MEDIABLAB DAILY DIGEST: MYSPACE BAUER FAIRFAX FACTIVA
December 11th 2007 00:08
A daily compendium of news items filed over the last 24 hours for this site and also published this morning by Dow Jones' Factiva
REUTERS AND INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE TEAM UP
Reuters reports that Reuters and the International Herald Tribune will launch a co-branded daily online and print business report for the newspaper from next month.
From January 7, business sections of the International Herald Tribune and the newspaper's online site will be rebranded and carry content written and edited by Reuters staff.
The collaboration also covers the International Herald Tribune’s Asian editions, and replaces an agreement the Herald Tribune has with Bloomberg that finishes at the end of the month.
The co-branding venture will combine news, analysis and comment from business writers and columnists at the International Herald Tribune, the New York Times and Reuters. Under the deal, the International Herald Tribune will still be allowed to use content from third-party news providers.
It is interesting to speculate whether this move is a gambit to stave off the Murdoch News Corp-Wall Street Journal machine that will begin testing its muscle this month, and which is the already-avowed enemy of the New York Times Company, which owns the Paris-based International Herald Tribune.
FINANCIAL TIMES THE ONLY QUALITY UK DAILY TO POST SALES INCREASE
The Financial Times posted a 2.75 percent year-on-year increase in sales last month compared to November 2006, the only UK daily quality paper to do so, according to the Guardian.
The Financial Times sales were 444,880 copies a day in November, but the US and European editions saw a combined month-on-month loss of 5,582 copies.
All the other national quality dailies posted year-on-year circulation declines, with the Daily Telegraph the only paper to post a rise of just 0.05 percent month-on-month for November.
The Daily Telegraph's 882,873 circulation, a 2.04 percent year-on-year drop, was boosted by 96,226 copies sold daily to airlines, gyms and hotels at a discounted rate.
The Independent was the biggest year-on-year loser in percentage terms in the daily quality sector, down 8.01 percent to 233,423 last month.
The Guardian's average daily circulation was 364,513, down 2.12 percent month-on-month and 6.7 percent compared to November 2006.
The Times sold an average of 636,946 copies. This was down 2.57 percent year-on-year and 0.93 percent compared to October.
TIGER WOODS’ SWEDISH MODEL WIFE SUCCESSFULLY SUES IRISH MAGAZINE OVER FAKE PORNO SHOTS
Golfer Tiger Woods wife was awarded GBP180,000 ($A417,000) in damages against Irish magazine the Dubliner, which published fake porn photos of her during the Ryder Cup last year.
The Dubliner magazine has also agreed to pay some of Elin Nordegren Woods’ legal costs after running a picture of a semi-naked woman alongside a caption referring to the Swedish model.
The explicit photographs and article, titled ‘Ryder Filth for Dublin’, featured in an edition of the Dubliner magazine published just days before the opening of the US Ryder Cup match against Europe in September last year.
Dubliner's publisher, Trevor White, admitted the story was cheap, tasteless, and deliberately offensive and completely untrue.
The Dubliner's publishers, Dubliner Media Ltd, earlier issued a full apology, insisting the article was intended to be satirical.
MYSPACE LOCAL-LANGUAGE SITES TO LAUNCH IN SOUTH KOREA AND INDIA EARLY NEXT YEAR
News Corp's MySpace will start local-language sites in South Korea and India in the first quarter of 2008, according to the Korea Herald.
Sung Lee, Hong Kong-based vice president of MySpace in Asia, said MySpace is in discussions with Asian wireless operators to offer mobile-phone versions of its online networking portal in the region.
MySpace already offers phone-based services with some Asian carriers including Japan's Softbank Corp, she said.
"The mobile market is an important driver for the company," Lee said while attending the Mobility World Congress telecommunications conference.
Los Angeles-based MySpace's revenue may more than triple to US$2.97 billion in 2013 from an estimated $849 million in the year ending June 30, 2008, David Bank, RBC Capital Markets analyst in New York, said in October.
GERMANY’S BAUER BUYS REST OF EMAP UK FOR HUGE BUCKS
German media company has bought most of Bauer picked up most of Emap UK’s remaining media assets for Euro1.58 billion (A$2.63 billion.)
The deal is the biggest investment in UK media by a foreign company, or indeed any company, according to Followthemedia.
The sale was announced last Friday and Bauer ceo Heinz Bauer said “…the proposed acquisition of Emap pushes ahead our expansion strategy abroad.”
Bauer is one of the Europe’s largest consumer magazine publishers, operating in 14 countries including the UK where it has several magazine titles.
Bauer recently invested in radio, buying top rated Polish station RMF FM about a year ago. It has a 25 percent stake in German radio station Radio Hamburg, and a 32 percent stake in TV channel RTL2, in joint ventures with RTL. The Emap acquisition means Bauer will be the second largest radio broadcaster in the UK.
FIVE AUSTRALIAN SHORT FILMS TO FEATURE AT SUNDANCE FESTIVAL
The 2008 US Sundance Film Festival short film program announced overnight features five Australian short films – Advantage, Crossbow, Dugong, I Love Sarah Jane and Spider.
The Australian Film Commission described this as “a coup for Australia.”
Advantage is a 10-minute psychological thriller, which explores a couple whose frisky interlude leads into one hell of a night out.
Crossbow is a 14-minute drama written and directed by David Michod and produced by Angie Fielder and Polly Staniford. It is the story of a bad thing that happens to a boy on the front lawn of his house – as told by the boy’s sexually confused neighbour.
Crossbow had its international premiere at the Venice International Film Festival in September this year and recently won the Film Victoria Erwin Radio Award for Best Australian Short Film at the 2007 Melbourne International Film Festival.
Dugong is the story of a loner and his dog who return home on the day of his
brother’s wedding to repair the past. Written and directed by Erin White and produced by Melanie Brunt, Dugong has screened at Aspen Shortfest and the Melbourne International Film Festival.
I Love Sarah Jane was written by Spencer Susser and David Michod, directed by Spencer Susser and produced by Angie Fielder. It is the story of a 13-year old boy who is trying desperately to become part of Sarah Jane’s world. It is the first international screening for the film.
Spider was written by Nash Edgerton and David Michod, directed by Nash
Edgerton and produced by Nicole O’Donohue. Spider is a 9-minute short that is all about fun and games until someone loses an eye. It has screened at numerous international film festivals including Telluride, Prague and Cork film Festivals, and domestically at both Sydney and Melbourne Film Festivals. Spider recently won the Jury Prize at the AFI/Los Angeles Film Festival and won the audience award at both the Sydney Film Festival and Prague Short Film Festival.
It is the fourth short film directed by Nash Edgerton that has screened at Sundance since 2000.
The Sundance Film Festival will run from January 17-27, 2008 in Utah, US.
NEIGHBOURS NIX FAIRFAX’S GIANT NEWS TICKER SCREEN
Fairfax Media yesterday withdrew an application to erect a 24.5 metre by four metre LED screen sign on the roof of its new Sydney headquarters in Pyrmont, giving in to community concerns.
The screen, which the City of Sydney's website said would have cost an estimated $950,000, could have been used for a giant news ticker facing the CBD.
OUTGOING DOW JONES BOSS SAYS FACTIVA FORMATION GAVE HIM MOST PRIDE
Rafat Ali’s PaidContent.com scooped most of the major media by securing a brief interview with Gordon Grovitz, the soon-to-be-ex publisher of The Wall Street Journal, executive vice president of Dow Jones & Company, and president of the company's consumer media group.
Grovitz, who began his career at Dow Jones in 1980 as a summer intern, quoits next week and, not surprisingly, PaidContent said, “He didn't give away much in the interview.”
He talked about Marketwatch and said that his view is that “Marketwatch and Wall Street Journal’s audience has been different.
“The Journal brand stands for broad business news, while the Marketwatch brand is for people who wanted to follow the daily happenings of the market. Marketwatch has been a key part of adding tens of millions of dollars in profits to our digital operations, and that is largely through serving this different audience.”
He then added, “Among the achievements I am most proud of is the formation of Factiva.”
As for the future of the newspaper industry, Grovitz told PaidContent.org, “I remain fundamentally optimistic about strong news brands, whatever medium they're in. The challenge for newspapers is how to rethink newspapers for how readers now consume news in this digital age. Also, how do they make the transition in advertising so that they remain profitable businesses, so that they can retain the journalism, which is the core value that they deliver. I think we will see more and more experimentation from traditional media companies with different business models.”
SOUTH AFRICA’S MEDIA24 SHUTS DOWN INSTYLE AND WISDEN CRICKETER MAGAZINES
South Africa’s magazine publishing giant Media24 has shut down on two of its magazines which, three months ago, were caught up in a massive sales-figures scam, according to South Africa’s The Times.
Media24 announced at the weekend that it had closed down InStyle and The Wisden Cricketer because the magazines were no longer considered to be commercially viable.
Media24 Magazines owns 60 titles, including You, Huisgenoot and Drum, and claims to sell more than 5.9 million magazines a month.
In September, it was forced to restate the circulation figures for several of its women’s titles including InStyle SA, after a routine audit uncovered inflated circulation figures.
The Times said, “InStyle SA, the publisher’s newest title, had its sales figures pushed up by as much as 45.9 percent for measured six-month periods.”
Charlene Beukes, publisher of InStyle, denied to The Times that the closure was due to the circulation debacle, but said it had “had an effect” on the magazine.
No-one could be reached for comment on the closure of The Wisden Cricketer.
GO DIRECTLY TO JAIL, DISGRACED PUBLISHER CONRAD BLACK TOLD
The Chicago Tribune reported overnight that “Conrad Black, the disgraced businessman who once headed one of world's largest newspaper empires, was sentenced Monday to 78 months in a federal prison for stealing millions of dollars from his company.”
Judge Amy St. Eve also ordered him to forfeit US$6.1 million in ill-gotten profits and to pay a $125,000 fine.
The Tribune said, “Her ruling represents the minimum jail sentence Black cold have received, however, and it will allow him to keep his Florida mansion, as well as the proceeds from the sale of his New York apartment.
Because US federal law requires defendants to serve a minimum of 85 percent of the prison sentence they receive, Black won't be eligible for parole until 2012. He will enter prison on March 3 at Eglin Air Force Base in Florida.
MARINER WAIVES 90 PERCENT MINIMUM ACCEPTANCE CONDITION IN BEYOND TAKEOVER TUSSLE
Bill Ireland's Mariner Financial group has issued an angry ultimatum to directors film and TV production house Beyond International, threatening to walk away from its takeover bid by December 20 if the Beyond board does not recommend it, according to today’s The Australian.
It said Mariner chief operating officer Alexander Sundich has also challenged its chief rival, digital media group Destra, to "put up or shut up" in launching an offer.
Destra is believed to be interested in Beyond for its ability to provide content that can delivered through the internet.
Its interest was enough for Beyond to withdraw its support for the Mariner bid, in the process allowing Destra to conduct due diligence on the production house. This recommendation to shareholders has stalled acceptances for the Mariner offer.
But in an interview with The Australian yesterday, an angry Sundich claimed the Beyond board's move to allow Destra to conduct due diligence on it, in particular, had worked against the interests of its shareholders.
He said, "I'm angry, because we have a situation here where the Beyond board is saying, ‘We're happy to facilitate the work of a competitor (Destra), but we don't know if they're coming up with a real takeover bid’."
In an ASX statement yesterday, Mariner Financial Ltd’s wholly-owned subsidiary Mariner Acquisition No.8 Pty Ltd will waive the 90 percent minimum acceptance condition in its takeover offer for Australian film producer Beyond International Ltd, once it has received acceptances of its offer which take its relevant interest in Beyond to at least 50.1 percent of all Beyond shares.
Mariner's current relevant interest in Beyond shares is 22.5 percent, including 19.9 percent owned unconditionally, with the balance having been accepted into Mariner's offer.
The effect of this that once Mariner has received acceptances under the offer which take its relevant interest in Beyond to at least 50.1 percent of all Beyond shares and if the conditions of Mariner's offer have been satisfied or waived, Mariner will pay Beyond shareholders who accept its offer $1.25 cash per share within 21 days.
Mariner also advises that it will not be extending its offer, which will close at the end of December 20, 2007, unless on or before that date, another person announces a takeover bid or lodges with ASIC a bidder’s statement for a takeover bid for Beyond.
On October 24, 2007, Beyond recommended the Mariner offer, in the absence of a superior proposal.
On November 26, Beyond withdrew its recommendation of the Mariner offer. The reason given was “… the Mariner offer is unlikely to succeed in its present form because it is unlikely that Mariner will obtain relevant interests in at least 90 percent of the issued shares of Beyond”.
As Mariner will waive this 90 percent condition if it receives acceptances under the offer which take its relevant interest in Beyond to at least 50.1 percent of all Beyond shares, this reason is no longer valid.
Mariner also seeks clarification from Beyond in relation to the first supplementary target’s statement issued on November 26, 2007.
FIRST EVER ENGLISH LANGUAGE BUSINESS DAILY LAUNCHED IN MIDDLE EAST
Arab Media Group, the largest media group in the United Arab Emirates, launched Emirates Business 24/7, the Middle East's first English language daily dedicated to business and economic news.
The new publication went on sale on Sunday and focuses on business related local, regional and international news, matching editorial best practices from across the world.
Arab Media Group’s ceo, Abdullatif Al Sayegh, said, "The current economic boom in the region, especially in the UAE, has resulted in an exponential increase in readers' interest about latest business developments. Moreover, decision makers and opinion makers today are looking for a source of in-depth analysis, thought-provoking editorials and objective information across all sectors.
"The growth of Dubai into one of the leading global financial centres calls for its clear manifestation in the media world. With recent developments in Dubai's financial markets, the UAE has joined the big league of global centres, alongside New York, London and Tokyo.”
Editor-in-chief is Riyad Mickdady, a seasoned journalist with over 21 years experience. The editor is Frank Kane and Mustafa Al Rawi is managing editor.
MACQUARIE AND FAIRFAX MEDIA AGREE TO NOT PROCEED WITH AUSTRALIAN REGIONAL RADIO LICENSES ACQUISITION
Macquarie Media Group and Fairfax Media Ltd have agreed that the acquisition by Fairfax Media of the nine commercial radio licenses serving five regional license areas in South Australia and Queensland and the related narrowcasting licenses serving these states will not proceed.
The acquisition was conditional on a number of issues including regulatory approval. While Macquarie media has made progress on these conditions, both parties have agreed not to continue working to complete the acquisition.
Mark Dorney, ceo of Macquarie Media Group, said, “This acquisition was independent of the Southern Cross Broadcasting acquisition by us and the subsequent on-sale of assets to Fairfax Media, which was completed on November 9, 2007.”
The above ASX announcement of yesterday prompted detailed coverage in Australia’s major metro newspapers this morning.
The Australian reported that Fairfax’s $40 million sale of the nine radio stations to Macquarie Media Group, announced when the two groups revealed their $1.35 billion carve-up of Southern Cross Broadcasting, has fallen over after the deal ran into problems with corporate and media regulators.
Serious problems with the proposed deal were foreshadowed in The Australian 11 days ago, in the midst of tough negotiations with the Australian Communications & Media Authority and the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission about which stations Macquarie would be allowed to keep.
The Australian this morning said, “This option was allowed by the group to expire on Sunday, after Macquarie was unable to negotiate a solution with the Australian Communications & Media Authority about some licences, particularly those in South Australia’s Spencer Gulf and Port Lincoln regions.”
The Australian added, “However, it is understood Fairfax will now be forced to divest one of the former Rural Press stations based in Ipswich, which effectively shares the Brisbane market with 4BC and 4BH.”
Fairfax’s Sydney Morning Herald today confirmed that this Ipswich station will have to go.
The Herald said, “(Fairfax) will have to sell its Ipswich station, River 94.9, to appease competition concerns. There are no plans to bid for any of the 12 regional stations Macquarie is forced to divest.”
NEWSAT FORGES AHEAD IN BOLD PLAN TO LAUNCH AN AUSTRALIAN SATELLITE
NewSat Ltd is forging forward in its super-ambitious plans to launch an Australian satellite and has released a copy of its submission to the Commonwealth Government’s Regional Telecommunications Independent
Review Committee.
This submission details the benefits to remote Australia of broadband communications delivered by the proposed NewSat-1 Ka based satellite and the $200 million dollar-for-dollar offer to the commonwealth government for funding of the development and launch of the project.
NewSat said it remains committed to delivering an immediate and alternative solution to those of the terrestrial providers currently being reviewed by the government.
NewSat said its proposal leads the communications debate into a fresh direction with an innovative solution for the most effective broadband connectivity and social equity, especially for remote Australians.
INDIA’S OUTLOOK GROUP WINS PRESS INSTITUTE AWARD AND APPOINTS AN EDITOR FOR ITS SOON-T0-BE PUBLISHED VERSION OF PEOPLE MAGAZINE
India’s Outlook’ magazine has won the International Press Institute India Award for Excellence in Journalism for 2007, for a story that tied up the publishing company in an at last eight court cases.
Exchange4media said, “The award-winning article exposed the leak of sensitive information from the Indian Navy’s war room, and the bungling in the purchase of submarines for the Navy.
A press release from International Press Institute India said the story was the “best example of furtherance of public interest by a media organisation”.
Vinod Mehta, editor-in-chief, Outlook Group told Exchange4media that, “We see this award as recognition of the very fine work that we had done; especially the Navy war room leak case and the bungling in the purchase of Scorpene submarines.
“Our correspondent Saikat Dutta investigated and kept a constant watch on the activities. We did it in the old fashioned way and did not venture into modern sting operations. We are very satisfied with the work as criminal cases had been lodged against a lot of people.” said
Maheshwar Peri, president and publisher of Outlook, said, “It is a fantastic experience. It is the best feeling to investigate on a story and have it on our cover page. Though we have eight-10 cases lodged against us, we went forward and did the story, and that is what is important.”
Meanwhile, the Outlook Group has appointed an editor for the Indian version of Time Inc’s People magazine.
The new editor, Saira Menezes, will join the company in early 2008.
Until recently, Menezes was editor of The Emirates Evening Post, a daily in the United Arab Emirates, and she was instrumental in transforming the paper from a broadsheet to a tabloid, and from an evening paper to an afternoon paper. She was also the first female editor of an English daily in the Emirates.
She has also been editor of Savvy, a women’s magazine, and Sunday Mid-Day.
NEW WEB ACCELERATION TECHNOLOGY SPEEDS UP SEARCH AND TRANSMISSION
California-based MatrixView Ltd, the leading developer of innovative information transmission and storage optimisation, informed the Australian Stock Exchange today that it has unveiled its web acceleration technology that dramatically shortens content delivery times for online, mobile searches and web site transmission.
The company’s new technology, dubbed Speeding Web Information and Search Hypertext, or SWISH, is attracting a range of top content delivery organisations by relieving the internet wait state currently plaguing content providers, marketers and consumers alike.
SWISH tackles today’s internet traffic congestion and rich media drain by speeding search and web content delivery times, making mobile and online search and ecommerce a more efficient and rewarding experience.
With intelligent algorithms that model and compress the right data at the right time, SWISH improves the user experience by optimising the delivery of dynamic web content, with significant implications to the industries of search marketing and mobile advertising, predicted to increase to nearly US$45 billion and US $20 billion respectively by 2011, according to analysts.
LAUNCH OF AUSTRALIAN-BASED MOKO MUSIC WILL ALLOW FANS TO COMMUNICATE WITH ARTISTS AND LABELS VIA MOBILE PHONES
Australia’s Loop Mobile Ltd globally launched its Moko Music mobile community for music artists, music labels and fans, and for the first time users will be able to communicate with their favourite music artist and music labels via their mobile phone.
The inclusion of the Moko Music platform will see the award-winning Moko initially launch over 600 music artists from both major and independent labels, along with a host of amateur and unsigned artists to its users globally. Each artist will have their own profiles and homepages, photo galleries, music audio and video file streaming, gig guides and fan lists.
Moko Music will be available to Moko community users in Australia, UK, and the US across a range of on-net and off-net carriers.
“The launch of Moko music and the further diversification of the Moko mobile community is in direct response to current demand. Music is the most popular category that both interests our users and helps them identify themselves within the mobile community. With so many users associating themselves with their favourite artists we can see a definite move away from the traditional over air download of music to a more collaborative environment between artist and fan in a mobile music setting,” Martin Hoffman, ceo and managing director for Loop Mobile, said.
Moko Music will be launched in Phase 1 Beta stage as part of its ongoing development plans. It will enable Moko users to view, interact, and communicate with their favourite artists and their music through artist homepage profiles, users can add artists as friends, stream tracks and video, send private media messages, search for music, tracks, artists etc and even upload user-generated content such as tribute clips or fan art.
Artists can even hold their own live chats directly with fans.
For Pete Carroll, the man behind Offworld Sounds, LittleBigMan Records, co producer of Happy Monday’s Shaun Ryder’s solo album and manager of Australian band, The Panics, the Moko Music initiative is revolutionary. He said, “Allowing the artists, their labels and the fans to all interact from a single integrated mobile and web community is an important leap forward.
“What Loop Mobile has created is unique globally. As someone who has been involved in the music industry for over 20 years, I believe that this platform will change things significantly. From The Panic’s perspective, having a tool like this that can help drive communication between the band and their fans and enable the introduction of a new global audience via referrals within the community, is sensational.”
The Moko Music community will be available across the global Moko network, both via its carrier partnerships and via mobile internet access. It is also planned to be available via the new Moko website, which launches in the first quarter 2008.
At launch, Moko Music will feature artists from music labels including Ministry of Sound, Road Runner Records, SonyBMG (Red Label) and Universal among many others. The artist list on launch will include a mix of Australian and international musicians ranging from Powderfinger, Jebediah, Grinspoon, The Panics and Architecture in Helsinki to 50 Cent, Amy Winehouse, Guns and Roses, Jack Johnson, Kanye West, Snow Patrol and Sonic Youth.
OPINION: TIME FOR THE MEDIA TO PERMANENTLY EMBARGO THE WORDS ‘EMBARGO’ AND ‘OFF THE RECORD’Another media shibboleth is now being questioned by publishers who are growing tired of restraints placed on their news reporting capabilities by corporations, governments, and organisations through their public relations companies or media units.
The time honoured tradition of embargoes placed on news stories is now not being universally obeyed and increasingly less honoured.
Slate, owned by the Washington Post, last week reported that the World Health Organization publicly “spanked” the New York Times for breaking an embargoed study about measles
The punishment meted out by WHO is a two-week suspension of all Times reporters from the WHO media distribution list.
Slate said, “Scientific publications, health organisations, and other groups argue that news embargos serve the public by preventing journalists from rushing to print with hastily written stories about complex subjects.
“The embargo system, say its supporters, encourages more accurate reportage because it gives journalists a decent interval to analyse and report on complicated information provided by the embargoing organisation. By controlling when reporters can publish their stories, say embargo supporters, press competition shifts from who got it first to who got it best.”
MediaBlab finds that such arguments as proffered by WHO are merely patronising, suggesting that journalists are not capable or working quickly and accurately. There is also an aspect of control regarding such embargoes.
According to Slate, other embargo critics, “most notably Vincent Kiernan, author of the 2006 book Embargoes Science, say that embargoes discourage journalistic competition, encourage pack journalism, deter the press from reporting aggressively on institutions, and allow institutions to control the news agenda.”
In Australia embargoes are increasingly used by public relations companies to control news and the timing of the news reports, to either guarantee the broadest coverage possible, or to control the release of information to suit companies or some sectors of the media.
For example, television broadcasters tend to issue news releases with a 5pm embargo, which effectively gives television news bulletins the opportunity to break the news as in Australia most commercial television networks’ news bulletins air at 6pm.
The tendency for pr companies to embargo news to try to guarantee maximum coverage is understandable – for them. But it’s advantageous but not necessarily to the media outlets that are being ‘used.’
It does cut out the notion of competitiveness, especially if a journalist is sitting on a scoop only to be slapped with an embargo forcing him or her to wait and go to press with the rest of the pack.
And of course the issuing an embargo is entirely arbitrary – if a company says it is embargoed, then it is embargoed and cannot be questioned. A sort of perceived gentlemans’ agreement exists.
Ultimately it’s a tussle for power. The company issuing the embargo backs it up with the threat of denying further information to any media organisation of personnel breaking the embargo.
But then on the other hand major news outlets surely also hold power and could just as easily deny coverage to the company, a case of sort of embargoing the ‘embarger.’
In Australia, the corporate world has an open contempt for the media and continually attempts to bring it into line. Some companies have taken the embargo one step further by actually barring journalists from investor briefings and such like.
Blue chip fund manager Perpetual has banned journalists from listening in to its investor briefing today, and this follows RAMS Home Loan Group which did the same when its business started to sink because of the sub-prime meltdown in the US.
The Australian Financial Review said Perpetual “plans to post the briefing on its website at a later time, saving institutional investors the heavy scrutiny of silent journalists.”
Although MediaBlab is not quite sure what “silent journalists” are?
The newly elected Australian government, seeks to address the excessive secrecy of the previous government, by promising to be more transparent and improving Freedom of Information laws.
But politicians are quick to resort to their own form of permanent embargo – the “off-the-record” announcement. Politicians caught out by an astute journalist can quickly recover and say, “Of course, what I just told you is off the record.”
A scandal erupted over this practice in Australia earlier this year when it was revealed that a leading politician gave a group of Australia’s most senior journalists important information that could affect the smooth working of the government of the day, over a dinner one evening.
The next day minders contacted the journalists in question to inform them that information revealed the previous evening was now deemed off the record and to their shame, the journalist clubbed together and withheld the information denying the public valuable insight and denying their own newspapers an important front page news stories.
Its time the media took the gloves off and did what it’s supposed to do – arm the pubic with information that governments and corporations may not want revealed, or want revealed at a time that suits them.
REBEL FACEBOOK USERS FLOG ADS IN THEIR OWN PROFILE PAGES
Facebook users have either ignored or defied the social networking site’s rule against advertisements on profile pages, according to the New York Times.
The paper said that more than 1500 Facebook users have begun placing advertisements on their own profile pages.
The ‘culprit’ as such is Montreal-based company Weblo, an advertising network that’s sells ads on blogs and social network profile pages.
The New York Times said that last week Facebook was “forced to wind back its own Beacon product that transmitted information about users’ purchases.”
The wind back was a result of customer backlash.
REUTERS AND INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE TEAM UP
Reuters reports that Reuters and the International Herald Tribune will launch a co-branded daily online and print business report for the newspaper from next month.
From January 7, business sections of the International Herald Tribune and the newspaper's online site will be rebranded and carry content written and edited by Reuters staff.
The collaboration also covers the International Herald Tribune’s Asian editions, and replaces an agreement the Herald Tribune has with Bloomberg that finishes at the end of the month.
It is interesting to speculate whether this move is a gambit to stave off the Murdoch News Corp-Wall Street Journal machine that will begin testing its muscle this month, and which is the already-avowed enemy of the New York Times Company, which owns the Paris-based International Herald Tribune.
FINANCIAL TIMES THE ONLY QUALITY UK DAILY TO POST SALES INCREASE
The Financial Times posted a 2.75 percent year-on-year increase in sales last month compared to November 2006, the only UK daily quality paper to do so, according to the Guardian.
The Financial Times sales were 444,880 copies a day in November, but the US and European editions saw a combined month-on-month loss of 5,582 copies.
The Daily Telegraph's 882,873 circulation, a 2.04 percent year-on-year drop, was boosted by 96,226 copies sold daily to airlines, gyms and hotels at a discounted rate.
The Independent was the biggest year-on-year loser in percentage terms in the daily quality sector, down 8.01 percent to 233,423 last month.
The Guardian's average daily circulation was 364,513, down 2.12 percent month-on-month and 6.7 percent compared to November 2006.
The Times sold an average of 636,946 copies. This was down 2.57 percent year-on-year and 0.93 percent compared to October.
TIGER WOODS’ SWEDISH MODEL WIFE SUCCESSFULLY SUES IRISH MAGAZINE OVER FAKE PORNO SHOTS
Golfer Tiger Woods wife was awarded GBP180,000 ($A417,000) in damages against Irish magazine the Dubliner, which published fake porn photos of her during the Ryder Cup last year.
The Dubliner magazine has also agreed to pay some of Elin Nordegren Woods’ legal costs after running a picture of a semi-naked woman alongside a caption referring to the Swedish model.
The explicit photographs and article, titled ‘Ryder Filth for Dublin’, featured in an edition of the Dubliner magazine published just days before the opening of the US Ryder Cup match against Europe in September last year.
Dubliner's publisher, Trevor White, admitted the story was cheap, tasteless, and deliberately offensive and completely untrue.
The Dubliner's publishers, Dubliner Media Ltd, earlier issued a full apology, insisting the article was intended to be satirical.
MYSPACE LOCAL-LANGUAGE SITES TO LAUNCH IN SOUTH KOREA AND INDIA EARLY NEXT YEAR
News Corp's MySpace will start local-language sites in South Korea and India in the first quarter of 2008, according to the Korea Herald.
Sung Lee, Hong Kong-based vice president of MySpace in Asia, said MySpace is in discussions with Asian wireless operators to offer mobile-phone versions of its online networking portal in the region.
MySpace already offers phone-based services with some Asian carriers including Japan's Softbank Corp, she said.
"The mobile market is an important driver for the company," Lee said while attending the Mobility World Congress telecommunications conference.
Los Angeles-based MySpace's revenue may more than triple to US$2.97 billion in 2013 from an estimated $849 million in the year ending June 30, 2008, David Bank, RBC Capital Markets analyst in New York, said in October.
GERMANY’S BAUER BUYS REST OF EMAP UK FOR HUGE BUCKS
German media company has bought most of Bauer picked up most of Emap UK’s remaining media assets for Euro1.58 billion (A$2.63 billion.)
The deal is the biggest investment in UK media by a foreign company, or indeed any company, according to Followthemedia.
The sale was announced last Friday and Bauer ceo Heinz Bauer said “…the proposed acquisition of Emap pushes ahead our expansion strategy abroad.”
Bauer is one of the Europe’s largest consumer magazine publishers, operating in 14 countries including the UK where it has several magazine titles.
Bauer recently invested in radio, buying top rated Polish station RMF FM about a year ago. It has a 25 percent stake in German radio station Radio Hamburg, and a 32 percent stake in TV channel RTL2, in joint ventures with RTL. The Emap acquisition means Bauer will be the second largest radio broadcaster in the UK.
FIVE AUSTRALIAN SHORT FILMS TO FEATURE AT SUNDANCE FESTIVAL
The 2008 US Sundance Film Festival short film program announced overnight features five Australian short films – Advantage, Crossbow, Dugong, I Love Sarah Jane and Spider.
The Australian Film Commission described this as “a coup for Australia.”
Advantage is a 10-minute psychological thriller, which explores a couple whose frisky interlude leads into one hell of a night out.
Crossbow is a 14-minute drama written and directed by David Michod and produced by Angie Fielder and Polly Staniford. It is the story of a bad thing that happens to a boy on the front lawn of his house – as told by the boy’s sexually confused neighbour.
Crossbow had its international premiere at the Venice International Film Festival in September this year and recently won the Film Victoria Erwin Radio Award for Best Australian Short Film at the 2007 Melbourne International Film Festival.
Dugong is the story of a loner and his dog who return home on the day of his
brother’s wedding to repair the past. Written and directed by Erin White and produced by Melanie Brunt, Dugong has screened at Aspen Shortfest and the Melbourne International Film Festival.
I Love Sarah Jane was written by Spencer Susser and David Michod, directed by Spencer Susser and produced by Angie Fielder. It is the story of a 13-year old boy who is trying desperately to become part of Sarah Jane’s world. It is the first international screening for the film.
Spider was written by Nash Edgerton and David Michod, directed by Nash
Edgerton and produced by Nicole O’Donohue. Spider is a 9-minute short that is all about fun and games until someone loses an eye. It has screened at numerous international film festivals including Telluride, Prague and Cork film Festivals, and domestically at both Sydney and Melbourne Film Festivals. Spider recently won the Jury Prize at the AFI/Los Angeles Film Festival and won the audience award at both the Sydney Film Festival and Prague Short Film Festival.
It is the fourth short film directed by Nash Edgerton that has screened at Sundance since 2000.
The Sundance Film Festival will run from January 17-27, 2008 in Utah, US.
NEIGHBOURS NIX FAIRFAX’S GIANT NEWS TICKER SCREEN
Fairfax Media yesterday withdrew an application to erect a 24.5 metre by four metre LED screen sign on the roof of its new Sydney headquarters in Pyrmont, giving in to community concerns.
The screen, which the City of Sydney's website said would have cost an estimated $950,000, could have been used for a giant news ticker facing the CBD.
OUTGOING DOW JONES BOSS SAYS FACTIVA FORMATION GAVE HIM MOST PRIDE
Rafat Ali’s PaidContent.com scooped most of the major media by securing a brief interview with Gordon Grovitz, the soon-to-be-ex publisher of The Wall Street Journal, executive vice president of Dow Jones & Company, and president of the company's consumer media group.
Grovitz, who began his career at Dow Jones in 1980 as a summer intern, quoits next week and, not surprisingly, PaidContent said, “He didn't give away much in the interview.”
He talked about Marketwatch and said that his view is that “Marketwatch and Wall Street Journal’s audience has been different.
“The Journal brand stands for broad business news, while the Marketwatch brand is for people who wanted to follow the daily happenings of the market. Marketwatch has been a key part of adding tens of millions of dollars in profits to our digital operations, and that is largely through serving this different audience.”
He then added, “Among the achievements I am most proud of is the formation of Factiva.”
As for the future of the newspaper industry, Grovitz told PaidContent.org, “I remain fundamentally optimistic about strong news brands, whatever medium they're in. The challenge for newspapers is how to rethink newspapers for how readers now consume news in this digital age. Also, how do they make the transition in advertising so that they remain profitable businesses, so that they can retain the journalism, which is the core value that they deliver. I think we will see more and more experimentation from traditional media companies with different business models.”
SOUTH AFRICA’S MEDIA24 SHUTS DOWN INSTYLE AND WISDEN CRICKETER MAGAZINES
South Africa’s magazine publishing giant Media24 has shut down on two of its magazines which, three months ago, were caught up in a massive sales-figures scam, according to South Africa’s The Times.
Media24 announced at the weekend that it had closed down InStyle and The Wisden Cricketer because the magazines were no longer considered to be commercially viable.
Media24 Magazines owns 60 titles, including You, Huisgenoot and Drum, and claims to sell more than 5.9 million magazines a month.
In September, it was forced to restate the circulation figures for several of its women’s titles including InStyle SA, after a routine audit uncovered inflated circulation figures.
The Times said, “InStyle SA, the publisher’s newest title, had its sales figures pushed up by as much as 45.9 percent for measured six-month periods.”
Charlene Beukes, publisher of InStyle, denied to The Times that the closure was due to the circulation debacle, but said it had “had an effect” on the magazine.
No-one could be reached for comment on the closure of The Wisden Cricketer.
GO DIRECTLY TO JAIL, DISGRACED PUBLISHER CONRAD BLACK TOLD
The Chicago Tribune reported overnight that “Conrad Black, the disgraced businessman who once headed one of world's largest newspaper empires, was sentenced Monday to 78 months in a federal prison for stealing millions of dollars from his company.”
Judge Amy St. Eve also ordered him to forfeit US$6.1 million in ill-gotten profits and to pay a $125,000 fine.
The Tribune said, “Her ruling represents the minimum jail sentence Black cold have received, however, and it will allow him to keep his Florida mansion, as well as the proceeds from the sale of his New York apartment.
Because US federal law requires defendants to serve a minimum of 85 percent of the prison sentence they receive, Black won't be eligible for parole until 2012. He will enter prison on March 3 at Eglin Air Force Base in Florida.
MARINER WAIVES 90 PERCENT MINIMUM ACCEPTANCE CONDITION IN BEYOND TAKEOVER TUSSLE
Bill Ireland's Mariner Financial group has issued an angry ultimatum to directors film and TV production house Beyond International, threatening to walk away from its takeover bid by December 20 if the Beyond board does not recommend it, according to today’s The Australian.
It said Mariner chief operating officer Alexander Sundich has also challenged its chief rival, digital media group Destra, to "put up or shut up" in launching an offer.
Destra is believed to be interested in Beyond for its ability to provide content that can delivered through the internet.
Its interest was enough for Beyond to withdraw its support for the Mariner bid, in the process allowing Destra to conduct due diligence on the production house. This recommendation to shareholders has stalled acceptances for the Mariner offer.
But in an interview with The Australian yesterday, an angry Sundich claimed the Beyond board's move to allow Destra to conduct due diligence on it, in particular, had worked against the interests of its shareholders.
He said, "I'm angry, because we have a situation here where the Beyond board is saying, ‘We're happy to facilitate the work of a competitor (Destra), but we don't know if they're coming up with a real takeover bid’."
In an ASX statement yesterday, Mariner Financial Ltd’s wholly-owned subsidiary Mariner Acquisition No.8 Pty Ltd will waive the 90 percent minimum acceptance condition in its takeover offer for Australian film producer Beyond International Ltd, once it has received acceptances of its offer which take its relevant interest in Beyond to at least 50.1 percent of all Beyond shares.
Mariner's current relevant interest in Beyond shares is 22.5 percent, including 19.9 percent owned unconditionally, with the balance having been accepted into Mariner's offer.
The effect of this that once Mariner has received acceptances under the offer which take its relevant interest in Beyond to at least 50.1 percent of all Beyond shares and if the conditions of Mariner's offer have been satisfied or waived, Mariner will pay Beyond shareholders who accept its offer $1.25 cash per share within 21 days.
Mariner also advises that it will not be extending its offer, which will close at the end of December 20, 2007, unless on or before that date, another person announces a takeover bid or lodges with ASIC a bidder’s statement for a takeover bid for Beyond.
On October 24, 2007, Beyond recommended the Mariner offer, in the absence of a superior proposal.
On November 26, Beyond withdrew its recommendation of the Mariner offer. The reason given was “… the Mariner offer is unlikely to succeed in its present form because it is unlikely that Mariner will obtain relevant interests in at least 90 percent of the issued shares of Beyond”.
As Mariner will waive this 90 percent condition if it receives acceptances under the offer which take its relevant interest in Beyond to at least 50.1 percent of all Beyond shares, this reason is no longer valid.
Mariner also seeks clarification from Beyond in relation to the first supplementary target’s statement issued on November 26, 2007.
FIRST EVER ENGLISH LANGUAGE BUSINESS DAILY LAUNCHED IN MIDDLE EAST
Arab Media Group, the largest media group in the United Arab Emirates, launched Emirates Business 24/7, the Middle East's first English language daily dedicated to business and economic news.
The new publication went on sale on Sunday and focuses on business related local, regional and international news, matching editorial best practices from across the world.
Arab Media Group’s ceo, Abdullatif Al Sayegh, said, "The current economic boom in the region, especially in the UAE, has resulted in an exponential increase in readers' interest about latest business developments. Moreover, decision makers and opinion makers today are looking for a source of in-depth analysis, thought-provoking editorials and objective information across all sectors.
"The growth of Dubai into one of the leading global financial centres calls for its clear manifestation in the media world. With recent developments in Dubai's financial markets, the UAE has joined the big league of global centres, alongside New York, London and Tokyo.”
Editor-in-chief is Riyad Mickdady, a seasoned journalist with over 21 years experience. The editor is Frank Kane and Mustafa Al Rawi is managing editor.
MACQUARIE AND FAIRFAX MEDIA AGREE TO NOT PROCEED WITH AUSTRALIAN REGIONAL RADIO LICENSES ACQUISITION
Macquarie Media Group and Fairfax Media Ltd have agreed that the acquisition by Fairfax Media of the nine commercial radio licenses serving five regional license areas in South Australia and Queensland and the related narrowcasting licenses serving these states will not proceed.
The acquisition was conditional on a number of issues including regulatory approval. While Macquarie media has made progress on these conditions, both parties have agreed not to continue working to complete the acquisition.
Mark Dorney, ceo of Macquarie Media Group, said, “This acquisition was independent of the Southern Cross Broadcasting acquisition by us and the subsequent on-sale of assets to Fairfax Media, which was completed on November 9, 2007.”
The above ASX announcement of yesterday prompted detailed coverage in Australia’s major metro newspapers this morning.
The Australian reported that Fairfax’s $40 million sale of the nine radio stations to Macquarie Media Group, announced when the two groups revealed their $1.35 billion carve-up of Southern Cross Broadcasting, has fallen over after the deal ran into problems with corporate and media regulators.
Serious problems with the proposed deal were foreshadowed in The Australian 11 days ago, in the midst of tough negotiations with the Australian Communications & Media Authority and the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission about which stations Macquarie would be allowed to keep.
The Australian this morning said, “This option was allowed by the group to expire on Sunday, after Macquarie was unable to negotiate a solution with the Australian Communications & Media Authority about some licences, particularly those in South Australia’s Spencer Gulf and Port Lincoln regions.”
The Australian added, “However, it is understood Fairfax will now be forced to divest one of the former Rural Press stations based in Ipswich, which effectively shares the Brisbane market with 4BC and 4BH.”
Fairfax’s Sydney Morning Herald today confirmed that this Ipswich station will have to go.
The Herald said, “(Fairfax) will have to sell its Ipswich station, River 94.9, to appease competition concerns. There are no plans to bid for any of the 12 regional stations Macquarie is forced to divest.”
NEWSAT FORGES AHEAD IN BOLD PLAN TO LAUNCH AN AUSTRALIAN SATELLITE
NewSat Ltd is forging forward in its super-ambitious plans to launch an Australian satellite and has released a copy of its submission to the Commonwealth Government’s Regional Telecommunications Independent
Review Committee.
This submission details the benefits to remote Australia of broadband communications delivered by the proposed NewSat-1 Ka based satellite and the $200 million dollar-for-dollar offer to the commonwealth government for funding of the development and launch of the project.
NewSat said it remains committed to delivering an immediate and alternative solution to those of the terrestrial providers currently being reviewed by the government.
NewSat said its proposal leads the communications debate into a fresh direction with an innovative solution for the most effective broadband connectivity and social equity, especially for remote Australians.
INDIA’S OUTLOOK GROUP WINS PRESS INSTITUTE AWARD AND APPOINTS AN EDITOR FOR ITS SOON-T0-BE PUBLISHED VERSION OF PEOPLE MAGAZINE
India’s Outlook’ magazine has won the International Press Institute India Award for Excellence in Journalism for 2007, for a story that tied up the publishing company in an at last eight court cases.
Exchange4media said, “The award-winning article exposed the leak of sensitive information from the Indian Navy’s war room, and the bungling in the purchase of submarines for the Navy.
A press release from International Press Institute India said the story was the “best example of furtherance of public interest by a media organisation”.
Vinod Mehta, editor-in-chief, Outlook Group told Exchange4media that, “We see this award as recognition of the very fine work that we had done; especially the Navy war room leak case and the bungling in the purchase of Scorpene submarines.
“Our correspondent Saikat Dutta investigated and kept a constant watch on the activities. We did it in the old fashioned way and did not venture into modern sting operations. We are very satisfied with the work as criminal cases had been lodged against a lot of people.” said
Maheshwar Peri, president and publisher of Outlook, said, “It is a fantastic experience. It is the best feeling to investigate on a story and have it on our cover page. Though we have eight-10 cases lodged against us, we went forward and did the story, and that is what is important.”
Meanwhile, the Outlook Group has appointed an editor for the Indian version of Time Inc’s People magazine.
The new editor, Saira Menezes, will join the company in early 2008.
Until recently, Menezes was editor of The Emirates Evening Post, a daily in the United Arab Emirates, and she was instrumental in transforming the paper from a broadsheet to a tabloid, and from an evening paper to an afternoon paper. She was also the first female editor of an English daily in the Emirates.
She has also been editor of Savvy, a women’s magazine, and Sunday Mid-Day.
NEW WEB ACCELERATION TECHNOLOGY SPEEDS UP SEARCH AND TRANSMISSION
California-based MatrixView Ltd, the leading developer of innovative information transmission and storage optimisation, informed the Australian Stock Exchange today that it has unveiled its web acceleration technology that dramatically shortens content delivery times for online, mobile searches and web site transmission.
The company’s new technology, dubbed Speeding Web Information and Search Hypertext, or SWISH, is attracting a range of top content delivery organisations by relieving the internet wait state currently plaguing content providers, marketers and consumers alike.
SWISH tackles today’s internet traffic congestion and rich media drain by speeding search and web content delivery times, making mobile and online search and ecommerce a more efficient and rewarding experience.
With intelligent algorithms that model and compress the right data at the right time, SWISH improves the user experience by optimising the delivery of dynamic web content, with significant implications to the industries of search marketing and mobile advertising, predicted to increase to nearly US$45 billion and US $20 billion respectively by 2011, according to analysts.
LAUNCH OF AUSTRALIAN-BASED MOKO MUSIC WILL ALLOW FANS TO COMMUNICATE WITH ARTISTS AND LABELS VIA MOBILE PHONES
Australia’s Loop Mobile Ltd globally launched its Moko Music mobile community for music artists, music labels and fans, and for the first time users will be able to communicate with their favourite music artist and music labels via their mobile phone.
The inclusion of the Moko Music platform will see the award-winning Moko initially launch over 600 music artists from both major and independent labels, along with a host of amateur and unsigned artists to its users globally. Each artist will have their own profiles and homepages, photo galleries, music audio and video file streaming, gig guides and fan lists.
Moko Music will be available to Moko community users in Australia, UK, and the US across a range of on-net and off-net carriers.
“The launch of Moko music and the further diversification of the Moko mobile community is in direct response to current demand. Music is the most popular category that both interests our users and helps them identify themselves within the mobile community. With so many users associating themselves with their favourite artists we can see a definite move away from the traditional over air download of music to a more collaborative environment between artist and fan in a mobile music setting,” Martin Hoffman, ceo and managing director for Loop Mobile, said.
Moko Music will be launched in Phase 1 Beta stage as part of its ongoing development plans. It will enable Moko users to view, interact, and communicate with their favourite artists and their music through artist homepage profiles, users can add artists as friends, stream tracks and video, send private media messages, search for music, tracks, artists etc and even upload user-generated content such as tribute clips or fan art.
Artists can even hold their own live chats directly with fans.
For Pete Carroll, the man behind Offworld Sounds, LittleBigMan Records, co producer of Happy Monday’s Shaun Ryder’s solo album and manager of Australian band, The Panics, the Moko Music initiative is revolutionary. He said, “Allowing the artists, their labels and the fans to all interact from a single integrated mobile and web community is an important leap forward.
“What Loop Mobile has created is unique globally. As someone who has been involved in the music industry for over 20 years, I believe that this platform will change things significantly. From The Panic’s perspective, having a tool like this that can help drive communication between the band and their fans and enable the introduction of a new global audience via referrals within the community, is sensational.”
The Moko Music community will be available across the global Moko network, both via its carrier partnerships and via mobile internet access. It is also planned to be available via the new Moko website, which launches in the first quarter 2008.
At launch, Moko Music will feature artists from music labels including Ministry of Sound, Road Runner Records, SonyBMG (Red Label) and Universal among many others. The artist list on launch will include a mix of Australian and international musicians ranging from Powderfinger, Jebediah, Grinspoon, The Panics and Architecture in Helsinki to 50 Cent, Amy Winehouse, Guns and Roses, Jack Johnson, Kanye West, Snow Patrol and Sonic Youth.
OPINION: TIME FOR THE MEDIA TO PERMANENTLY EMBARGO THE WORDS ‘EMBARGO’ AND ‘OFF THE RECORD’Another media shibboleth is now being questioned by publishers who are growing tired of restraints placed on their news reporting capabilities by corporations, governments, and organisations through their public relations companies or media units.
The time honoured tradition of embargoes placed on news stories is now not being universally obeyed and increasingly less honoured.
Slate, owned by the Washington Post, last week reported that the World Health Organization publicly “spanked” the New York Times for breaking an embargoed study about measles
The punishment meted out by WHO is a two-week suspension of all Times reporters from the WHO media distribution list.
Slate said, “Scientific publications, health organisations, and other groups argue that news embargos serve the public by preventing journalists from rushing to print with hastily written stories about complex subjects.
“The embargo system, say its supporters, encourages more accurate reportage because it gives journalists a decent interval to analyse and report on complicated information provided by the embargoing organisation. By controlling when reporters can publish their stories, say embargo supporters, press competition shifts from who got it first to who got it best.”
MediaBlab finds that such arguments as proffered by WHO are merely patronising, suggesting that journalists are not capable or working quickly and accurately. There is also an aspect of control regarding such embargoes.
According to Slate, other embargo critics, “most notably Vincent Kiernan, author of the 2006 book Embargoes Science, say that embargoes discourage journalistic competition, encourage pack journalism, deter the press from reporting aggressively on institutions, and allow institutions to control the news agenda.”
In Australia embargoes are increasingly used by public relations companies to control news and the timing of the news reports, to either guarantee the broadest coverage possible, or to control the release of information to suit companies or some sectors of the media.
For example, television broadcasters tend to issue news releases with a 5pm embargo, which effectively gives television news bulletins the opportunity to break the news as in Australia most commercial television networks’ news bulletins air at 6pm.
The tendency for pr companies to embargo news to try to guarantee maximum coverage is understandable – for them. But it’s advantageous but not necessarily to the media outlets that are being ‘used.’
It does cut out the notion of competitiveness, especially if a journalist is sitting on a scoop only to be slapped with an embargo forcing him or her to wait and go to press with the rest of the pack.
And of course the issuing an embargo is entirely arbitrary – if a company says it is embargoed, then it is embargoed and cannot be questioned. A sort of perceived gentlemans’ agreement exists.
Ultimately it’s a tussle for power. The company issuing the embargo backs it up with the threat of denying further information to any media organisation of personnel breaking the embargo.
But then on the other hand major news outlets surely also hold power and could just as easily deny coverage to the company, a case of sort of embargoing the ‘embarger.’
In Australia, the corporate world has an open contempt for the media and continually attempts to bring it into line. Some companies have taken the embargo one step further by actually barring journalists from investor briefings and such like.
Blue chip fund manager Perpetual has banned journalists from listening in to its investor briefing today, and this follows RAMS Home Loan Group which did the same when its business started to sink because of the sub-prime meltdown in the US.
The Australian Financial Review said Perpetual “plans to post the briefing on its website at a later time, saving institutional investors the heavy scrutiny of silent journalists.”
Although MediaBlab is not quite sure what “silent journalists” are?
The newly elected Australian government, seeks to address the excessive secrecy of the previous government, by promising to be more transparent and improving Freedom of Information laws.
But politicians are quick to resort to their own form of permanent embargo – the “off-the-record” announcement. Politicians caught out by an astute journalist can quickly recover and say, “Of course, what I just told you is off the record.”
A scandal erupted over this practice in Australia earlier this year when it was revealed that a leading politician gave a group of Australia’s most senior journalists important information that could affect the smooth working of the government of the day, over a dinner one evening.
The next day minders contacted the journalists in question to inform them that information revealed the previous evening was now deemed off the record and to their shame, the journalist clubbed together and withheld the information denying the public valuable insight and denying their own newspapers an important front page news stories.
Its time the media took the gloves off and did what it’s supposed to do – arm the pubic with information that governments and corporations may not want revealed, or want revealed at a time that suits them.
REBEL FACEBOOK USERS FLOG ADS IN THEIR OWN PROFILE PAGES
Facebook users have either ignored or defied the social networking site’s rule against advertisements on profile pages, according to the New York Times.
The paper said that more than 1500 Facebook users have begun placing advertisements on their own profile pages.
The ‘culprit’ as such is Montreal-based company Weblo, an advertising network that’s sells ads on blogs and social network profile pages.
The New York Times said that last week Facebook was “forced to wind back its own Beacon product that transmitted information about users’ purchases.”
The wind back was a result of customer backlash.
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