MEDIABLAB DAILY DIGEST: MAY 19: INDOCHINE NEWS WAR SEES LAUNCH OF THE BURMA DAILY
May 19th 2008 02:01
EGYPT’S STATE-OWNED PRESS STICKS IT TO PREZ BUSH DURING HIS TWO-DAY VISIT
Unlike in Israel, US President George Bush wasn’t feted by the press during his two-day stint in Egypt, where he said nothing to reporters.
But the mostly state-owned press certainly had a few things to say to him.
Mursi Atallah, the publisher of the flagship state-owned press, Al-Ahram said, “Bush aims to do nothing but appeasing Israel.”
Al-Gomhouria ran a front-page editorial in which it described Bush as “a failed president who delivers nothing but lousy speech.”
Ahkbar Al-Youm ran a photo of Bush hugging Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and captioned it, “Lovers.”
ROGER HERTOG’S VIEW THAT OWNING A METRO NEWSPAPER IS “WHOLESALE PHILANTHROPY” Interesting piece in the Wall Street Journal over the weekend on US businessman-cum-philanthropist Roger Hertog.
The piece kicks off with, "’Money and girls. Ideas came in third.’ That's how Roger Hertog describes his priorities 45 years ago, when he was a young man going to City College at night and trying to break into the world of finance by day. Now retired from his role as vice chairman of Alliance Bernstein and married to his wife, Susan, for 42 years, Mr. Hertog is turning more of his attention to his third interest. Over the past 10 years, he has given away US$100 million of his own money to support the ideas he believes in.
“’Free markets, free minds, all that stuff,’ Mr. Hertog, a trim man with grey hair combed straight back, says on a recent afternoon in his vast corner office at Alliance's building in midtown. "All that stuff" has included supporting the Manhattan Institute, the American Enterprise Institute, Commentary magazine, the New York Historical Society (he's currently chairman), the New York Public Library (he funded a new branch in the Bronx) and scholarships for inner-city kids. He is also part-owner of the New York Sun and he used to have a stake in the New Republic.”
“’The Sun is the first new newspaper in New York in 30 years. It's trying to provide an alternative view to the dominant competitors in the city. And I think it's done a pretty good job.’"
Interesting though to read that part ownership of a metro paper is now viewed as “wholesale philanthropy.”
INDOCHINA NEWSPAPER WAR HOTS UP WITH CAMBODIAN PUBLISHER LAUNCHING THE BURMA DAILY
In what seems to be a spite-ridden burst of publishing madness, the eccentric octogenarian Tokyo-resident publisher of the Cambodian Daily, Bernard Krishner, launched a quarto-sized publication, The Burma Daily, on Friday in Cambodia.
The flimsy eight-page ‘newspaper’ will initially be distributed inside The Cambodia Daily, but “soon will be available on request” and on a website.
But in a high-minded ‘Letter from the Publisher’ Krishner said he hopes the paper will be circulated in Myanmar, “as are other international media, like the International Herald Tribune and news weeklies.”
But he hasn’t got a hope in Hades of getting his publication distributed in any way, shape or form within Myanmar, especially considering that in the inaugural issue he has published a two and half page paean to democracy hero Aung San Suu Kyi, which in reality is a very dated interview, from February 2000.
This will make the junta spin.
It appears that Krishner perhaps doesn’t have a full grasp of the realities of distributing anything in Myanmar, and the international papers he refers to are often withheld if they contain contentious material about the pariah nation, or sometimes offending pages are simply torn out.
Krishner reacted strongly to the emergence of the new Phnom Penh Post, and news of its intention to go head-to-head with the Cambodia daily by becoming daily itself in early July.
He wrote threatening letters to his staff which received a lot of negative feedback on blog sites – he referred to the Phnom Penh Post as the “enemy” and pointed out that anyone pondering moving from his paper to the Post would be regarded as “treasonous.” He also threatened the staff with hints of writs for breaking confidentially employment clauses if they defected to the Post.
Speculation n Phnom Penh is that part of the motivation behind The Burma Daily is simply revenge, a get-back at Ross Dunkley who is publisher of both the Phnom Penh Post and the Myanmar Times, by bating him to the punch to start up a daily on his own patch.
It is well known in South Esat Asian media circles that Dunkley hopes to one day publish a daily newspaper in Myanmar.
In fact earlier this year the Irrawaddy Journal erroneously reported that systems were being geared up to publish that daily immediately.
SKY LOSES COURT CASE AND OWED DANISH GOVT OVER $A40 MILLION
Radiofreak reports that Sky Radio has lost a court case brought by the Danish government, and has been ordered to pay 210 million Danish kroner (A$40.7 million) to the government as compensation for breaking its contract.
Sky Radio says it plans to appeal the decision.
Sky Radio Denmark went on the air in 2003 with a licence valid for eight years, but closed down in November 2005 due to heavy losses.
The licence cost Euro 7 million ($A11.4 million per year,) but Sky Radio refused to pay the remaining amount on the basis that FM coverage was less than the government had claimed when it issued the licence.
Instead of the promised 78 percent coverage, Sky Radio claims that its coverage was only 63 percent of the country.
The court ruled that Sky Radio could and should have checked the actual coverage prior to applying for the licence. T
he judge pointed out that Sky Radio sold the licence to Danish broadcaster TV2, thereby making a profit. So the court feels justified in ordering it to pay 210 million kroner to the Danish government.
NEW IRISH BROADCASTING BILL WELCOMES BY THE BROADCASTING COMMISSION OF IRELAND
The Broadcasting Commission of Ireland said it welcomed the publication of the Irish Broadcasting Bill, 2008.
The Bill provides for the establishment of a new broadcasting regulator for all broadcasters licensed in the state, to be called the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland.
The Authority will perform the existing functions of the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland and the Broadcasting Complaints Commission as well as undertaking a range of new regulatory functions, particularly with regard to the oversight of public service broadcasters.
The Bill also provides for the continuation of RTE and TG4 as corporate bodies.
Conor Maguire, the chairman of the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland said, “From the Commission’s perspective, this is a significant development with regard to the regulation of broadcasting services in Ireland. The concept of a single content regulator has been mooted since the publication of the findings of the Forum on Broadcasting in 2002, so it is to be particularly welcomed that the Bill published today holds true to that idea, following extensive consultation in the intervening years.”
The board of the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland will now consider the Broadcasting Bill 2008 at its next meeting and will issue a formal response with regard to the contents of the Bill at that time.
RUPERT SAYS GIVE PEACE A CHANCE BY GIVING EVERYONE IN THE MIDEAST MORE TECHNOLOGY
Haaretz reports that Australian media tycoon Rupert Murdoch told a panel in Jerusalem on Thursday that promoting technology throughout the Middle East could help advance peace.
During a debate on new media and the internet at President Shimon Peres' ‘Facing Tomorrow’ conference, Murdoch said that when people have the skills to build better lives for themselves and their families, their societies become more peaceful and Israel will have better neighbours.
We'll continue to do what we can to help Israel maintain its competitive edge. Yet we must also look for new ways to expand human capital throughout the Middle East."
He bemoaned the fact that there are still many people in the region who do not have access to the evolving technological world, even though their countries have the resources to facilitate such access.
he said, “There are tens of millions of talented and hardworking individuals across the Middle East, many of them in countries rich in oil? yet they remain on the fringes. We can change that."
Murdoch was joined on the panel by Google founder Sergey Brin, Yahoo! president Susan Decker, advertising guru Morris Levy, and former Warner Brothers and Yahoo! exec Terry Semel.
The three-day conference, which ended on Thursday, drew some of the world’s most influential political figures, including US President George W. Bush, former British prime minister and Mideast envoy Tony Blair, and former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev.
RODALE’S MEN’S HEALTH SHOWS PLENTY OF MUSCLE IN AMERICAN MAGAZINE MARKET
American publisher Rodale this year is seeing an increase in print advertising revenues of 8.8 percent, although ad pages are down slightly by 0.6 percent.
Women’s Wear daily reported that the January/February issue of Men's Health sold a record 750,560 copies on the newsstand, coinciding with a cover price increase to US$4.99 from $4.50.
But Women’s Wear Daily noted that Rodale doesn't actually provide profits and sales, or dollar figures of any kind.
Men's Health recorded a 12.1 percent jump in revenues compared with the first quarter of last year; however, ad revenue decreased by 5.6 percent and ad pages were down 11.4 percent, according to the Publishers Information Bureau.
Men's Health editor-in-chief David Zinczenko's book, ‘Eat This Not That!’ has sold more than 400,000 copies since December, and is currently the best-selling health and fitness title in the US.
THE SELL-OUT WORLD CONGRESS OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY FORUM IN MALAYSIA OPENS TO RECORD NUMBERS
A World Congress of Information Technology blog has been established for the world's premier information and communications technology forum which started in Kuala Lumpur yesterday.
The WCIT blog is accessible at: Really Long Link
Dubbed 'the Olympics of information and communications technology,’ the World Congress of Information Technology congregates global leaders from business, government and academia to effect economic and social development through the exchange of ideas and policies on technology.
The WCIT 2008 is expected to be its largest-ever gathering of global ICT leaders in business, government and academia, featuring more than 100 speakers from 80 countries. In a sell-out response, more than 2,700 delegates have registered to attend the five-day event.
Asia 's leading Enterprise IT publisher – Fairfax Business Media –
is the official IT media partner for the WCIT. The agreement means Fairfax Business Media’s enterprise IT titles, Computerworld Malaysia , Computerworld Singapore, CIO Asia and MIS Asia magazines, will provide comprehensive coverage of the WCIT 2008, helping to bring the event to a potential audience of more than 350 million households and offices worldwide.
Fairfax Business Media’s coverage includes the production of a Show Daily, under the Computerworld Malaysia banner, for the duration of the five day event as well as the WCIT blog under the same masthead.
Fairfax Business Media Asia regional manager, Andrew Smart, said that Fairfax was honoured to work in partnership with WCIT 2008.
he said, “This WCIT partnership demonstrates our deepening commitment to Asia , and especially Malaysia , over the past two years. The issues WCIT will address are of great importance to our readership, many of whom will attend this landmark event to interact with WCIT's speakers and the comprehensive program.
"The WCIT blog is an extension of our print coverage to the global audience interested in following this landmark event and our WCIT coverage will also be available to Fairfax and IDG 's global network of titles and websites."
WCIT is the signature forum of the World Information Technology and Services Alliance, a consortium of 73 information technology industry associations that represent more than 90 per cent of the world's IT market.
WCIT 2008 is being held at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre and incorporates a three-day Congress, a Link Program for business matching, an ICT exhibition and various ancillary activities including a golf tournament and motor sport.
NEWS CORP DUCKS A POTENTIAL $US1.6 BILLION PAYOUT IN AMERICAN SATELLITE TV PIRACY COURT CASE
Reuters reports that a federal court jury on Thursday broadly cleared News Corp's NDS unit of satellite television piracy charges in a suit brought by DISH Network that could have been worth more than US$1 billion.
The jury awarded only $1,500 in damages from NDS for a single test incident with a satellite television smart card.
DISH had alleged that NDS employed a rogue software engineer, or hacker, who systematically broke into its network, stole software code, and posted information on the Internet to let users unscramble DISH's signals and receive satellite television for free.
Jurors deliberated for a single day after a month-long trial before ruling in favour of NDS on the majority of charges in the suit.
DISH lawyers declined to comment.
DISH claims it lost $900 million in revenue and system-repair cost. Punitive damages could have taken the award to as much as $1.6 billion.
NICKELODEON SAID TO FINALISING US$300 MILLION-PLUS DEAL WITH GROUP M
Advertising Age reports that Nickelodeon's Kids and Family Group is close to finalising one of the first major deals of this year with Group M, a deal said to be valued in excess of US$300 million.
The deal would include all the Nickelodeon programs for both children and adults, including Nickelodeon, Nick at Nite, Noggin and Nick Toons, and is said to represent significant volume growth for the cable networks.
A spokesman for Group M had no comment, and a spokesman for Nickelodeon could not comment.
FILIPINO DEPUTY MAYOR AND MATES PULL GUNS ON JOURNALISTS COVERING TOWN FESTIVAL
Two journalists employed by the privately-owned daily Malaya plan to file a complaint against the deputy mayor of Alfonso Lista, in the northern Philippines province of Ifugao, accusing him of threatening them with firearms during an interview on May 10.
The journalist, Maria Elena Catajan and Redjie Melvic Cawis, were invited to deputy mayor Clarence Polig's home for an interview while covering the town's festival.
But Polig, who was under the effects of alcohol, accused them of covering the event "illegally" and "without permission." They tried to explain that they had been invited by mayor Charles Cattiling and the tourism department.
Polig and three unidentified people with him then "brandished their guns" and threatened them in several languages. A fourth person wearing a mask tried to prevent them from leaving.
The police confirmed that the incident took place, but said the deputy mayor denied brandishing guns to frighten the journalists.
DEATH THREATS AGAINST NEPALESE JOURNALISTS ON THE INCREASE
Death threats have been made against three journalists by political activists and policemen in the past week in western Nepal.
Radio Nepal FM correspondent Tila Bhandari was threatened on May 10 by Nepali Congress party members in Harre, in the district of Surkhet, when she went to cover a general strike called by the party. About 50 party activists surrounded her and threatened to kill her if she did a story on their activities. They also took the memory card from her camera.
Journalists Bindu Kumar Chauhan and Kanhai Yadav were threatened on May 13 by police officer Dev Raj Aryal and other policemen in the district of Rupandehi for reporting allegations that the police were involved in smuggling across the border between Nepal and India.
The Federation of Nepali Journalists condemned the incidents, urging political activists and police to respect press freedom and act responsibly.
SOUTH AFRICAN PRINT MEDIA UNDER STRAIN DUE TO LOAD SHEDDING AND ECONOMIC CLIMATE
Africa.Bizcommunity reports that rising inflation and interest rates, political uncertainty, load shedding and high prices of material and tightening of credit have seriously put a strain on the South African print media industry during the first quarter of 2008, delegates attending the presentation of ABC Q1 circulations were told.
The figures, released yesterday, Thursday, 15 May 2008, at the Sandton Sun Hotel in Johannesburg, show that daily newspapers have struggled while weeklies seem to be doing okay.
“Weekend titles have also been static at best with several holding their circulation with aggressive increases in third party bulk activity, while community and free newspapers circulation are up mostly due to new entrants,” Gordon Patterson, ABC vice president said.
There has been a mainly static trend and slight decline for B2B magazines, while the year-on-year analysis shows a healthy reduction in ‘bulk non-requested' circulation by 41 percent.
Consumer magazines continue to experience difficult times despite efforts to consolidate circulation, and the introduction of new custom magazines has slowed from 21 to six.
But 14 new titles have made a remarkable entry into the free magazines section – the healthiest South African print category with 19 percent growth and 7 percent on average growth among existing titles.
“There is a little doubt that the woes in the print industry have been exacerbated by the declining local economic climate,” Patterson said.
“Trends from abroad still reflect that our competition is not within but coming from other media and platforms – although many of these will and may have been crippled by load shedding issues.”
However, while emphasising the importance of circulation figures – calling the numbers a ‘hard currency of our industry' – Mike Healy, of IBIS Media Data, warned against misusing and manipulating them, saying there are no answers to complex situations.
“I do believe that most publishers would prefer an additional revenue stream of copy sales and subscriptions but that they might choose otherwise is hopefully a function of positioning and strategy,” Healy said.
SOUTH AFRICAN AND BRITISH NEWSPAPERS COULD BE BANNED ZIMBABWE FOR BEING “HOSTILE” IN HARMONISED RE-ELECTION BUILD UP
The distribution of South African and other international newspapers could be banned or restricted in Zimbabwe.
Africa.Bizcommunity reports that this comes after what the Zimbabwean government perceives to have been a “stepping up” in the import of “hostile tabloids published from Britain and South Africa” during the run-up to the ‘harmonised’ elections on March 29.
The country is preparing for a presidential election run-off between the incumbent Robert Mugabe and opposition MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai after none of the contestants got enough votes to declare a winner in the recent election.
Tsvangirai alleges he won the vote The Zimbabwe Election Commission, the body running elections, said he won 47.87 percent against Mugabe's 43.24 percent.
The other contenders, Simba Makoni and Langton Tawungana received 8.17 percent and 0.57 percent votes respectively.
Briefing state media journalists last week, the Ministry of Information and Publicity permanent secretary George Charamba said hostile foreign media had run riot and accused the state broadcaster, whose chief executive was consequently fired on Tuesday, of being swayed by “dirty money”.
He also accused newsprint suppliers of curtailing “the reach of national messaging” by undersupplying the state-owned newspaper group, Zimpapers.
Warning that government would “respond in ways that are conclusive”, Charamba indicated: “Equally, government is looking at the whole regime which allows anyone to push their publication here without paying anything, or paying very little. Yet when sales are done, profits have to be turned into foreign currency, which leaves the country. Changes will be coming soon on this front. As the ministry responsible, it is our duty to protect and defend the national media space.”
South Africa's The Saturday Star, The Sunday Independent and Wednesday's edition of The Star, which are owned by the Independent News & Media (SA), as well as The Sunday Times, part of Johnnic Communications' media division, and the Mail & Guardian retail in Zimbabwe and are popular.
UK newspapers stopped distributing in Zimbabwe due to the economic crisis, but there are few citizens who receive the newspapers through subscription.
The Zimbabwean, published in the UK by a Zimbabwean Wilf Mbanga, widely distributes in Zimbabwe and was at one time insulted by a government official as being “cheaper than manna from heaven”. The newspaper is donor-funded and has a clearly defined pro-opposition stance.
UK-based magazines like New African (used in the last five years to carry promotional material by the Zimbabwe government) and African Business also distribute in Zimbabwe
BBC NEWS WEBSITE ON THE VERGE OF BECOMING THE WORLD’S BIGGEST ONLINE NEWSPAPER
Press Gazette reports that the Guardian's director of digital publishing Emily Bell has “warned” an international industry conference that the BBC News website is "now the biggest online newspaper, not just in the UK but in the world".
"The BBC is going to be an enormous state-funded intervention in the US advertising market," Bell said during a panel discussion about British news organisations' online expansion abroad.
Bell's comment at the Online Publishers Association conference in London came just after the BBC's Pete Clifton suggested that the BBC News website, which this year introduced advertisers for overseas users, has around 11 million unique users each week in the US.
Clifton, the corporation's head of editorial development for multimedia journalism, said the BBC News website now has around 17 million unique users per week, with about 47 per cent coming from abroad and about half that figure being based in the US. Bell acknowledged that the BBC and Guardian were uniquely positioned to expand internationally because of their corporate structures.
Bell said revenue from overseas web users still accounts for an "extremely low" proportion of the Guardian's revenues but is growing rapidly. She joked that she expected the Guardian's advertising sales partnership with Reuters would lead to "transcendental growth" in overseas revenue.
Some types of content could be more easily monetised abroad than in the UK, Bell noted.
The Guardian's ‘Comment is Free’ blog is out of advertising inventory in the US, meaning that all advertising space has been sold out, despite the conventional media industry wisdom that advertisers are afraid to associate their brands with user-generated content sites.
NEW AL JAZEERA ENGLISH MD SAYS US DISTRIBUTION IS A NUT SOON TO BE CRACKED
Reuters reports that the Al Jazeera Network has signed agreements with cable and satellite operators that will bring its English and Arabic channels to more than 160 million homes worldwide.
The network is also negotiating with several US cable companies to try and get a foot into the huge US market, but to date it’s been an uphill battle – no American company has been prepared to broadcast Al Jazeera.
Stating the obvious, Tony Burman, who on Wednesday last week was appointed the new managing director for Al Jazeera’s English-language service said, “It isn’t distributed widely in the US.”
He added, “But there are a lot of efforts underway now to change that…I’m told that there’s real optimism that nuts will be cracked soon.”
Al Jazeera’s Arabic channel is available in the US through the DISH network.
Burman was previously editor-in-chief and executive director of the Canadian Broadcasting Corp, quitting that position in July 2007.
In Asia, Al Jazeera English broadcasts on Vietnam’s VTC, and has new partnerships with Singapore Singtel, and PCCW’s nowTV in Hong Kong and Hong Kong cable.
In recent weeks it also signed agreements on the Philippines.
FRENCH BILL DOES AND DOESN’T RECOGNISE JOURNALISTS RIGHTS TO PROTECT SOURCES
The Tocqueville Connection reports that the French government on Thursday introduced a bill that recognises a journalist's right to protect sources while stating there may be special cases when reporters will have to name names.
The new legislation has been fiercely criticised by journalists' unions and press watchdogs for stating that reporters may have to reveal sources when ‘a pressing imperative requires it’, wording seen as too vague. Justice Minister Rachida Dati said cases involving terrorism or the kidnapping of a child may qualify under the law as instances when journalists in France may have to reveal sources.
She argued that the new legislation promised by President Nicolas Sarkozy during his election campaign last year struck a balance between the rights of journalists and the needs of law enforcement agencies.
But four unions representing journalists oppose the bill because the term ‘pressing imperative’ is open to broad interpretation.
The bill came after a journalist for Le Monde, Guillaume Dasquie, was accused in December of ‘compromising national defence intelligence’ when he wrote an article quoting classified reports that French intelligence services knew of some Al-Qaeda plans before the September 11, 2001 attacks. He refused to name the person who provided the information.
US SENATE VOTES TO OVERRIDE NEW AMERICAN LOOSER MEDIA OWNERSHIP RESTRICTION
Reuters reports that the US Senate voted on Thursday to overturn new, looser media ownership restrictions in the 20 biggest US cities, defying a White House threat to veto the measure.
Senators approved a resolution nullifying the new, relaxed ownership rules adopted in December by the Federal Communications Commission.
The vote moved lawmakers a step closer toward overturning the new FCC rule.
Senate Commerce Committee chairman Daniel Inouye, a co-sponsor of the resolution, said he was deeply troubled by the FCC's rule relaxing media cross-ownership. The new FCC rules eased a 1975 ban on ownership of a newspaper and broadcast outlet in a single market. Similar legislation has been introduced in the House but has not come up for a vote yet.
The FCC's Republican chairman, Kevin Martin, said the rule was a minimal loosening of the ban aimed at helping struggling newspapers in big cities by spreading local news-gathering costs across multiple media platforms. But, the rule has been resoundingly criticisd by consumer groups and some lawmakers, as well as by the FCC's two Democratic commissioners.
CBS ACQUIRES AILING CNET IN $US1.8 BILLION DEAL
CBS will acquire digital media content company CNET Networks in a cash deal worth $US1.8 billion.
The US broadcaster said the CNET acquisition will transform it into one of the 10 most popular internet companies in America with 54 million monthly unique users.
Globally, CNET will boost CBS web traffic to 200 million monthly unique users. San Francisco-based CNET, founded in 1992, owns a range of online entertainment, news and information websites including CNET, ZDNet, GameSpot.com, TV.com, mp3.com and Silicon.com.
The acquisition is expected to be completed in the third quarter of this year.
FRANCE’S LE MONDE TURMOIL OVER AS STAFF APPROVE NEW REDUNDANCY PLAN
The Guardian reports that staff at France’s most prestigious newspaper, Le Monde have approved a fresh plan from the paper's management, bringing to an end more than a month of turmoil.
The new plan is designed to reduce compulsory redundancies and extends the deadlines for staff to take up voluntary redundancy until June 30. It replaces a management plan to axe 129 jobs, involving 87 newsroom staff, or one in four journalists.
Once voluntary redundancies are taken up, trade unions and management will together “evaluate the savings made by these departures,” according to a joint statement. Other savings will be sought through reassigning staff.
Forced redundancies, if they happen, would take place in September rather than in mid-July, with a guarantee that no one will be sacked during the summer holidays.
The agreement brings to an end weeks of protests at the paper that included three one-day strikes and two work stoppages.
ESPN STAR SPORTS AND IMAGINE OMNIMEDIA PARTNER TO PRODUCE THE FIRST “GLOBAL REALITY-BASED FOOTBALL” SERIES IN ASIA
ESPN Star Sports and Imagine OmniMedia have agreed to work together to develop the first global, reality-based football entertainment series in Asia.
Marketing magazine reports that the series, currently titled ‘Sport*Star Football', will be “a global hunt for the next football superstar.”
The magazine said Imagine OmniMedia will produce the upcoming original series while ESPN Star Sports will provide creative inputs, market and broadcast through its outlets in Asia.
In addition, ESS intends to use its matchless line-up of popular talent and extensive array of original programming to build the series among Asian fans.
Manu Sawhney, managing director, ESPN Star Sports, said, "We are confident millions of fans across Asia will greatly enjoy this new series."
ESPN Star Sports holds the broadcast rights for leading international and regional sporting events, including Barclays Premier League, The FA, The UEFA Champions League, and the AFC.
It also showcases more than 350 live international football matches and broadcasts more than 3,900 hours of programming and news every year in 24 Asian countries.
FALUN GONG CONNECTION TO THE CHINESE JOURNALIST JAILED FOR FOUR YEARS, OSTENSIBLY FOR FRAUD AND EXTORTION
On May 16 MediaBlab reported, “A court in Tengzhou, in the eastern province of Shandong, imposed a four-year prison sentence on journalist Qi Chonghuai on May 13 on charges fraud and extorting money. Qi, who spent 11 months in pre-trial detention, used to work for Fazhi Zaobao (Legal Rule Morning Post), a newspaper owned by the justice ministry.
”One of his lawyers, Li Xiongbing, who pleaded for his acquittal in court, said that this decision violates press freedom.
"Coming just a few months before the Olympic Games, this sentence is yet another example of the Chinese government's lack of tolerance for critical writers and journalists.’"
Reporters Without Borders is championing Qi’s cause, but MediaBlab has just learned that what the press freedom organisation omitted to mention was that Qi wrote for several print and media outlets, and that the piece he is apparently being punished for was actually published on the website of Epoch Times.
While this does not condone the jailing of Qi, it makes the harsh Chinese reaction more understandable.
Epoch Times is a US-based newspaper that most media refer to as being “linked” to the banned Chinese sect Falun Gong.
The reality is that word “linked” is perhaps erroneous; while actual ownership may be removed by one or two connections from Falun Gong, one only has to read the paper to realise that Epoch Times is straight out a Falun Gong propaganda organ posing as an objective and intelligent international newspaper.
The newspaper actively and aggressively campaigns against the Chinese government and of course favourably highlights Falun Gong news in each and every issue.
A little reported fact behind the Olympic torch global demonstrations was that strongly orchestrated organisation behind many of the protests throughout the West came courtesy of the Falun Gong.
MURDOCH’S THE AUSTRALIAN NEWSPAPER IS HEADS UP IN DOWN UNDER CIRCULATION INCREASE
The Australian newspaper claims it has “defied a global trend of falling circulation, reporting strong sales growth of 3.9 percent in the year to March.”
The latest Audit Bureau of Circulation figures show the weekday editions of Rupert Murdoch’s Australian national newspaper selling 134,000 copies, while sales of The Weekend Australian rose 2 percent in the year to March to 305,000.
But rival publisher, Fairfax, put the boot in by deflating The Australian circulation increase, reporting, “But in line with greater transparency of the auditing rules, the audit bureau's report noted that more than 10,000 copies of The Australian's weekday edition were given away to customers at hotels and on airlines when they checked in.”
Ouch.
Meanwhile, The Australian gleefully reported that “The circulation of state-based broadsheets – The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald – fell or were stagnant, despite marketing campaigns involving papers being given away.”
The Australian reported that its sales growth “was in stark contrast to overseas trends, especially in the US, where newspapers have reported large circulation declines.
“However, total Australian capital city newspaper sales fell 1.01 percent to 217,041,396.”
Fairfax, the publisher of The Age and the Sydney Morning Herald put a growth spin on its figures, despite neither of the two papers achieving weekday sales growth at all.
In Victoria, The Age's weekday sales dropped 0.5 percent to 201,500, and weekday sales of The Sydney Morning Herald were unchanged at 212,500.
Circulation for the Sydney Morning Herald Saturday edition fell to 360,000, a drop of 2.7 percent.
Circulation for The Age in Victoria on Saturday dropped 0.2 percent to 299,800, and the Sunday Age circulation held steady at 220,900.
Despite the lack of circulation increase for these papers, or growth as is the buzz word these days, Lloyd Whish-Wilson, the chief executive and NSW-ACT publisher for Fairfax Media's metropolitan publishing, said, “It's nice to be growing, but our aim is to provide a strong result but not one that has grown rapidly as a result of a promotion. We are designing our whole plan around that quality audience."
Whish-Wilson said Australia was falling into line with global trends where readers were drifting away from tabloid-style newspapers to broadsheet or quality mastheads, though not to the same degree as in America or Britain.
The introduction to Fairfax’s media’s article about its circulation continued the drift from tabloids theme, or spin: “The circulation of Fairfax Media's metropolitan mastheads largely held steady in the first three months of the year as readers continued their flight from the tabloids to quality newspapers.”
Except that no flight occurred to Fairfax’s allegedly quality metros.
In other circulation figures, Fairfax’s national finance paper, The Australian Financial Review, put in a good performance with sales rising by 2.3 percent to 88,488 during the week, and by 11.6 percent to 102,114 on the weekend.
The inclusion of Wall Street Journal copy into The Australian obviously did not filch buyers from the Fin Review, as it is known colloquially.
But the disparity between circulation figures and readership figures for the Fin Review continues with readership being shown to fall by almost as much as circulation rose.
No doubt this disparity will again fuel a round of heated articles by Fairfax regarding the accuracy of readership figures.
Officially, readership of The Australian Financial Review fell 2.3 percent in the period, with the weekend edition down 10.2 percent.
Essentially MediaBlab’s stance has always been that readership figures are too rubbery to be taken really seriously – the only ‘poll’ that counts is the circulation figures which are relatively exact, although of course can be manipulated by publishers to a degree.
Other circulation figures for major newspapers in Australia include:
Sales of the weekday Herald Sun in Melbourne fell 1.6 percent to 516,500, and weekday sales of News Ltd’s The Daily Telegraph in Sydney fell 1.6 percent to 366,000. Saturday sales of the Telegraph fell by 3.8 per cent, while the Sunday Telegraph lost 15,000 sales.
he Australian reported, “In Perth, the circulation gap between The Sunday Times and the Saturday edition of the troubled West Australian was halved to an unprecedented 14,000 copies, with the latter down 5.4 percent, to 348,153, compared with 334,200 for The Times.”
The Times is of course, like The Australian, part of Murdoch’s News ltd stable.
ONLINE READERSHIP OF MAJOR AUSTRALIAN NEWSPAPERS SURGES
Online readership of newspapers is surging around Australia while print is moving marginally up or down.
The average number of monthly unique browsers of the most popular online news websites smh.com.au, ninemsn news and theage.com.au increased 66 percent, 21 percent and 56 percent respectively in the first quarter of this year compared with the same time last year, according to Nielsen Net Ratings.
According to The Age newspaper in Melbourne, “Readers are developing an online habit at a galloping rate, with all but one of the top 50 news websites experiencing growth.
Of the top 50 news websites, PerthNow and Newsphotos increased their readerships more than threefold.
Eight news websites more than doubled their readerships, including Realfooty, produced by The Age, heraldsun.com.au and dailytelegraph.com.au.
Heraldsun.com.au and dailytelegraph.com.au increased 146 percent and 156 percent respectively, from 755,801 to 1,855,902 average monthly unique browsers and 579,169 to 1,482,210 average monthly unique browsers.
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