MEDIABLAB DAILY DIGEST JAN 10: NICOLE KIDMAN LE MONDE BRITNEY SPEARS NUDE FACEBOOK
January 10th 2008 05:51
A compilation of MediaBlab stories published in the last 24 hours
BRITNEY SPEARS NUDE PICS TO BE PUBLISHED IN AUSTRALIA: OK! MAG SUES OVER JAMIE LYNN SPEARS
Nude photos of Britney Spears that publishers in the US and UK refused to touch will be published by an unidentified Australian men’s magazine, according to Channel 9’s Today Breakfast show.
The show’s flambouyant Hollywood-based celebrity reporter Richard Reid said the photos had been flogged around the US circuit without success, until being picked up by the Australian magazine which plans to publish soon.
The Guardian reports that Northern & Shell said Heat had quoted extensively from the OK! interview, in which 16-year-old Jamie Lynn Spears revealed she was going to have a baby.
Heat, owned by Emap and in the process of being sold to German group H Bauer, did not credit OK! as the source of the quotes and even claimed its story was exclusive, according to Northern & Shell.
The interview, published in OK!'s US edition in the week before Christmas, propelled the magazine to sales of 1.8 million, requiring an expanded print run.
Northern & Shell, which also owns the Daily Express and Daily Star, said it was taking action against Heat's publisher, Emap London Lifestyle Limited, and the magazine's editor-in-chief, Mark Frith.
FACEBOOK PRANKSTER POSING AS BHUTTO SON COULD HAVE BEEN A PAKISTANI AGENT
Facebook has been hit with a series of pranks including a French guy who fooled major media outlets into thinking he was the president of Facebook.
Unfortunately for the press, quite a few big names picked up his quotes before the prank was discovered.
Toronto’s Globe & Mail and Agence France Presse, quoted some of his statements about Islam, such as “What’s Islamic extremism? It’s strict adherence to a particular interpretation of seventh century Islamic law as practiced by the prophet Mohammed, and when I say ’strict adherence’, I’m not kidding around.”
“The quotes many in the press gathered from a Facebook profile were literally too good to be true,” commented Editor & Publisher.
The story obviously illustrates the increasing difficulties for mainstream media to maintain their level of accuracy in the online world.
Newspapers are increasingly pressured to break news virtually immediately on the web, while trying to sustain their quality and accuracy checks. Secondly, the web has made it extremely easy to post fake or misleading news, which is quickly picked up, echoed and deformed in the age of the blogosphere and online buzz.
The identity of the prankster is unknown, but Bhutto associates have guessed it was a Pakistani government agent and The New York Times identified the prankster as someone who calls himself “Tonay.”
EUROPEAN PRESS BARONS SET THEIR SAILS ROR THE RICHES OF INDIA
More and more, European press barons are figuratively setting sail for India where they hope to pick up untold riches and wealth in that country’s media boom.
The Independent newspaper this week retraced the recent trend, which isn’t likely to end, of European press publishers increasingly turning towards India to launch new publications and create new revenue streams, in today’s most promising newspaper market.
Mail Today, launched last November, is a joint venture between the India Today Group and Associated Newspapers. Its coverage of stories is very similar to that of the British Daily Mail.
Rupert Murdoch has announced plans to launch The Wall Street Journal in India, and the Journal has already launched Mint last year, a business daily, in collaboration with HT Media.
There have also been rumours that News Corporation is planning on an Indian version of The Sun.
The International Herald Tribune actually publishes in India, through a collaboration with the Deccan Chronicle started in 2004.
The Independent reported, “As newspaper readership stagnates in the US and Europe, India's newspapers are enjoying the kind of golden age the US saw at the end of the 19th century.”
Timmy Kandhari, head of the entertainment and media practice at PricewaterhouseCoopers in Mumbai, estimates 12 to 15 per cent annual growth in the market, and this is a conservative outlook.
The Economist aims to triple its Indian readership from 18,000 to 50,000 by the end of 2009, and ad rates in India have risen 30 to 40 percent in the past six months alone.
But, it is inevitable that the print boom in India will eventually slow down.
"What we've seen in 2007 and maybe will in 2008 is probably the peak of this boom. I think in 2008-09 you'll see a fair amount of consolidation. People forget that in this business you burn money very quickly," said Raju Narisetti, editor of Mint.
PAKISTAN MEDIA NOT FREE TO PROVIDE COMPETENT COVERAGE OF ELECTIONS
Pakistan's media is not free to provide proper coverage of the legislative elections scheduled for February 18, because of a climate of censorship that is sustained by the permanent threat of fines, closures of news media and arrests of journalists, according to Reporters Without Borders.
The government has introduced a series of regulations that drastically restrict the broadcast media's ability to cover the election campaign. The ban on Geo News, the freest and most popular of Pakistan's TV broadcasters, proves that press freedom has not been guaranteed for the polls. At the same time, journalists are exposed to great dangers, with the security forces being responsible for most of the violence.
Reporters Without Borders has identified five key problems including the censorship imposed by the print and broadcast media ordinances, the unacceptable ban on Geo News, the violence and intimidation by police and government supporters, the lack of guarantees for journalists' safety, and the lack of balanced news reporting on PTV, the government station
Pakistan's only national, terrestrial-broadcast TV station, PTV is directly controlled by the government and systematically plays up the statements and activities of President Musharraf and other government leaders. It has been forced to modernise its style since 2002 because of competition from privately-owned cable TV stations, but its coverage of the legislative elections has been heavily biased in favour of Musharraf's followers.
Before her assassination, Benazir Bhutto was very clear in her condemnation of the government's attacks on the freedom of the media.
During a protest in defence of press freedom in Islamabad on 10 November, Bhutto said, "I have come to demonstrate my solidarity. I reject these restrictions. We believe in free speech. Our war against the dictatorship continues, we are for freedom, we are for the media."
FRENCH AND SPANISH GROUPS OUT TO INCREASE HOLDINGS IN LE MONDE
Media groups Lagardere of France and Prisa of Spain want to substantially increase their minority stakes in French daily newspaper Le Monde, according to a report by Challenges.fr.
The web site of business weekly Challenges said that under the plan Lagardere would assume an operating role and Prisa would guarantee the editorial independence of the paper.
Reuters said Prisa owns 15 percent of Le Monde and Lagardere 17 percent. Both Lagardere and Prisa could not be reached immediately for comment.
Last month, two of the three new board members of Le Monde walked out on their jobs in a dispute with the newspaper editorial society SRM, which is also the paper's largest shareholder.
NICOLE KIDMAN PREGNANCY SENDS AUSSIE MEDIA INTO A FEEDING FRENZY
Website Crikey celebrated Australia’s second largest news story of yesterday with its usual tongue-in-cheek demeanour, announcing that “Our Nic is up the duff.”
Translation? Nicole Kidman is pregnant.
Crikey said, “Here's how the story that stopped a nation unfolded:
08 Jan, 06:40am, Ch9 Today Show reports rumours that Nicole Kidman is pregnant
08 Jan, 10:12am, BREAKING NEWS! Interview with entertainment reporter Richard Wilkins regarding Golden Globes cancellation is interrupted to confirm Nicole Kidman IS pregnant.
Hourly SKY News updates until....
08 Jan, 04:34pm Ch7 News interviews New Idea 's Robyn Foyster regarding this joyous news of Nicole Kidman's pregnancy [2nd item after cricket]
08 Jan, 04:36pm Ch9 News interviews Richard Wilkins [4th item after cricket 'fiasco'; Tenterfield declared natural disaster zone; Wayne Swan warning banks about raising interest rates].
08 Jan, Ch10 shows some restraint [possibly because does not appear they had a reporter in the scrum for an interview with Keith & Nicole as they leave parents' house as aired on Ch7 & Ch9?], [5th item]. Reduced to interviewing Lucio's Restaurant's Lucio Galetto about Keith & Nicole's lunchtime visit to his eatery.
08 Jan, Ch7 & 9 go big reporting pregnancy as 2nd item in main 6pm evening news bulletin [after cricket reports]. Ch9 interviews Lucio Galetto who exclusively reveals Nicole had rocket salad for lunch.
08 Jan, Ch7 Today Tonight use pregnancy as excuse to partially re-run Sonia Kruger interview with Nicole Kidman that originally aired on 26th Nov spruiking The Golden Compass movie and interview 'celebrity photographer' [i.e. paparazzi] Peter Carrette who reckons the first photo of the child will be worth $1.5m.
08 Jan, Ch9 A Current Affair try to have their rocket salad & eat it by reporting on how "the news has triggered a media storm" before interviewing Woman's Weekly editor Deb Thomas; Health Expert Ric Gordon & 'celebrity photographer' Peter Carrette.
08 Jan, Ch10 Late News reports Nicole Kidman pregnant with media speculating on price of first baby photos [2nd item after cricket, higher priority than earlier evening bulletin].
09 Jan, Ch9 Today Show go into poll overdrive asking viewers whether they think Keith & Nicole will have a boy or girl.
09 Jan, 7:09am Ch9 Today Show interview 'celebrity photographer' Peter Carrette who exclusively reveals "from the journalist who broke the story in London" that Nicole's father will deliver the baby and her mother will be midwife as they did with sister Antonia Kidman's last baby. Peter Carrette "hopes the professional media boys who work will give them some space", "we should all stay back a bit" :......while staking out a property live with fellow paparazzi....!!!!
SARKOZY CALLS FOR AN END TO ADS ON FRENCH PUBLIC TV AND PULLS PLUG ON FRANCE 24 FUNDING
French President Nicolas Sarkozy is throwing his weight around on television issues, while of course delighting the press contingent with a steady supply of photos of his good self with his spunkrat model girlfriend.
On Tuesday, Sarkozy caused headlines and a rush of blood on the stock market by called for an end to advertising on French public television.
His heralding of a broadcast ‘revolution’ sent shares in the country's private TV networks rocketing, according to the Tocqueville Connection.
“I want the remit of public television to be reviewed in depth, and for us to consider a complete end to advertising on public channels,” Sarkozy told a New Year press conference. The lost income could be replaced via “a tax on the higher advertising income of private channels and the revenues generated by new means of communication such as internet access or mobile telephones,” he suggested.
France's public broadcast network – including five national television channels, the Franco-German Arte, six national radio stations and a network of regional channels – is funded by a combination of licence fee and advertising. But this year it will receive almost half of the amount received by the British Broadcasting Corporation in 2006/2007 via the licence fee. Following Sarkozy's remarks on Tuesday, shares in TF1, France's biggest television network, shot up 8.92 percent, while shares in its parent company Bouygues rose 3.3 percent. Shares in the private channel M6 also soared 5.65 percent.
The Tocqueville Connection also reported that Sarkozy also called for a stop to the funding of the English-language version of round-the-clock news channel France 24, calling for a new French-only network to replace it. ‘With taxpayers' money, I am not prepared to broadcast a channel that does not speak French,’ Sarkozy told a press conference.
Launched in December 2006 by Sarkozy's predecessor Jacques Chirac, France 24 now broadcasts parallel services in French, English and Arabic, with the aim of challenging the dominance of English-language market-leaders BBC World and CNN. It had been due to launch a Spanish service later this year.
France 24 is involved in a court case over the sensational Palestine boy martyr, Al-Dura, issue. The case will be heard in late February and France 24 is accused of either incorrectly reporting or even staging this story by stating that the Israelis purposefully killed the boy.
INTERNATIONAL BROADCASTERS WARN OF INCREASING GLOBAL MEDIA FREEDOM RESTRICTIONS
The heads of five of the largest international broadcasters have called upon governments to honor the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights and “end any and all practices that hamper the rights of people everywhere to receive and impart information”.
Media Network Weblog said that at their annual meeting in Hilversum, Netherlands, the directors of the BBC World Service, Deutsche Welle, Radio France Internationale, Radio Netherlands Worldwide and the Voice Of America issued a joint resolution denouncing what they termed growing trends towards media restrictions and attacks on journalists in many of the countries to which they broadcast.
In recent years, international broadcasters have seen grave and rising threats to the right to gather information and communicate it across national borders.
The international broadcasters said, “Particularly disturbing are new efforts by some governments, through the licensing and regulatory process, to restrict or forbid local rebroadcasts of our programs on radio and television through local partnerships. And more states are deliberately interfering with broadcast signals or are attempting to block or censor the internet.”
MACQUARIE MEDIA’S US SUBSIDIARY SETTLES CHESAPEAKE PUBLISHING ACQUISITION
Macquarie Media Group advised the Australian Securities Exchange yesterday that its wholly owned subsidiary, American Consolidated Media, LLC has reached financial settlement on its acquisition of 22 publications from Chesapeake Publishing Corporation.
These local publications serve two regions on the east side of the Chesapeake Bay region, principally in Maryland, USA.
ASIA CITY PUBLISHING REVAMPS ITS REGIONAL FLAGSHIP CITY MAGAZINES
Marketing reports that Asia City Publishing has completed the final redesign of all its flagship city living magazines, with Shanghai-based SH Magazine the latest cab off the rank.
The redesign of SH Magazine follows a complete redesign of all Asia City's weekly magazines in the region, including HK Magazine in Hong Kong, I-S Magazine in Singapore and BK Magazine in Bangkok.
The company said early responses to the redesign has been "overwhelmingly positive".
In line with the design, SH has revamped its editorial with new columns, campaigns, topical issues and lifestyle content to appeal to advertisers.
INDIA’S RPG GROUP TO BUY INTO PRINT PUBLISHING BUSINESS
India’s large RPG Group is entering the print publishing business.
At present, the group is into home video, television software and digital distribution of audio and video content, and represents Warner Home Video, Universal Pictures Entertainment, Paramount, MGM and BBC in India.
According to Exchange4media, the RPG Group plans to come up with at least four magazines initially, and will tie up with foreign publishing houses to bring in foreign titles. Lifestyle is among the niche segments that are attractive to the group.
Sandipan Deb, has quit his job as editor of Financial Express to join the group and said, “We will look into the niche segment where there is space for new magazines as readers have not been addressed at all or not addressed properly. We also have plans to come up with some leading foreign titles.”
The group’s new publishing business will be based in Delhi.
HONG KONG COURT RULES THAT RADIO LAWS CURB FREEDOM AND ARE UNCONSTITUTIONAL
Reuters reports that a Hong Kong court has ruled that its radio laws curb freedom of expression and are unconstitutional amid a legal battle by a pirate radio station 10 years after the territory's return to Communist-ruled China.
But the court suspended its final judgment, pending a possible government appeal.
Magistrate Douglas Yau said local radio laws gave Hong Kong's leaders "unfettered and unchecked" power to control who could conduct radio broadcasts, the South China Morning Post reported.
The ruling follows a two-year court fight by activists including maverick lawmaker Leung Kwok-hung to open up the airwaves for their Citizens' Radio station.
The activists, critics of the government, had been charged earlier with illegal broadcasting using illegal devices, and had had a formal application for a broadcasting licence rejected by the government last year.
Since Hong Kong reverted from British to Chinese rule in 1997, human rights groups have criticised the government for monopolising the airwaves against the public interest.
MCGRAW-HILL TO SLASH THREE PERCENT OF ITS STAFF, I.E. 611 JOBS
McGraw-Hill, owner of the hard-hit credit-rating firm Standard & Poor's and publisher of Business Week and textbooks, will cut 611 jobs, or 3 percent of its staff.
The company is another casualty of the recent downturn in the mortgage market.
S&P and rivals were forced to lower ratings on thousands of mortgage-related bonds, further worrying skittish investors and prompting investigations by federal and state regulators into why the rating firms were too optimistic with their initial ratings on many mortgage bonds.
Meanwhile, an update from Reuters said that the company may cut even more staff than the 611 originally quoted.
The company said it has had an unofficial hiring freeze since autumn, and on Tuesday it announced the elimination of about three per cent of its work force.
"Hopefully, this does it, but we're prepared to do a third tier if necessary," chief executive Harold McGraw told investors later in the day at a Citigroup conference in Phoenix.
The information and media unit, which includes Business Week, Aviation Week and J.D. Power & Associates, accounts for 114 of the job cuts and a $US6.7 million charge.
MAIL ON SUNDAY DUMPS TV REVIEWS IN FAVOUR OF UK’S FIRST INTERNET CRITIC
UK’s The Mail on Sunday will relaunch in a two-section format next weekend with what it calls “Britain’s first internet critic” replacing its long-standing TV review section.
MediaGuardian reports that the paper is being revamped with two new sections alongside its existing two magazines, Live and You.
The main paper will feature news, sport and the previously separate section, Financial Mail, with personal finance renamed "wealth management".
The second section, Mail on Sunday 2, will have more features and will be colour coded and divided into reviews, health, property, travel, the critics and an expanded puzzle section called Brain Workout.
The paper claims it will be the "first compact paper with full colour on every page".
The paper's editor, Peter Wright, told the Independent today that its “brilliant TV reviewer” Jaci Stephen’s will be dumped because, "In a multichannel age I'm afraid I just don't think reviews have the appeal they had in the past."
In July last year, the paper attracted worldwide attention when it was the first outlet to distribute the new Prince CD, Planet Earth.
| 52 |
| Vote |
subscribe to this blog
