Crikey takes aim at The Guvmin Gazette

Crikey.com.au, 19 October 2017:

"Australian journalism’s freak show: how a serious newspaper deals with its enemies

Journalism is in crisis, we’re told constantly.

But there’s another journalism crisis that has been disrupting and polluting the Australian media for more than a decade, a crisis that has nothing to do with broken business models, Facebook or the rise of so-called fake news.

This is the crisis of how a serious national newspaper has, for at least a decade, waged vicious, personal, biased editorial Holy Wars against its ideological, political and commercial enemies in the name of “news”, “journalism” and “professional reporting”.

And not just once or occasionally, but often and serially.

Of course the technique of journalism Holy Wars — as we’re calling it in a 13-part series that starts today in Crikey — is as old as journalism itself. It was the red meat of William Randolph Hearst’s media empire that was captured so viscerally in the movie Citizen Kane, and it’s a device that has been practised with ruthless amorality by British tabloids for a century and by Fox News for two decades.

But the crucial difference between other global attack-dog media and The Australian is that it purports to be a quality newspaper — one described by then-prime minister Tony Abbott at its 50th birthday dinner in 2014 as “one of the world’s very best newspapers … no think-tank, no institution, no university has so consistently and so successfully captured and refined the way we think about ourselves”.

The Australian Holy Wars may appear to some people like an internecine media attack by one publication taking cheap ideological potshots at another. We beg to disagree.

Over the next two weeks, Crikey will catalogue one of the ugliest and most insidious features of Australian public life: the permanent spectacle of one of the country’s handful of serious daily news operations abusing its power to conduct personalised vindictive editorial warfare dressed up as objective reporting.

The behaviour of the “national broadsheet” towards its enemies is no dirty little secret. Almost all the players in politics, government, academia, science, media and policy know how it works. And every month or two they see it unfold, embarrassed, like watching a public flogging where you turn your head away. “Like a true narcissist, it lets its own interests, agendas and catfights affect the quality of the journalism in its pages,” says journalism professor Mark Pearson, who worked for the paper as a young journalist in the 1980s.

But there’s a reason insiders rarely comment or complain about Australian journalism’s most distasteful freak show. They know that any of us could be next. Everyone in the Australian public space is on notice: if you cross us, or our proprietor, his family, our worldview or our business interests, you could become the next victim of an Australian Holy War."

Out of the frying pan and into the fire for NSW & Qld regional newspapers?

In June 2016 when APN News & Media announced that it was selling its faltering Australian regional newspaper operations to News Corp, staffing levels at APN east coast regional newspapers had long ago been pared to the bone.

Now News Corp is also embarking on yet another round of staff reductions and work practice changes across its mastheads.

The Guardian, 11 April 2017:

Rupert Murdoch’s Australian tabloids are making the majority of their photographers and subeditors redundant in a radical cost-cutting move designed to keep the ailing newspaper business afloat.

The director of editorial management, Campbell Reid, said the restructure of the traditional newsroom was needed to “preserve in print and excel in digital”.

The Daily Telegraph, the Herald Sun and the Courier-Mail are set to lose dozens of staff each – the Queensland masthead alone will cut 45 – although the company is not revealing the total number of job losses.

The announcement follows a cost-cutting drive in December which saw 42 journalists, artists and photographers made redundant in a bid to slash $40m from News Corp.

Last week the Gold Coast Bulletin was told it had to lose 10 jobs, and sources said dozens of people had been quietly made redundant already this year across all the mastheads.

News Corp said the old model of staff photographers would be retired for a “hybrid model, consisting of a core team of photographic specialists, complemented by freelance and agency talent”.

At a meeting at Sydney’s Holt Street headquarters, the Daily Telegraph editor, Chris Dore, told staff the photographers would lose their permanent status but may be hired back as casuals and freelancers.

Staff at the Herald Sun were told News Corp “is in a fight for its life”.

There was no mention at the meeting of the company’s financial losses which are behind the move. In February News Corp posted a second-quarter loss of $287m and cited impairments in the Australian newspaper business as a key factor. The Australian editors were summoned to the US for a meeting about making substantial cuts to operations.

News described the changes as a modernisation of the newsroom which would “simplify in-house production and maximise the use of available print technology for print edition production”.

“Like every other business today, we have to identify opportunities to improve and modernise the way we work to become more efficient,” Reid said.

According to Media, Entertainment & Arts Alliance, 11 April 2017:

Management also flagged significant changes to work practices with earlier deadlines, greater copy sharing across cities and mastheads, and journalists taking up more responsibility for production elements and proofing their own work, which has journalists concerned about already stretched news gathering resources and maintaining the editorial standards of their mastheads.

                                                                              

'The Biggest Typo Ever' on The Washington Post front page

The Washington Post front page on 6 January 2016…..

How it should have looked…..

We made a big mistake on our cover illustration this morning and we’re very embarrassed about it. We erroneously used a male symbol instead of a female symbol. This is how the cover should have looked. We apologize for the mistake.

* Images from Twitter

So where did you say your news was coming from?

An interesting snippet from Australian Newspaper History Group, Newsletter, No 90, December 2016, pp.

90.1.3 China (1): Supplement to SMH and Age

On 23 September both the Sydney Morning Herald and the Age carried an eight-page supplement entitled China Watch, which contained China news and views.

The supplement clearly indicated that it had been prepared by the China Daily and that there had been no editorial involvement by the Sydney Morning Herald and Age.

This follows a precedent where in recent years the Sydney Morning Herald and the Age have regularly carried similar sponsored supplements containing news and views of Russia.

90.1.4 China (2): Australian media

Yan Xia, the editor of Vision China Times, a Chinese-language newspaper published in Australia, says a Beijing-based immigration agency was forced to pull an advertisement from his paper because it was regarded as an “anti-China” paper (Australian, 10 October 2016). The Ministry of State Security, the agency in charge of counter-intelligence and political security, had allegedly harassed the agent.

Yan Xia said, “Our lost client illustrates but one of the mounting pressures faced by independent Chinese media in Australia. Tensions have heightened over recent months, with Australia’s Chinese media under pressure to support President Xi Jinping and Beijing’s foreign policy. That pressure is part of China’s exercise in ‘soft power’. Broadly speaking, there are three types of Chinese-language media in Australia.

“The first consists of those that rely on the Chinese government and Chinese commercial ties for revenue. These outlets tend to echo and take their cues from state-run mouthpieces. The second group consists of media directed by religious groups aiming to expose China’s political, educational and socio-economic situation while promoting human rights and religious freedom. And the third is independent of political and religious influence. Its reporting is largely in line with the ideals of Western mainstream media and generally gives holistic views of Canberra’s policies and sentiments.

“Our outfit fits this last category. While independent media outlets are standard in the West, a one-party state cannot accept that media outlets “do not follow directives” and, by its reckoning, do damage to ‘national interests’. In China, national interests are synonyms for ‘the party’s interests’.

“In recent months it appears the Chinese government’s influence in Australia has become more open and, thus, more easily observed. For Chinese media platforms whose goal is to serve as the bridge between the Chinese community and the Australian mainstream, the challenge lies in reporting fairly and accurately on matters of conflict between the two countries. We choose to remain unyielding in our approach, reporting according to Western journalistic ideals. This has been tested during recent times, which have seen a deluge of articles examining issues that Beijing considers unpalatable.”

Will Northern Rivers residents be able to believe what they read in many local newspapers in 2017?

Rupert Murdoch and News Corp own The Wall Street Journal.

According to @TerrySerioThe Wall Street Journal on the left was circulated in New York, while the one on the right was circulated in Texas, USA.

Murdoch and Newscorp now own The Daily Examiner, The Northern Star, Coastal Views, Northern Rivers Echo, Ballina Shire Advocate, Byron Shire News, Tweed Daily News and Rural Weekly which circulate in the NSW Northern Rivers region.

How reliable will the news content of these newspapers be in 2017?

Australian Competition & Consumer Commission (ACCC) final decision on the proposed sale of APN News & Media regional newspapers to News Corp due on 8 December 2016

The proposed date for announcement of the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission (ACCC) final decision on the proposed sale of APN News & Media regional newspapers to News Corp is 8 December 2016.

Consideration of the sale is occurring against this backdrop………

Financial Review, 8 November 2016:

News Corporation will rip $40 million in costs out of its Australian publishing arm in 2016-17, some of which will come from job cuts, as the Rupert Murdoch-controlled company deals with falling advertising revenue and a shift to digital.

Advertising revenue at News Corp Australia fell 11 per cent in local currency in the first quarter, which was relatively similar to the same period last year, News Corp chief financial officer Bedi Singh told investors on Tuesday morning during the company's financial results call.

Circulation revenue increased on a local and reported currency basis. News Corp reports in US dollars.

"While we continue to benefit from the cost-reduction program that News Australia announced in the second half of fiscal 2016, which totalled around 5 per cent of the cost base, we are now embarking on further cost initiatives," Mr Singh said.

"We expect an additional Australian dollar $40 million in cost savings this fiscal year while we continue to push digital initiatives more broadly."

It is understood that these costs will come across the local business and will include redundancies. News Corp's Australian publications include The Australian, The Daily Telegraph and The Herald Sun. News Corp shares finished Tuesday 1.3 per cent higher at $16.11 in local trade.

It comes as News Corp has begun offering redundancies at The Wall Street Journal and is planning for $US100 million ($130 million) in annual savings by the end of 2017-18.

Proprint, 24 November 2016:

Less than two weeks after it announced a company-wide cost slashing strategy, News Corp Australia has started canvassing the idea of voluntary redundancies to its staff, encouraging those interested to put their hands up before its redundancy programme begins.

Industry union Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance (MEAA) says it is aware News Corp management had begun gauging staff interest in redundancies.

The inevitable job cuts are a by-product of News Corp’s slowing advertising revenue, which forced the publishing giant to push its $40m cost saving strategy to staff.

In a response to News Corp’s redundancy agenda, the MEAA says it has rallied behind affected editorial staff, and had previously made an effort to ensure forced redundancies are not on the cards.

“MEAA has called on News Corp Australia to confirm that there will be no forced redundancies as part of its latest round of cost savings measures. It is particularly frustrating that the announcement of the redundancies came within hours of voting opening for a new enterprise bargaining agreement negotiated between News Corp and MEAA members over many months – with the company’s management never once indicating that further job losses and cost savings measures were imminent,” the MEAA states.

The Australian, 12 September 2016:

News Corp’s planned acquisition of APN News & Media’s Aust­ralian Regional Media newspaper business will result in up to 300 job losses as back office synergies are sought to secure the future of ­quality journalism in the affected ­regions.

The cuts are expected to be implemented over an initial phase, provided the deal is approved by shareholders and the competition watchdog, and a subsequent round of cost cuts once News Corp has had more time to assess the ARM operations across regional Queensland and northern NSW.

However, there are no plans to shut ARM titles, which ­include The Gympie Times, The Chronicle in Toowoomba and the Ballina Shire Advocate, provided they remain profitable…..

ARM recorded a 42 per cent drop in earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation to $3.4m for the six months ended June 30, on revenues of $89m, which were down by 6 per cent.

APN announced its ARM sale plans in February as part of its ­efforts to focus its business on the more lucrative radio and outdoor advertising sectors.

News Corp should benefit from picking up extra printing plants. It distributes The Australian and The Courier-Mail throughout Queensland from presses in Brisbane and Townsville. The acquisition included presses in Yandina, Warwick and Rockhampton, which will cut the distribution costs, although APN closed a printing plant in Toowoomba last year.

The ARM newspapers were ­divested by News Corp as part of its acquisition of The Herald & Weekly Times group in 1987.

ACCC to rule on News Corp's planned purchase of APN News & Media regional print and online newspapers by 29 September 2016

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) is currently  investigating the proposed acquisition of APN News & Media Limited (APN)'s Australian Regional Media division (ARM) by News Corporation (News) – with the aim of establishing what if any the impact of the proposed acquisition will have on on competition, and whether it will: lower the quality of content, especially local news content; reduce the choices available to readers for local news content; increase newspaper prices and/or increase the price of advertising, especially in newspapers in Queensland and northern New South Wales.

As to lowering the quality of content, especially local news content or reducing the choices available to readers for local news content – well that horse was out the stable door in a flash once Murdoch had acquired the largest single shareholding in APN News & Media.

This will be the extent of News Corp’s print and online stable once the ACCC signs off on this $36.6 million sale:

The acquirer – News Corporation

News Corporation (News) is a global diversified media and information services company with businesses in news and information services, digital real estate services, book publishing, digital education and, through its investment in Foxtel Management Pty Limited, subscription television.

 In Australia, News, through various indirect, wholly owned subsidiaries, publishes a number of state, regional and community newspapers as well as The Australian.

It also publishes various websites associated with its newspapers as well as news.com.au. News publishes the following paid print newspapers in Queensland and northern NSW:

· The Courier Mail, published daily Monday to Saturday, while the Sunday Mail is published on Sunday

· Gold Coast Bulletin, published daily Monday to Saturday

· Townsville Bulletin, published daily Monday to Saturday

· Cairns Post, published daily Monday to Saturday (published as the Weekend Post on Saturdays)

News also publishes the following community newspapers:

· through Quest Community Newspapers, 13 free community newspapers circulating in various parts of greater Brisbane as well as Brisbane News, a glossy free magazine distributed to inner city Brisbane. The 13 free community newspapers are:

o Albert and Logan News o Caboolture Herald o Pine Rivers Press/North Lakes Times

o Redcliffe & Bayside Herald

o City North News o North-West News

o Northside Chronicle

o Westside News

o South-West News/Springfield News

o City South News

o South East Advertiser o Southern Star

o Wynnum Herald

· through Sun Community Newspapers, the free newspaper The Gold Coast Sun, in four localised editions:

o Gold Coast Sun Upper North

o Gold Coast Sun North o Gold Coast Sun Central

o Gold Coast Sun Tweed / Southern 4

· a number of small community publications circulating in Cairns and surrounds including The Tablelands Advertiser, The Tablelander, Innisfail Advocate and the Port Douglas & Mossman Gazette

· the Bowen Independent, a paid newspaper published twice a week, and a number of other small community publications in Townsville and surrounds including The Herbert River Express, The Northern Miner and The Burdekin Advocate. News also publishes the Weekly Times, a paid newspaper distributed predominantly in rural Victoria and the Riverina region. A small number of copies are also distributed in Queensland and NSW.

News also publishes or has an interest in a range of online publications including the following:

· News.com.au

· Carsguide.com.au (48.95% interest)

· Realestate.com.au (majority interest)

· Careerone.com.au (25% interest)

News, through a wholly-owned subsidiary, also has a 14.99% interest in APN......

The target business – ARM

The target business – ARM The ARM business comprises:

· 12 paid daily, 14 paid non-daily and 32 free non-daily, community newspapers circulating in various parts of south-east and regional Queensland and northern NSW

· 14 specialist print newspapers including 'seniors', 'agriculture' and 'big rigs' titles · 4 specialist business-to-business magazines for the education and health care sectors

· 60 websites including masthead websites, websites for the specialist print newspaper titles, other websites not linked to a print title and classifieds website finda.com.au

· printing facilities located in Yandina, Warwick and Rockhampton in Queensland. A full list of ARM’s print publications is set out below:

North Queensland (Mackay region)

· Daily Mercury

· The Midweek 5

· Whitsunday Times

· Whitsunday Coast Guardian Central Queensland

· The Morning Bulletin

· The Observer

· Capricorn Coast Mirror

· Central Telegraph

· Central Queensland News Wide Bay Burnett

· NewsMail

· Fraser Coast Chronicle

· The Gympie Times

· Guardian

· Isis Town & Country

· Central & North Burnett Times

· Hervey Bay Observer

· The Maryborough Herald

· Cooloola Advertiser

· Hervey Bay Independent

South-East Queensland - Sunshine Coast

· Sunshine Coast Daily

· Sunshine Coast Sunday

· Noosa News

· Coolum & North Shore News

· Maroochy Weekly

· Kawana Weekly

· Caloundra Weekly

· Nambour Weekly

· Buderim Chronicle South-East Queensland (Greater Brisbane and Ipswich)

· Caboolture News

· Bribie Weekly

· The Logan Reporter

· The Satellite

· Bayside Northern Suburbs Star

· The Queensland Times

· The Ipswich Advertiser South-West Queensland

· Warwick Daily News

· The Chronicle

· Stanthorpe Border Post

· Dalby Herald

· Gatton, Lockyer and Brisbane Valley Star

· Laidley Plainland Leader

· South Burnett Times

· Southern Downs Weekly 6

· Balonne Beacon

· The Western Star

· Western Times

· Chinchilla News and Murilla Advertiser

Northern NSW (Gold Coast, Tweed and northern NSW)

· Tweed Daily News

· Tweed Daily News – Community Edition

· The Northern Star

· The Daily Examiner

· The Woolgoolga Advertiser

· Byron Shire News

· Ballina Shire Advocate

· Lismore Echo

· The Richmond River Express Examiner

· Coastal Views

· The Coffs Coast Advocate

Specialist publications

· Surat Basin News

· Rural Weekly (five editions, including a Northern Territory edition)

· Big Rigs

· CQ Industry

· Style Magazine

· Seniors Newspaper (eight different editions distributed in South-East Queensland and NSW)

· APN Educational Media publications (business-to-business publisher of Education Review, Nursing Review, Aged Care Insite and Campus Review

Something died in the NSW Northern Rivers region today

The Sydney Morning Herald, 21 June 2016:

APN News & Media has sold its regional newspaper business to its own shareholder, News Corp, for $36.6 million.

APN's shares reached $4.90 on the news after opening at $4.61, after jumping 11 per cent on Monday following media speculation about the sale.  

The regional assets include 12 daily newspaper, 60 community newspapers and dozens of news websites. 

News Corp already owns a 14.9 per cent stake in APN, which is currently shedding its traditional media assets but keeping its radio and AdShel divisions.  

The deal still requires shareholder and regulatory approval. Regional mastheads include the Daily Mercury in Mackay, Bundaberg's NewsMail, The Gympie Times and the Sunshine Coast Daily. 

The Australian Regional Media division would be handed over in August provided all the hurdles were cleared.…..

Echo Net Daily, 21 June 2016:

Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp has signed a $36.6 million deal to buy APN News & Media’s Australian regional newspaper business, which includes The Northern Star and Tweed Daily News.

The deal – which is subject to approval from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, also covers the weekly publications, Byron Shire News, Ballina Advocate, the Lismore Echo and the Richmond River Examiner.

News Corp, already holds a stake of almost 15 per cent in APN, which means shareholder approval would also be required for what would be deemed a related-party transaction.

APN Australian Regional Media has a portfolio of 12 daily and more than 60 non-daily Australian regional newspapers.

Staff at the Northern Star and the other publications received an email just before 11am today confirming that the deal had been struck…..

The Australian, 20 June 2016:

News Corp, publisher of The Australian, has long been seen as the natural owner of ARM due to potential synergies with its regional business and the fact that few people know the assets better than News Corp executive chairman, and APN’s former boss, Michael Miller.

The Queensland focused portfolio includes 12 daily newspapers such as The ­Sunshine Coast Daily and The Gympie Times, and includes more than 60 non-daily and community publications.

The sale was outlined by APN in February as part of efforts to make a more aggressive move into the radio and outdoor advertising ­sectors. The price of the portfolio is understood to have fallen short of the $50m APN had been chasing.

News Corp, advised by Aquasia, already holds a stake of almost 15 per cent in APN which means shareholder approval would also be required for what would be deemed a related-party transaction…..

VALE MEDIA DIVERSITY

Clarence Valley Council caught trying to minimise IPART's rejection of much of its special rate rise application

Readers of North Coast Voices may recall that this blog posted on this subject in April and May this year.

The rate rise saga  refuses to die………

The Independent, 8 June 2016:

Councillor Karen Toms will challenge public statements made by Clarence Valley’s mayor, Richie Williamson, regarding IPART’s decision to grant Clarence Valley Council (CVC) a one-year-only special rate (SRV) increase of 6.5 percent, instead of 6.5 per cent for each of the next five years.

Councillor Toms’ motion of notice (NOM), which was forwarded to “all senior staff and councillors” on Friday June 3, recommends that: “Council receive and adopt the Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal’s (IPART) Local Government’s Determination of Clarence Valley Council’s application for a special rate variation for 2016-17”; …, and “declare that the other reasons attributed to the Mayor Cr Williamson are not claims adopted or endorsed by Clarence Valley Council”.

“Unfortunately,” Cr Toms said, she had “not given enough notice to the general manager” to table the NOM at the June 14 Works, Civil and Corporate Committee meeting.

The council’s code of meeting practice requires seven working days’ notice, however, the Queen’s Birthday holiday on Monday June 13 means that Cr Tom’s NOM only gave six working days’ notice.

“The general manager has accepted the NOM for the July works civil and corporate meeting on July 12,” she said.

The meeting code states that the full seven days is required, “except in circumstances of great urgency or in the case of rescission motions”.

Councillor Toms writes in her NOM: “Mayor Williamson is quoted as saying in the Daily Examiner: “… while the council had consulted widely when it was proposing an 8 per cent increase for five consecutive years, IPART had said it did not consult the community enough once the proposed increase was changed to 6.5 per cent.

“Additionally, the Mayor is interviewed on NBN TV and made the following claims: ‘…We consulted with our community on an 8 per cent increase. Council resolved to apply for a six and a half percent increase and IPART have said to us, well you haven’t consulted on the six and a half percent; which we accept.’

“These statements by the Mayor are considerably at odds with the determination IPART published, in particular at odds with 2 criteria provided by IPART as reasons for refusal.”

The criteria state that CVC “did not demonstrate the need for, and financial impact of, the proposed rate increase in its Integrated Planning and Reporting (IP&R) documents; and, the council did not adequately make the community aware of the extent of the rate increase, as the cumulative impacts were not communicated effectively.”

Citing a letter written to Clarence Forum’s convenor John Hagger, by IPART’s principal analyst, Tony Camenzuli, Cr Toms writes that Mr Camenzuli “specifically” refutes the “reason for refusal stated by Mayor Williamson”.

“The statements by the Mayor have the effect of reducing the importance of the IPART determination and serve to mislead the public as to the clear intent of the IPART criteria,” she writes.

“Council has not ‘accepted’ or adopted in any way the reason given by Mayor Williamson as the IPART reason for refusal. In saying that ‘which we (Council) accept’, Mayor Williamson creates a false impression of the council response to the determination, noting that Council has adopted, nothing in response to the determination.”

Mr Camenzuli’s letter states: “IPART’s report does refer to the council’s decision to reduce the size of the special variation from 8% pa (47% cumulative) each year over five years, to 6.5% pa (37% cumulative) over five years (pages 5, 16).

“This decision by the council was noted as background information.

“The report does not make reference to that decision by the council as a reason for the council’s special variation application not being approved in full.”

The Clarence Valley Independent is the only newspaper left in the Clarence Valley which is not part-owned by News Corp - please show your support for media diversity and this little weekly newspaper (delivered to the door free of charge) by occasionally clicking on to read its top stories online at: http://cvindependent.com.au/.

Social media, advertising, trust and dollars

Excerpt from the Australian Newspaper History Group Newsletter No. 87 May 2016:

87.2.1 Reach and effectiveness of social media

British marketing and branding specialist Mark Ritson will give a series of lectures to the Australian Association of National Advertisers that will challenge some thinking about the reach and effectiveness of social media over established media platforms, such as print. Professor Ritson, who is head of Marketing at Melbourne Business School, will conduct four talks over six dates in Sydney and Melbourne, from 24 May. His first lecture is titled "Marketing Deconstructed: Communications – the death of the digital/traditional divide". Prof Ritson believes the likes of Twitter, Facebook and Instagram are over-rated by some marketers, who choose to ignore the proven engagement of traditional media. Prof Ritson says the belief in social media as an advertising platform has become fashionable among some marketing executives who blindly denigrate television and print. To back his position on the strength of traditional platforms, Prof Ritson cited data from Nielsen's global trust in advertising survey published last September. The report showed 63 per cent of people trusted TV advertising, and 60 per cent trusted print ads, but only 46 per cent trusted ads served on social networks (TheNewspaperWorks, 18 March 2016).

87.2.2 Online advertising nears $6bn

Australian online advertising spending climbed to $5.9 billion in 2015, a 24 per cent increase from calendar year 2014, according to the latest Interactive Advertising Bureau/Pricewaterhouse Coopers Online Advertising Expenditure Report. The fourth quarter report is a significant result for the online advertising industry which has achieved double-digit growth of at least 20 per cent since 2010. The report examines advertising expenditure across five advertising categories, each of which experienced significant year on year growth:

 Mobile grew 81 per cent this year to $1.5 billion

 Video grew 75 per cent to $500 million

 General display grew 46 per cent to $2.1 billion

 Classifieds grew 22 per cent to $1.1 billion

 Search and directories grew 14 per cent to $2.8 billion.

Outgoing chief executive of the IAB Alice Manners said, "When the IAB first started recording online ad expenditure in 2003 it was at $1.3 billion and today we are poised to break the $6 billion barrier," she said.

National Indigenous Times to be revived

Australian Newspaper History Group, Newsletter, No 86, February 2016:

86.1.9 Revival of National Indigenous Times to be attempted

Aboriginal businessman Wayne Bergmann has taken control of the collapsed National Indigenous Times, with the aim of transforming it into a newspaper that celebrates indigenous achievement in business, politics and sport. A company majority-owned by Bergmann has bought the paper from liquidators and is expected to relaunch it within weeks. Veteran Perth journalist Tony Barrass will become the editor of the publication, which will be resurrected online before a decision is made whether to resume in print. The old Times had enraged some aboriginal leaders with its hardline approach to indigenous affairs. Kimberley Aboriginal leader Bergmann said on 20 January that he wanted the paper to focus heavily on indigenous business success stories. Barrass, who has a 49% stake in the company, promised the publication would be upmarket, entertaining and provocative. “It will reflect a range of indigenous views, not just one political leaning,” he said (Australian, 21 January 2016, p.6).

Is Rupert Murdoch about to gobble up ten Queensland and two NSW regional daily newspapers?

It probably comes as no surprise to readers of APN News & Media’s The Daily Examiner and Coastal Views that newspapers in the Northern Rivers are battling and, Rupert Murdoch may be poised to swallow whole  APN’s print stable Australian Regional Media.

This print stable includes 12 daily newspapers and 70 community & specialist titles.

If News Corp does purchase ARM that would leave only three Northern Rivers newspapers, including the Clarence Valley Independent not in Murdoch’s control.

Echo NetDaily, 26 February 2016:

The owner of The Northern Star and other local newspapers including Byron Shire News, Tweed Daily News, Lismore Echo and Ballina Advocate has put them on the market, saying they are dragging the company down.

They join more than 100 regional newspapers and websites in Queensland and northern NSW that are are up for sale as their owner says it no longer wants to pour money into them.

APN News & Media says it is in talks about the divestment of its Australian Regional Media (ARM) business, which reaches an audience of more than 1.5 million between Mackay and Coffs Harbour.

ARM’s earnings dropped 27 per cent in calendar 2015, despite millions in cost cuts and growth in digital subscriptions beginning to replace the declining newspaper audience.

‘Further investment in this business is now inconsistent with APN’s long term ambitions and we have commenced the process to divest the business,’ APN chief executive Ciaran Davis said.

According to industry publication TheNewspaperWorks APN was asked after its results presentation, whether News Corp Australia was the only potential purchaser of the mastheads and how APN would ensure it was not disadvantaged in the sales process by News’ investment in the company. (News holds a 15 per cent strategic stake in APN.)

‘In response APN said it was talking to a number of parties, and it was too early for a price guide,’ TheNewspaperWorks reported.

Byron Shire Echo and Echonetdaily general manager Simon Haslam said, ‘This just reinforces the point that Rupert Murdoch is calling the shots at APN.’

Mr Haslam added, ‘On behalf of The Echo, I’m happy to offer to run free classifieds for APN to help them in their search for an alternative purchaser, so Byron shire is not further exposed to News Ltd, as Murdoch’s ownership increases to 100 per cent of the Byron News and Northern Star.’…..