sells an extra 1,341 newspapers each week.

One has to suspect that Mr. Chapman in relying on percentages is hoping that no-one will enquire into what hard numbers his bragging might actually represent.

UPDATE:

More rubbery figures? The only conclusion I can draw from these latest numbers (which appear to indicate that quarter to quarter The Daily Examiner circulation varies markedly) is that this newspaper has more casual readers than it has devoted followers.

APN released these figures later this morning.
The publishing group sees these figures as showing a year-on-year 5% circulation increase for The Daily Examiner and a 1% increase for The Northern Star.

Table showing Readership April 2007 to March 2009 (1st column) and Circulation April to June 2009 (2nd column)

Northern New South Wales
Tweed Daily News, M-Sat	11,000	4,773
Tweed Daily News, Sat	10,000	5,222
Lismore/Northern Rivers – The Northern Star, M-Sat	40,000	15,141
Lismore/Northern Rivers – The Northern Star, Sat	56,000	22,997
Grafton/Clarence Valley – The Daily Examiner, M-Sat	16,000	5,811
Grafton/Clarence Valley – The Daily Examiner, Sat	15,000	6,483
The Coffs Coast Advocate, Mon/Tue/Thu/Fri	10,000*	3,293†
The Coffs Coast Advocate, Wed/Sat	45,000*	31,194#

Source:
Readership – Morgan March 2009; M-Sat av. and Sat readership; APN total distribution area *Average readership
Circulation – ABC April to June 2009; M-Sat av. and Sat †Publisher’s claim #CAB October 2008 to March 2009

Daily Examiner editor spits the dummy as he grabs his hat and coat

The Daily Examiner, 4 August 2009

Click on image to enlarge

Editor Peter Chapman takes a swipe at the noisy minority as he prepares to leave The Daily Examiner for Queensland's The Fraser Coast Chronicle, after less than 15 months in the Clarence Valley.

Which possibly makes him the shortest-term editor but one The Daily Examiner has ever had in its 150 year history.

In November 2008 Peter gave a talk to Grafton U3A which indicated that he has worked on at least thirteen different print and television media outlets since the early 1970s, as well as for approximately four sporting bodies.

If the content is good enough, people will pay says News Digital Media

If the content is good enough, people will pay says News Digital Media's Richard Freudenstein in a guest post over at mUmBRELLA.
Short reply, Dick - bollocks!

Position Vacant August 2009: Editor, The Daily Examiner, Grafton NSW

The Daily Examiner, 1 August 2009

Unimpressive polling at The Daily Examiner, Grafton

These poll results for the morning of 24 July 2009 look rather impressive on The Daily Examiner's website.

However, the lack of any total number of votes received being identified means that no-one realises that the 84% of respondents voting "Yes" actually only represents about 17 people.

This is not the only APN News & Media website which carries these misleading poll layouts.

But what could one expect from a regional newspaper chain which is busily pursuing a tabloid reputation similar to The Daily do-you-know-the-truth-or-do-you-read-the Telegraph?

Any online polling the reader happens to see under the mastheads below should be treated with some caution if a respondent total is not displayed.

Pay per view at Tasmania's The Examiner online? No thanks

I happened on a story about that high profile and influential sect, The Exclusive Brethren, via an overseas open media site last week and trying for a source article I stumbled on Tasmania's The Examiner out of the Fairfax stable.

This is what this newspaper's website stated when I attempted to access the July 2009 article Sect stole my kids' Tasmanian father tells of Exclusive Brethren anguish - SPECIAL REPORT:

PAY-PER-VIEW

If you decide to read the whole story your account will be debited by the number of credits indicated next to the heading. If you think you might want to refer back to this story you should print it out or save it to your hard disk.
The cost of stories (daily news and archive*) from July 1 2002, is 20 credits (AUD 22 cents incl. GST) but you will not be charged any more than 100 credits (AUD $1.10 incl. GST) in any one session. This equates to the average cost of The Examiner hardcopy.

A nice polite offer, but no thank you. I'll spend 5 minutes more on the Internet digging further.

The original online mention gave me enough information to go straight to the free published court judgments without findings being filtered by paid journalists and here they are:

Peter Elspeth [2009] FamCA 551 (25 June 2009)

Elspeth Peter; Mark Peter; and John Peter [2007] FamCA 655 (5 July 2007)

Elspeth Peter [2006] FamCA 1385 (21 December 2006)

Which quite frankly makes The Examiner's attempt to make me pay for information somewhat laughable. Especially as pay per view online newspapers will obviously have to continue running homepages with revealing 'teasers' in the hope of attracting paying customers - thereby defeating their aim of locking away the news.

Now Launceston in which this newspaper is based had an estimated population of 103,000 in 2006 and this same newspaper bragged in 2008 that it had a readership of 33,488 Monday to Saturday and 103,000 on Sunday. Enough said.

Woke up with a vacant sensation between your journalistic ears? Then publish a viral email!

Click image to enlarge

The editor of that APN newspaper The Daily Examiner of Grafton in the Clarence Valley was obviously having a lazy day when he decided that those paying top price for the Saturday issue should be treated to the re-publication of one version of a hoary old copyright article from last century, which has become over time one of those ever-adapting viral emails which clog our PC inboxes from time to time.

At the time of writing this it had last turned up on a blog on 18 June 2009 in what appears to be the version Peter Chapman used.

Unfortunately a hard copy newspaper doesn't have a handy delete button, so a prolonged groan rang out across the valley from the many who had already read the supposed London Times obit in various forms over the years.

Common sense may not actually be dead but there is certainly a dearth of it at The Egg Timer these days.

Tells us what you think invites News Limited. Oh, the temptation!

A rather obscure website called the News Limited Reader Panel came to my attention this week.

Make a difference....Have your say and help shape the future of your newspaper is the invitation on offer.

After News Ltd Ceo John Hartigan's recent foray into newspaper phantasy land, the temptation is almost irresistible!

By Email: support@readerpanel.com.au

By Phone: 1300 736 100

Something from the "What were they thinking?" file

Last Wednesday I was emailed this copy of a Queensland Government advertisement concerning state-wide electricity rebates which was published on page 8 in The Daily Examiner that day.

Now this newspaper has a catchment which is some hundreds of kilometres south of the NSW-QLD border and a daily circulation of around 17,000 copies.

So what on earth was the Queensland Government doing spending good money to advertise so far from its intended target population and with so little effect?

Oops! Where did that soldier come from? Another reminder that News Ltd is not quite the bastion of journalistic integrity it likes to proclaim it is.

In the wake of News Ltd CEO John Hartigan's attack on blogs and praise of newspapers, a number of bloggers have pointed out that newspapers from this stable are not renown for factual reporting of late if one remembers the Steve Lewis-sanctioned 'scoop' report on that government email (quickly proven to be faked) and publication of those equally fake revealing photographs of a certain political candidate.

Here is another little gem to add to the list. The Herald-Sun getting rapped over the knuckles by the Australian Press Council for doctoring a photograph - Adjudication No. 1420 (May 2009).

Newspaper porkies for sale in the Clarence Valley

Oh dear, The Daily Examiner editor is at it once more.

On Tuesday 30 June 2009 he proclaimed he never did it - yet again.

Forgetting established chronology (the first published article appeared on 11 June and the first letter some four or five days later) he blames the Grafton-based APN newspaper's readers.

Unfortunately for Peter Chapman his previous words and those of the newspaper's journalists live on and show the heavy-handed, hearsay-ridden attempt to link crime, Beachside, Ngaru Village and "men of aboriginal appearance" as well as "Young people running around the streets staging break and enters and smashing property".

Here are two of those The Daily Examiner articles from 11 June and 12 June 2009:

Click on images to enlarge

Blistering barnacles, Mr. Editor!

Letter to The Daily Examiner editor, Peter Chapman, published on 25 June 2009.

See other posts:
Brave young Maree Jay takes on the ugly face of Australian journalism at The Daily Examiner
Greatest problem! Crisis! It's extravagation time at Tabloid City

Brave young Maree Jay takes on the ugly face of Australian journalism at The Daily Examiner

Hot on the heels of The Daily Examiner office at Yamba being broken into and what sounds like an amount of petty cash stolen, that newspaper attempted to run a crime wave scare concerning people of aboriginal appearance and allegedly low police numbers [The Daily Examiner, 11 June 2009].

Something that Grafton Police Chief Inspector Darren Spooner flatly denied as he happens to live in Yamba [The Daily Examiner, 13 June 2009,p5].

By 12 June 2009 this inchoate media beatup had quickly morphed into a generalised attack on the indigenous community of Yamba.

Now 22 year-old Maree Jay of Grafton has taken the newspaper's boastfully unrepentant editor to task for his judgmental, one-eyed, hearsay-ridden view of the Yaegl community.

Once again, Peter Chapman has added an editor's comment which reflects his inability to recognise his own journalistic shortcomings.

Ngaru Village

THIS is a formal complaint written to the people involved in the production and publishing of the story 'Yamba's Mission' (DEX, June 13).
This article is an example of social segregation and disinclusion. These are two words identified by the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commissioner 2003 as contributors to a) the history of oppression of Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait lslander people and b) the continuation of such abuse.
By publishing this story you are actively continuing that cycle. The 'Yamba community' is spoken to as if they are white, and the 'Aboriginal people'are not spoken to, they are spoken about.
It is 2009, I am 22 years old and the printing of this story made me feel sick in the bottom of my stomach.
I wonder how a story with the same stereotyping, ignorance, opportunism and the lack of factual research seen in stories published when my grandmother was 22 years old can be so destructively distributed throughout our community.
Did you ask anyone in the Aboriginal community anything about their life? No. You snuck in at 6.15 in the morning to rely on photos that give an out-of-context, sensationalised impression.
lf you were a Koori person, would you want to go into town with this story in the press?
Maree Jay,
GRAFTON.

EDITOR'S COMMENT; The response from Maree Jay reflects indignation that someone would dare criticise Yamba's Ngaru Village.
Like us, you know that our story is based on fact, not on rumours.
Key details of what is happening at the village have been known to this paper for many months.
Rather than attack us, the question I put back to you is: As a concerned 22-year-old what have you done in the past few years to assist Ngaru Village and to help improve the living standards of the children who call the village home?
It would have been easy for this paper to have ignored Ngaru Village. We knew we would generate howls of protests like yours.
I don't apologise for taking the stance we have, in fact l would have been embarrassed if we
hadn't.

As the editor has not yet made one constructive suggestion or concrete offer of help, it is the height of hypocrisy on his part to suggest that another should be doing so.

Peter Chapman may not be embarrassed, but I wouldn't mind betting that there are a few reputable journalists who would be embarrassed by his amateurish existence.