MEDIABLAB DAILY DIGEST DEC 13: HORWITZ PLAYBOY HEARST FAIRFAX
December 13th 2007 01:41
A compendium of media stories posted over the past 24 hours by Peter Olszewski's MediaBlab via Dow Jones' Factiva
HORWITZ MAGAZINE GROUP SOLD TO AUSTRALIAN PRIVATE EQUITY GROUP
Sydney's Horwitz family has sold most of its business to private equity firm Wolseley for an undisclosed sum, after nearly 90 years in publishing, according to The Australian.
Among the 16 titles included in the acquisition are Inside Sport, TV Soap, Golf Australia, Geare, Sound & Image, Australian Hi-Fi, Pro Photo and Australian Camera, plus the rights to the local version of Mad.
The Horwitz family is keeping the franchise to publish Australian Penthouse.
The business, renamed Wolseley Media, will be headed by David Gardiner, former deputy chief executive of ACP Magazines, who publishes the bimonthly game-fishing title BlueWater Boats and Sportsfishing.
Horwitz Publications was founded in 1920 by husband and wife Israel and Ruth Horwitz, who started with the Sporting Weekly newspaper. They were succeeded by son Stanley, then son Peter and daughter Susan.
ACP TO LAUNCH AUSTRALIAN EDITION OF GRAZIA MAGAZINE WHICH WILL ALSO LAUNCH INTO INDIA, CHINA AND THAILAND
ACP Magazines will launch an Australian edition of the international weekly fashion magazine Grazia late next year, which will also be a sold in New Zealand.
Grazia, first published in Italy in 1938, is a weekly with no competition in Australia because the local ‘fashion bibles’ like Harper's Bazaar and Vogue, are monthly.
It is owned by Italian publishing giant Mondadori, and published in eight territories, including Britain. It is expanding into the Asia-Pacific next year, publishing editions in India, Thailand and China.
Grazia will also expand in Europe with a French edition.
Mediaweek Australia has been running rumours of the impending deal for the last couple of months, including reporting a sighting of ACP's group publisher of women's lifestyle titles, Pat Ingram, at Grazia headquarters in Italy.
MEDIA CONTROVERSY OVER FORMER MISS UNIVERSE APPEARANCE IN MYANMAR
A media-driven controversy has broken out over a possible attendance by Natalie Glebova, Miss Universe in 2005 and Thai resident’s possible attendance at a Myanmar beauty pageant.
According to a story in The Myanmar Times, Glebova a Canadian citizen, would be a judge at a beauty pageant sponsored by a private company, Myanmar Lay Nying Co, Ltd, as part of a two-day show of cosmetics.
The Myanmar Times also reported that Gelobava’s husband, Thailand’s No. 1 tennis player, Paradorn Srichaphan, would join her in Myanmar’s capital, Yangon
But a concerned Myanmar monk studying in Sr Lanka sent a query about the Myanmar Times report to the New York-based Miss Universe Organisation, which replied, "We have spoken to Natalie Glebova directly, and she is not participating in any pageant activity in Burma."
A staff member of Myanmar Lay Nying Co, Ltd in Rangoon told Chiang Mai-based The Irrawaddy journal that the former Miss Universe was invited to attend and serve as a judge at the beauty contest known as “Ancient Beauty,” to be held at the Sedona Hotel in Yangon.
The staff member said Glebova was listed in the invitation, but it was uncertain if she would attend or not. She said, “It is sure that Glebova was invited. And we also heard that she will come, but we are not sure on that. We have to wait and see.”
Three former Miss Thailand's were also invited to serve as judges, she said.
In February 2007, Glebova published a book, Healthy Happy Beautiful, which became a best seller.
FLESH MAGS PLAYBOY AND PENTHOUSE EXPAND DIGITAL PRESENCE TO GET REVENUES UP
Playboy Enterprises said it has teamed with Minick AG, a pioneer in wireless infrastructure solutions and interactive applications, to help rapidly expand its mobile business throughout Europe.
The multi-year partnership is designed to expand Playboy's distribution of branded products and services to consumers throughout the region.
Playboy and Minick will work together to launch visually rich and compelling interactive mobile products including video clips, mobile TV, games and other services. European consumers soon will be able to both view and participate in Playboy programs and social communities.
MocoNews said Playboy will use Minick’s platform to launch video, mobile TV, games and other types of content, and to develop more interactive services, and sell them both on and off operator decks.
Moco said Playboy initially pursued deals with a lot of operators, but the company’s ceo, Christie Hefner recently said at UBS Media Week that the deals had limited upside and weren’t particularly profitable.
Playboy has a sizable mobile content business outside the US, and its growth strategy appears to be to build up its own content and sell them to users, rather than license its brand and content to third parties.
Meanwhile Rafat Ali reports that the Penthouse Media Group has acquired adult-oriented social network operator Various Inc. forUS $500 million
Various runs more than 25 social net sites under its flagship site, FriendFinder.com.
Rafat Ali says that, while porn remains one of the most lucrative areas of online media, more traditional companies like Penthouse and have been struggling to catch up on the digital side. Playboy ceo Christie Hefner claimed 50 percent gains earlier this month at the UBS Global Media & Communications Conference.
In addition to its porn-related social nets, Various also has sites that aren’t centered around sex, including a faith-based community site called bigchurch.com. At least for now, Penthouse expects to absorb all of Various’ holdings.
FRENCH JOURNALIST STILL HELD IN VIETNAM OVER TERRORISM CHARGES
Reporters Without Borders has repeated its call for the release of French journalist and activist Nguyen Thi Thanh Van after the Vietnamese authorities yesterday freed three US citizens who, like her, had been accused of terrorism, a charge refuted by the US ambassador to Vietnam.
"The release of the US dissident of Vietnamese origin, Leon Truong, is good news that allows us to hope that Nguyen Thi Thanh Van will also soon be freed," the Thanh Van family, their lawyer, Serge Lewisch, and Reporters Without Borders said in a joint statement.
"It is surprising that she is still being held as they were arrested together on the same charges. We urge the French government to take action to ensure that she is freed as quickly as possible."
Former French government minister Francoise Hostalier, a parliamentary representative of Nord department, is among those who have signed a petition issued by the Thanh Van support committee. The signatories include many leading Vietnamese dissidents such as Catholic priests Chan Tin and Phan Van Loi, and intellectuals Do Nam Hai, Nguyen Chinh Ket and Bui Tin. The hundreds of French signatories include some residents of L'Hay-Les-Roses, where Thanh Van lives.
Truong, who was put on a flight back to the US after his release yesterday, was arrested at the same time as Thanh Van and, like her, accused of terrorism because of his support for the unrecognised opposition party Viet Tan.
An American couple accused of supporting their so-called terrorist plot by bringing a firearm from the US were also freed yesterday and allowed to fly home. A fourth American, Nguyen Quoc Quan, is still held.
Several hours before their release, the US ambassador to Vietnam, Michael Michalak, told the press his embassy had still not received any formal notification of the charges against them.
The French authorities confirmed that consular officials have visited Thanh Van for the second time in detention but they gave no details.
On November 30, Thanh Van was shown on VTV4, a Vietnamese TV station targeted at overseas viewers. She was seen being forced to simulate clandestine activity, including the transport of leaflets.
YAHOO IN NEW FINANCE CONTENT DEAL WITH CNBC.COM
The New York Times reports that Yahoo's push to bolster its B2B content continues with a new content deal with CNBC.com.
The business news channel will supply Yahoo Finance with video from CNBC.com, which publishes between 100 and 150 clips per day, as well as news articles.
The deal marks CNBC's first content deal with a major web portal. CNBC.com has failed to gain significant traction on the web, while Yahoo Finance, a popular tool for investors and researchers will benefit from adding more substantive content.
Yahoo Finance already publishes content from CNN, BBC, the New York Times, and the Fox Business Network. According to comScore, CNBC.com had 538,000 uniques in November, compared to 13.8 million for Yahoo Finance
Yahoo is also working on a related initiative, a financial news service for technology vendors.
NEW PAN-EUROPEAN RADIO STATION TO LAUNCH IN APRIL
A new pan-European radio station, to be set up by a multinational group of broadcasters and funded by the European Commission, will start up next year.
The European Radio Project, a consortium of 16 radio stations from 13 member states. will broadcast from April 2008 , according to EUobserver.
The project, to be officially signed off on Friday will see the European Radio Project group jointly producing daily half-an-hour EU ‘hard news’ shows, weekly magazines and coverage of big European cultural events.
The programs will be broadcast on the usual frequencies of the participating radio stations, as well as through a new European Radio Project, internet site, which will be in the air from June onwards.
EUobserver said, “Participants include internationally operating public broadcasters such as Germany's Deutsche Welle, Radio France Internationale and Radio Netherlands Worldwide, as well as Poland's Polskie Radio and Spain's Radio Punto. Belgian, Czech, Bulgarian, Greek, Hungarian, Portuguese, Romanian, and Slovenian channels are also taking part in the scheme, which is open to further participants in future.”
Original content for the radio shows will initially be produced in five ‘core’ languages - English, French, German, Spanish and Polish - and will be translated into Bulgarian, Greek, Hungarian, Portuguese and Romanian. More core languages and translated versions will be added in the coming years so that by 2012, all official 23 EU languages should be covered.
Deutsche Welle will ensure the editorial coordination of the project, while Radio France will be responsible for financial affairs and Radio Netherlands will run the web portal of the euro-station.
WHITE HOUSE RUMBLED FOR SYSTEMATICALLY MANIPULATING CLIMATE SCIENCE MEDIA REPORTS
The White House has systematically manipulated climate science for years to play down the dangers of global warming, according to a US congressional report.
Al Jazeera said that Monday's report, prepared by Democrats after a 16-month investigation, came as the Bush administration pressed a UN climate meeting to drop targets for big cuts in greenhouse gases by rich nations.
‘The Bush administration has engaged in a systematic effort to manipulate climate change science and mislead policymakers and the public about the dangers of global warming,’ the report said.
The report said that the White House Council on Environmental Quality (exerted ‘unusual control’ over what federal scientists could say publicly about climate change, and that it was standard practice for the council to decide whether or not US scientists could give interviews to the media.
GERMANY’S AXEL SPRINGER GROUP UNLOADS ITS STAKE IN TV BROADCASTER
German publishing group Axel Springer will sell its stake in television broadcaster ProSiebenSat.1 in a move that ends a takeover attempt stretching back over several years. Media Network Weblog said Europe’s biggest newspaper publisher, which owns the daily tabloid Bild and Die Welt, reported it was ceding its 12 percent stake in ProSiebenSat.1 to the broadcaster’s core shareholders, the investment funds KKR and Permira, for EUR 509 million.
The sale needs approval by the German authority KEK which oversees media consolidation. Springer said it intended to buy ProSiebenSat.1 in 2005, but the deal dragged on.
GERMAN BROADCASTER TO LAUNCH BEREAVEMENT TV CHANNEL
The Irish Times reports that a German satellite broadcaster Etos TV plans to launch the world's first bereavement channel.
Etos TV founder Wolf Tilmann Schneider said, “It's not Death TV as some people have claimed. Over 800,000 people die in Germany every year but the death notices in the paper say nothing about them. The regular media completely ignores this topic.”
The station will broadcast for three hours daily over the Astra satellite from next month. Etos TV hopes to expand across Europe.
ASIAN MOBILE TV CONFERENCE HELD IN HONG KONG
Mobile TV CXO Summit, jointly organised by the Cable & Satellite Broadcasting Association of Asia and the Mobile Entertainment Forum was held in Hong Kong on December 3.
The interactive summit successfully connected 40 senior content owners, mobile communications carriers and service providers in an informal and innovative environment allowing participants to brainstorm on how best to nurture the growth of mobile TV in Asia.
Participants included Sony Pictures Television International, STAR Group, Turner International, Bloomberg Television, Discovery Networks, Granada International and Walt Disney Television.
Regional and international mobile network service providers and technology specialists such as SwissCom Mobile, Telia Sonera, MediaQuest, PCCW, StarHub, Smartone, Hutchinson Telecom, CSL and 3 Hong Kong, along with Nokia, Qualcomm, Irdeto, NagraVision, NDS, Speedcast, ITSun, Dada Asia, IMG, MIH and PricewaterhouseCoopers were also among the participants.
According to a summary of the series of meetings in groups of 10 during the day, “ultimately mobile TV could be a huge revenue source for network operators, TV content owners, technology services providers and advertising agencies.
“Nevertheless, the jury is still out. There are many issues that still need to be addressed before getting a clear direction on the future development of mobile TV in Asia.”
During the Summit, it was widely agreed that two major challenges remain before securing mass consumer adoption of mobile TV services: “User experience and Content”.
According to the summary: “Although the capability to deliver content is there, user experience is very much dependent on technology being able to provide better networks with higher video quality and resolution; better devices with larger screens; longer battery life and affordable handsets across a widely varying Asian landscape.”
Content is the other critical factor and much debate took place as to what genre of content will work in Asia. Some saw news and sports as driver genres, while others claimed that experience shows that “entertainment drives as much as 80 percent of take up.”
HEARST MAGAZINES JOINS RUSH TO SIGN UP WITH NEW INTERNET TV SERVICE
US Media Week reports that Hearst Magazines is the latest US media company to sign on to distribute content via Next.TV, the new internet television service which is being built into all new HP notebook computers starting in 2008.
The company said it plans to deliver original video content from its magazines, CosmoGirl, Good Housekeeping, Marie Claire and others. Hearst joins a growing list of traditional media players partnering with the start-up web TV service, which is expected to provide consumers with access to up to 50 on demand channels via their PCs when it goes live next year.
Companies to launch channels include the production firm Endemol, which is rolling out Lazy TV – a mix of footage from its popular game/reality shows Deal or No Deal and Big Brother, as well as National Lampoon.
NINE TV WINS RIGHT TO PUBLISH ‘MISLAID’ AUSTRALIAN PRISON SEX DOCUMENTS
Channel Nine has won the right to publish parts of mislaid State government documents containing allegations including sexual misconduct by prison officers, according to a report in The Age newspaper.
The television station obtained the mislaid files in 2007, and the government which then obtained Supreme Court injunctions stopping publication of documents.
The documents contained information about a prisoner who alleged she was subjected to sexual misconduct by a prison officer while in custody; investigation plans regarding alleged sexual assaults of prisoners by prison officers; a departmental investigation into a prisoner suicide; and a report prepared for the Western Australian Department of Justice.
In one case, an investigation was held into alleged consensual intercourse between a mentally ill female prisoner and a staff member after her cell door was found unlocked.
After a six-day mostly-closed hearing, Justice Robert Osborn allowed limited publication of some documents, but suppressed publication of the West Australian prison report.
MAGAZINE CONFERENCE ATTENDEES IN SINGAPORE TOLD THE INTERNET IS BOTH A RESOURCE AND A RIVAL
The two-day Worldwide Magazine Marketplace, a magazine trade event, which took place in Singapore on Monday and Tuesday, drew an unprecedented 450 participants and exhibitors.
The event is usually always held in London but organisers decided to hold it this year in Singapore because of the growing importance of the magazine industry in the region.
Singapore alone has more than 3,000 publishing and printing firms, of which 700 publish books, journals, magazines and other products.
The Straits Times reported that speaker Dr Lee Boon Yang, the Singapore Minister for Information, Communications and the Arts, said the internet may be competing with magazines for readership and advertising, but the online world also offers magazine publishers tremendous opportunities including branding and marketing, and new ways to make money such as selling access to archived stories.
SPH Magazines chief executive officer Loh Yew Seng said print allows for a “touch and feel” experience, while online publications cater to those with “urgent requirements, instant needs.”
SPH Magazines publishes 90 magazines including Her World and Home & Décor.
Another publishing group, The Lexicon Group, is also revamping the websites of its titles such as Wine & Dine, Smart Investor and New Man.
Magazine Publishers Association of Singapore president Ho Sum Kwong said the organisation is helping publishers in Singapore to exploit the internet by offering them training and other resources, and he believed every magazine should at least have a website.
INDIAN MEDIA ADMONISHED FOR EXCESSIVE USE OF IMAGES OF TRIBAL GIRL STRIPPED NAKED IN VIOLENT DEMONSTRATION
Several Indian media outlets have been severely criticised for the excessive use of photos and footage of a tribal girl stripped naked during a violent demonstration in Guwahati, the largest city of Assam state, on November 24.
Questions have been asked whether some coverage of the naked girl was merely salacious as opposed to newsworthy, and incident has become an issue for India’s traditionally free press.
Asia Sentinel said the incident began when about 1,000 indigenous Adivasi people, equipped with traditional bows and arrows, marched to the State Secretariat in Guwahati to demand their inclusion in India’s Scheduled Tribe list.
The march became violent and a high school student Adivasi girl was stripped naked and forced to run from the crowd until residents sheltered her – but not before her naked image was recorded by the media and mobile-telephone cameras.
Some Indian media outlets heavily featured pictures of the naked, running girl. The English-language Telegraph of Kolkata (Calcutta) published her picture on its front page on November 27, three days after the incident.
The Assam Tribune, the oldest English-language daily in the region, editorialised, “When a section of the media continues to come up with the visual of the naked Adivasi girl even days after the incident, it is evident that their purpose is simply to sensationalise and blow things out of proportion.
“It is in such times that the responsibility and the credibility of the media are put to test. A responsible media should act to defuse tension and not to arouse passions further.”
Asia Sentinel said two powerful regional student bodies, the All Assam Students’ Union and Asom Jatiyatabadi Yuba-Chatra Parishad, also criticised the media, alleging that they repeatedly depicted the image of the Adivasi girl in an obscene way while neglecting to report that she had been rescued by a local youth who gave her shelter.
Shantikam Hazarika, an academic from Guwahati, said two television channels had replayed the incident for a full day, including visuals of the running girl.
“Those channels were cooking up the story, sitting in their studios and playing on the visuals of Guwahati violence. As a Guwahatian I am more angry at the media than ashamed of what has happened that day,” he said.
DISMAY OVER A WORLD DIVIDED 60-40 ON IMPORTANCE OF A FREE PRESS
MediaBlab also runs a blog (watchingthemedia.com) which follows up some of its Factiva stories.
The recent item that world opinion is divided on the importance of having a free press, according to a poll of 11,344 people in 14 countries conducted for the BBC World Service, prompted anguished comments from blog readers.
They were dismayed that almost 40 percent of respondents said it was more important to maintain social harmony and peace, even if it meant curbing the press's freedom to report news truthfully.
To make matters worse, the Australian Rationalist magazine in its current issue features an article by John Pilger titled, Time for a Fifth Estate.
Essentially Pilger agrees that the notion of major mainstream press being a free press is mostly a myth.
This is the stirring opening to his challenging piece:
“Edward Bernays, the so-called father of public relations, wrote about an invisible government, which is the true ruling power of our country. He was referring to journalism, the media. That was almost 80 years ago, not long after corporate journalism was invented.
It is a history few journalists talk about or know about, and it began with the
arrival of corporate advertising. As the new corporations began taking over the press, something called ‘professional journalism’ was invented. To attract big advertisers, the new corporate press had to appear respectable, pillars of the establishment – objective, impartial, balanced. The first
schools of journalism were set up, and a mythology of liberal neutrality was spun around the professional journalist. The right to freedom of expression was associated with the new media and with the great corporations, and the whole thing was, as the prominent mass media critic Robert McChesney
put it so well, ‘entirely bogus’.
For what the public did not know was that in order to be professional, journalists had to ensure that news and opinion were dominated by official sources, and that has not changed. Go through the New York Times
on any day, and check the sources of the main political stories – domestic and foreign – and you’ll find they’re dominated by government and other established interests. That is the essence of professional journalism. I am not suggesting that independent journalism was or is excluded, but it is more likely to be an honourable exception.
Consider how the power of this invisible government has grown. In 1983 the principle global media was owned by fifty corporations, most of them American. In 2002 this had fallen to just nine corporations. Today it
is probably about five. Rupert Murdoch has predicted that there will be just three global media giants, and his company will be one of them.”
STRONG FIRST QUARTER 2008 RESULTS FOR AUSTRALIA’S TEN TV NETWORK
Ten Network Holdings Ltd reported strong first quarter 2008 results yesterday.
Group revenue rose 11 percent on the prior corresponding period, while group EBITDA was 14 per cent higher at $122.5 million, delivering a 38 percent operating margin.
Revenue from the company's television business, Network Ten, was up 11 percent in the period, ahead of the 10 percent forecast management provided in October.
Based on that performance, management remains confident Ten’s share of the metropolitan TV advertising market in the six months to December 2007 will be ahead of the 30.3 percent share it achieved in the prior corresponding period.
Ten's first quarter television EBITDA jumped 18 percent.
INDIA TO LAUNCH YET ANOTHER ENGLISH-LANGUAGE DAILY NEWSPAPER
English-language newspaper launches are the flavour of the month throughout Asia, with new publication announcements occurring almost every week.
This week announcement comes from India’s Sakaal Group of Publications, a leading media house in Maharashtra and Goa.
The company plans to come up with two television channels and another English newspaper in 2008, according to Exchange4media.
The group already publishes Daily Sakal and Gomantak newspapers in Marathi-language, and Gomantak Times and Maharashtra Herald in English, besides other publications.
The English daily by the group will be launched in Pune in April 2008, and subsequently in a phased manner in major Indian cities. It will be targeted at SEC A and A .
“We have not yet decided on the price of the newspaper, nor have we finalised the promotional activities,” Uday Jadhav, ceo, Sakaal Publications told Exchange4media.
AUSTRALIAN TV PRODUCER TELLS STAFF TO TAKE A WALK
The Australian today ran this rather unusual email from Seven network producer Adam Boland to his production staff:
"Gang, I need to take a daily walk - but there's no f..king way I'm doing it on my own. As such, I'm introducing compulsory daily walks at 12:30pm each day for anyone in the office at that time. Applies to staff on Sunrise AND The Morning Show. There will be a different route each day - and it will last 20 minutes. Bron correctly points out that it will help build your appetite for lunch. This starts tomorrow. Non negotiable. Bring shoes. AB."
HOW RUPERT MURDOCH CAME TO BE HUNG IN RIVAL FAIRFAX MEDIA’S NEW NEWSROOM
The mystery of how dozens of images of News Ltd supremo Rupert Murdoch were hung in the new Fairfax newsroom offices in Sydney – or has it?
The Australian today publishes a missive from Fairfax Media boss Lloyd Whish-Wilson revealing,
"Staff are only too well aware of last week's problem with the wrong illustration being used for the graphics on the communication pillars on levels one, three and four Much was made of it in the Murdoch press, who also quoted some unnamed Sydney Morning Herald staff. Fairfax is being sent an official apology by the architects, who take ultimate responsibility and who failed to double-check the images. The error occurred between the architects and the people doing the graphics for the building. The panels were installed out of hours and it was the next morning before the error was picked up. The Murdoch press reaction is to be expected. In the reverse case, we'd probably have done the same. However, as many staff have expressed to me, the really disappointing thing was that some of our staff appear to have publicly got some joy out of using a mistake by a contractor to belittle the place in which they work or to automatically assume management erred. Very strange behaviour."
But Fairfax corporate spokesman Bruce Wolpe said the images were not a mistake and had been commissioned as part of a series on Australian business leaders.
AUSTRALIAN MEDIA PERSONS OF THE YEAR WINNERS
Winners of the Australian Media Person of the Year are:
Digital
Finalists
Paul and Andrew Bassett, joint chief executives and founders of Seek.com.au, for continued strong performance and growth.
Simon Baker, chief executive of realestate.com.au, for strong performance and acquisitions.
Jack Matthews, chief executive of Fairfax Digital, for increasing its share of online advertising at a faster rate than its competitors.
Winner: Jack Matthews.
Content (business)
Finalists
Ian Robertson, Holding Redlich lawyer, who helped convince the government to launch its screen producers' incentive package.
Angelos Frangopoulos, chief executive of Sky News Australia, and David Speers, its political editor, who positioned the pay-television network as the main source of TV news during the federal election.
Tim Worner, Seven Network's director of programming, who took risks and commissioned a slate of local programming that ensured Seven's dominance.
Winner: Tim Worner
Content (creative)
Finalists
The Chaser team, for their impact on pop culture and fierce satirical commentary on the political process, including their APEC security stunt, which made headlines across the world.
Chris Lilley, for his scripts and performance on Summer Heights High.
The late Matt Price, The Australian's sketch writer and a regular on TV and radio, for making politics interesting and understandable.
Winner: The Chaser
Publishing
Finalists
John Hartigan, chairman and chief executive of News Limited, who led the media industry's Right to Know campaign.
David Kirk, chief executive of Fairfax Media, who pushed through the company's merger with Rural Press and followed up by taking Fairfax back to radio.
Winner: John Hartigan.
Radio and TV
Finalists
David Leckie, Seven Network chief executive, who led the network to its first ratings win in nearly 30 years.
Kim Williams, chief executive of Foxtel, for continued growth, rising profitability and innovation.
Tony Bell, former chief executive of Southern Cross Broadcasting, under whom, over 15 years, the company's market capitalisation rose from $7 million to $1.35 billion.
Mark Scott, ABC managing director, who has handled sensitive issues such as editorial independence and bias allegations with skill and aplomb.
Winner: David Leckie
HORWITZ MAGAZINE GROUP SOLD TO AUSTRALIAN PRIVATE EQUITY GROUP
Sydney's Horwitz family has sold most of its business to private equity firm Wolseley for an undisclosed sum, after nearly 90 years in publishing, according to The Australian.
Among the 16 titles included in the acquisition are Inside Sport, TV Soap, Golf Australia, Geare, Sound & Image, Australian Hi-Fi, Pro Photo and Australian Camera, plus the rights to the local version of Mad.
The business, renamed Wolseley Media, will be headed by David Gardiner, former deputy chief executive of ACP Magazines, who publishes the bimonthly game-fishing title BlueWater Boats and Sportsfishing.
Horwitz Publications was founded in 1920 by husband and wife Israel and Ruth Horwitz, who started with the Sporting Weekly newspaper. They were succeeded by son Stanley, then son Peter and daughter Susan.
ACP TO LAUNCH AUSTRALIAN EDITION OF GRAZIA MAGAZINE WHICH WILL ALSO LAUNCH INTO INDIA, CHINA AND THAILAND
ACP Magazines will launch an Australian edition of the international weekly fashion magazine Grazia late next year, which will also be a sold in New Zealand.
Grazia, first published in Italy in 1938, is a weekly with no competition in Australia because the local ‘fashion bibles’ like Harper's Bazaar and Vogue, are monthly.
It is owned by Italian publishing giant Mondadori, and published in eight territories, including Britain. It is expanding into the Asia-Pacific next year, publishing editions in India, Thailand and China.
Mediaweek Australia has been running rumours of the impending deal for the last couple of months, including reporting a sighting of ACP's group publisher of women's lifestyle titles, Pat Ingram, at Grazia headquarters in Italy.
MEDIA CONTROVERSY OVER FORMER MISS UNIVERSE APPEARANCE IN MYANMAR
A media-driven controversy has broken out over a possible attendance by Natalie Glebova, Miss Universe in 2005 and Thai resident’s possible attendance at a Myanmar beauty pageant.
According to a story in The Myanmar Times, Glebova a Canadian citizen, would be a judge at a beauty pageant sponsored by a private company, Myanmar Lay Nying Co, Ltd, as part of a two-day show of cosmetics.
The Myanmar Times also reported that Gelobava’s husband, Thailand’s No. 1 tennis player, Paradorn Srichaphan, would join her in Myanmar’s capital, Yangon
But a concerned Myanmar monk studying in Sr Lanka sent a query about the Myanmar Times report to the New York-based Miss Universe Organisation, which replied, "We have spoken to Natalie Glebova directly, and she is not participating in any pageant activity in Burma."
A staff member of Myanmar Lay Nying Co, Ltd in Rangoon told Chiang Mai-based The Irrawaddy journal that the former Miss Universe was invited to attend and serve as a judge at the beauty contest known as “Ancient Beauty,” to be held at the Sedona Hotel in Yangon.
The staff member said Glebova was listed in the invitation, but it was uncertain if she would attend or not. She said, “It is sure that Glebova was invited. And we also heard that she will come, but we are not sure on that. We have to wait and see.”
Three former Miss Thailand's were also invited to serve as judges, she said.
In February 2007, Glebova published a book, Healthy Happy Beautiful, which became a best seller.
FLESH MAGS PLAYBOY AND PENTHOUSE EXPAND DIGITAL PRESENCE TO GET REVENUES UP
Playboy Enterprises said it has teamed with Minick AG, a pioneer in wireless infrastructure solutions and interactive applications, to help rapidly expand its mobile business throughout Europe.
The multi-year partnership is designed to expand Playboy's distribution of branded products and services to consumers throughout the region.
Playboy and Minick will work together to launch visually rich and compelling interactive mobile products including video clips, mobile TV, games and other services. European consumers soon will be able to both view and participate in Playboy programs and social communities.
MocoNews said Playboy will use Minick’s platform to launch video, mobile TV, games and other types of content, and to develop more interactive services, and sell them both on and off operator decks.
Moco said Playboy initially pursued deals with a lot of operators, but the company’s ceo, Christie Hefner recently said at UBS Media Week that the deals had limited upside and weren’t particularly profitable.
Playboy has a sizable mobile content business outside the US, and its growth strategy appears to be to build up its own content and sell them to users, rather than license its brand and content to third parties.
Meanwhile Rafat Ali reports that the Penthouse Media Group has acquired adult-oriented social network operator Various Inc. forUS $500 million
Various runs more than 25 social net sites under its flagship site, FriendFinder.com.
Rafat Ali says that, while porn remains one of the most lucrative areas of online media, more traditional companies like Penthouse and have been struggling to catch up on the digital side. Playboy ceo Christie Hefner claimed 50 percent gains earlier this month at the UBS Global Media & Communications Conference.
In addition to its porn-related social nets, Various also has sites that aren’t centered around sex, including a faith-based community site called bigchurch.com. At least for now, Penthouse expects to absorb all of Various’ holdings.
FRENCH JOURNALIST STILL HELD IN VIETNAM OVER TERRORISM CHARGES
Reporters Without Borders has repeated its call for the release of French journalist and activist Nguyen Thi Thanh Van after the Vietnamese authorities yesterday freed three US citizens who, like her, had been accused of terrorism, a charge refuted by the US ambassador to Vietnam.
"The release of the US dissident of Vietnamese origin, Leon Truong, is good news that allows us to hope that Nguyen Thi Thanh Van will also soon be freed," the Thanh Van family, their lawyer, Serge Lewisch, and Reporters Without Borders said in a joint statement.
"It is surprising that she is still being held as they were arrested together on the same charges. We urge the French government to take action to ensure that she is freed as quickly as possible."
Former French government minister Francoise Hostalier, a parliamentary representative of Nord department, is among those who have signed a petition issued by the Thanh Van support committee. The signatories include many leading Vietnamese dissidents such as Catholic priests Chan Tin and Phan Van Loi, and intellectuals Do Nam Hai, Nguyen Chinh Ket and Bui Tin. The hundreds of French signatories include some residents of L'Hay-Les-Roses, where Thanh Van lives.
Truong, who was put on a flight back to the US after his release yesterday, was arrested at the same time as Thanh Van and, like her, accused of terrorism because of his support for the unrecognised opposition party Viet Tan.
An American couple accused of supporting their so-called terrorist plot by bringing a firearm from the US were also freed yesterday and allowed to fly home. A fourth American, Nguyen Quoc Quan, is still held.
Several hours before their release, the US ambassador to Vietnam, Michael Michalak, told the press his embassy had still not received any formal notification of the charges against them.
The French authorities confirmed that consular officials have visited Thanh Van for the second time in detention but they gave no details.
On November 30, Thanh Van was shown on VTV4, a Vietnamese TV station targeted at overseas viewers. She was seen being forced to simulate clandestine activity, including the transport of leaflets.
YAHOO IN NEW FINANCE CONTENT DEAL WITH CNBC.COM
The New York Times reports that Yahoo's push to bolster its B2B content continues with a new content deal with CNBC.com.
The business news channel will supply Yahoo Finance with video from CNBC.com, which publishes between 100 and 150 clips per day, as well as news articles.
The deal marks CNBC's first content deal with a major web portal. CNBC.com has failed to gain significant traction on the web, while Yahoo Finance, a popular tool for investors and researchers will benefit from adding more substantive content.
Yahoo Finance already publishes content from CNN, BBC, the New York Times, and the Fox Business Network. According to comScore, CNBC.com had 538,000 uniques in November, compared to 13.8 million for Yahoo Finance
Yahoo is also working on a related initiative, a financial news service for technology vendors.
NEW PAN-EUROPEAN RADIO STATION TO LAUNCH IN APRIL
A new pan-European radio station, to be set up by a multinational group of broadcasters and funded by the European Commission, will start up next year.
The European Radio Project, a consortium of 16 radio stations from 13 member states. will broadcast from April 2008 , according to EUobserver.
The project, to be officially signed off on Friday will see the European Radio Project group jointly producing daily half-an-hour EU ‘hard news’ shows, weekly magazines and coverage of big European cultural events.
The programs will be broadcast on the usual frequencies of the participating radio stations, as well as through a new European Radio Project, internet site, which will be in the air from June onwards.
EUobserver said, “Participants include internationally operating public broadcasters such as Germany's Deutsche Welle, Radio France Internationale and Radio Netherlands Worldwide, as well as Poland's Polskie Radio and Spain's Radio Punto. Belgian, Czech, Bulgarian, Greek, Hungarian, Portuguese, Romanian, and Slovenian channels are also taking part in the scheme, which is open to further participants in future.”
Original content for the radio shows will initially be produced in five ‘core’ languages - English, French, German, Spanish and Polish - and will be translated into Bulgarian, Greek, Hungarian, Portuguese and Romanian. More core languages and translated versions will be added in the coming years so that by 2012, all official 23 EU languages should be covered.
Deutsche Welle will ensure the editorial coordination of the project, while Radio France will be responsible for financial affairs and Radio Netherlands will run the web portal of the euro-station.
WHITE HOUSE RUMBLED FOR SYSTEMATICALLY MANIPULATING CLIMATE SCIENCE MEDIA REPORTS
The White House has systematically manipulated climate science for years to play down the dangers of global warming, according to a US congressional report.
Al Jazeera said that Monday's report, prepared by Democrats after a 16-month investigation, came as the Bush administration pressed a UN climate meeting to drop targets for big cuts in greenhouse gases by rich nations.
‘The Bush administration has engaged in a systematic effort to manipulate climate change science and mislead policymakers and the public about the dangers of global warming,’ the report said.
The report said that the White House Council on Environmental Quality (exerted ‘unusual control’ over what federal scientists could say publicly about climate change, and that it was standard practice for the council to decide whether or not US scientists could give interviews to the media.
GERMANY’S AXEL SPRINGER GROUP UNLOADS ITS STAKE IN TV BROADCASTER
German publishing group Axel Springer will sell its stake in television broadcaster ProSiebenSat.1 in a move that ends a takeover attempt stretching back over several years. Media Network Weblog said Europe’s biggest newspaper publisher, which owns the daily tabloid Bild and Die Welt, reported it was ceding its 12 percent stake in ProSiebenSat.1 to the broadcaster’s core shareholders, the investment funds KKR and Permira, for EUR 509 million.
The sale needs approval by the German authority KEK which oversees media consolidation. Springer said it intended to buy ProSiebenSat.1 in 2005, but the deal dragged on.
GERMAN BROADCASTER TO LAUNCH BEREAVEMENT TV CHANNEL
The Irish Times reports that a German satellite broadcaster Etos TV plans to launch the world's first bereavement channel.
Etos TV founder Wolf Tilmann Schneider said, “It's not Death TV as some people have claimed. Over 800,000 people die in Germany every year but the death notices in the paper say nothing about them. The regular media completely ignores this topic.”
The station will broadcast for three hours daily over the Astra satellite from next month. Etos TV hopes to expand across Europe.
ASIAN MOBILE TV CONFERENCE HELD IN HONG KONG
Mobile TV CXO Summit, jointly organised by the Cable & Satellite Broadcasting Association of Asia and the Mobile Entertainment Forum was held in Hong Kong on December 3.
The interactive summit successfully connected 40 senior content owners, mobile communications carriers and service providers in an informal and innovative environment allowing participants to brainstorm on how best to nurture the growth of mobile TV in Asia.
Participants included Sony Pictures Television International, STAR Group, Turner International, Bloomberg Television, Discovery Networks, Granada International and Walt Disney Television.
Regional and international mobile network service providers and technology specialists such as SwissCom Mobile, Telia Sonera, MediaQuest, PCCW, StarHub, Smartone, Hutchinson Telecom, CSL and 3 Hong Kong, along with Nokia, Qualcomm, Irdeto, NagraVision, NDS, Speedcast, ITSun, Dada Asia, IMG, MIH and PricewaterhouseCoopers were also among the participants.
According to a summary of the series of meetings in groups of 10 during the day, “ultimately mobile TV could be a huge revenue source for network operators, TV content owners, technology services providers and advertising agencies.
“Nevertheless, the jury is still out. There are many issues that still need to be addressed before getting a clear direction on the future development of mobile TV in Asia.”
During the Summit, it was widely agreed that two major challenges remain before securing mass consumer adoption of mobile TV services: “User experience and Content”.
According to the summary: “Although the capability to deliver content is there, user experience is very much dependent on technology being able to provide better networks with higher video quality and resolution; better devices with larger screens; longer battery life and affordable handsets across a widely varying Asian landscape.”
Content is the other critical factor and much debate took place as to what genre of content will work in Asia. Some saw news and sports as driver genres, while others claimed that experience shows that “entertainment drives as much as 80 percent of take up.”
HEARST MAGAZINES JOINS RUSH TO SIGN UP WITH NEW INTERNET TV SERVICE
US Media Week reports that Hearst Magazines is the latest US media company to sign on to distribute content via Next.TV, the new internet television service which is being built into all new HP notebook computers starting in 2008.
The company said it plans to deliver original video content from its magazines, CosmoGirl, Good Housekeeping, Marie Claire and others. Hearst joins a growing list of traditional media players partnering with the start-up web TV service, which is expected to provide consumers with access to up to 50 on demand channels via their PCs when it goes live next year.
Companies to launch channels include the production firm Endemol, which is rolling out Lazy TV – a mix of footage from its popular game/reality shows Deal or No Deal and Big Brother, as well as National Lampoon.
NINE TV WINS RIGHT TO PUBLISH ‘MISLAID’ AUSTRALIAN PRISON SEX DOCUMENTS
Channel Nine has won the right to publish parts of mislaid State government documents containing allegations including sexual misconduct by prison officers, according to a report in The Age newspaper.
The television station obtained the mislaid files in 2007, and the government which then obtained Supreme Court injunctions stopping publication of documents.
The documents contained information about a prisoner who alleged she was subjected to sexual misconduct by a prison officer while in custody; investigation plans regarding alleged sexual assaults of prisoners by prison officers; a departmental investigation into a prisoner suicide; and a report prepared for the Western Australian Department of Justice.
In one case, an investigation was held into alleged consensual intercourse between a mentally ill female prisoner and a staff member after her cell door was found unlocked.
After a six-day mostly-closed hearing, Justice Robert Osborn allowed limited publication of some documents, but suppressed publication of the West Australian prison report.
MAGAZINE CONFERENCE ATTENDEES IN SINGAPORE TOLD THE INTERNET IS BOTH A RESOURCE AND A RIVAL
The two-day Worldwide Magazine Marketplace, a magazine trade event, which took place in Singapore on Monday and Tuesday, drew an unprecedented 450 participants and exhibitors.
The event is usually always held in London but organisers decided to hold it this year in Singapore because of the growing importance of the magazine industry in the region.
Singapore alone has more than 3,000 publishing and printing firms, of which 700 publish books, journals, magazines and other products.
The Straits Times reported that speaker Dr Lee Boon Yang, the Singapore Minister for Information, Communications and the Arts, said the internet may be competing with magazines for readership and advertising, but the online world also offers magazine publishers tremendous opportunities including branding and marketing, and new ways to make money such as selling access to archived stories.
SPH Magazines chief executive officer Loh Yew Seng said print allows for a “touch and feel” experience, while online publications cater to those with “urgent requirements, instant needs.”
SPH Magazines publishes 90 magazines including Her World and Home & Décor.
Another publishing group, The Lexicon Group, is also revamping the websites of its titles such as Wine & Dine, Smart Investor and New Man.
Magazine Publishers Association of Singapore president Ho Sum Kwong said the organisation is helping publishers in Singapore to exploit the internet by offering them training and other resources, and he believed every magazine should at least have a website.
INDIAN MEDIA ADMONISHED FOR EXCESSIVE USE OF IMAGES OF TRIBAL GIRL STRIPPED NAKED IN VIOLENT DEMONSTRATION
Several Indian media outlets have been severely criticised for the excessive use of photos and footage of a tribal girl stripped naked during a violent demonstration in Guwahati, the largest city of Assam state, on November 24.
Questions have been asked whether some coverage of the naked girl was merely salacious as opposed to newsworthy, and incident has become an issue for India’s traditionally free press.
Asia Sentinel said the incident began when about 1,000 indigenous Adivasi people, equipped with traditional bows and arrows, marched to the State Secretariat in Guwahati to demand their inclusion in India’s Scheduled Tribe list.
The march became violent and a high school student Adivasi girl was stripped naked and forced to run from the crowd until residents sheltered her – but not before her naked image was recorded by the media and mobile-telephone cameras.
Some Indian media outlets heavily featured pictures of the naked, running girl. The English-language Telegraph of Kolkata (Calcutta) published her picture on its front page on November 27, three days after the incident.
The Assam Tribune, the oldest English-language daily in the region, editorialised, “When a section of the media continues to come up with the visual of the naked Adivasi girl even days after the incident, it is evident that their purpose is simply to sensationalise and blow things out of proportion.
“It is in such times that the responsibility and the credibility of the media are put to test. A responsible media should act to defuse tension and not to arouse passions further.”
Asia Sentinel said two powerful regional student bodies, the All Assam Students’ Union and Asom Jatiyatabadi Yuba-Chatra Parishad, also criticised the media, alleging that they repeatedly depicted the image of the Adivasi girl in an obscene way while neglecting to report that she had been rescued by a local youth who gave her shelter.
Shantikam Hazarika, an academic from Guwahati, said two television channels had replayed the incident for a full day, including visuals of the running girl.
“Those channels were cooking up the story, sitting in their studios and playing on the visuals of Guwahati violence. As a Guwahatian I am more angry at the media than ashamed of what has happened that day,” he said.
DISMAY OVER A WORLD DIVIDED 60-40 ON IMPORTANCE OF A FREE PRESS
MediaBlab also runs a blog (watchingthemedia.com) which follows up some of its Factiva stories.
The recent item that world opinion is divided on the importance of having a free press, according to a poll of 11,344 people in 14 countries conducted for the BBC World Service, prompted anguished comments from blog readers.
They were dismayed that almost 40 percent of respondents said it was more important to maintain social harmony and peace, even if it meant curbing the press's freedom to report news truthfully.
To make matters worse, the Australian Rationalist magazine in its current issue features an article by John Pilger titled, Time for a Fifth Estate.
Essentially Pilger agrees that the notion of major mainstream press being a free press is mostly a myth.
This is the stirring opening to his challenging piece:
“Edward Bernays, the so-called father of public relations, wrote about an invisible government, which is the true ruling power of our country. He was referring to journalism, the media. That was almost 80 years ago, not long after corporate journalism was invented.
It is a history few journalists talk about or know about, and it began with the
arrival of corporate advertising. As the new corporations began taking over the press, something called ‘professional journalism’ was invented. To attract big advertisers, the new corporate press had to appear respectable, pillars of the establishment – objective, impartial, balanced. The first
schools of journalism were set up, and a mythology of liberal neutrality was spun around the professional journalist. The right to freedom of expression was associated with the new media and with the great corporations, and the whole thing was, as the prominent mass media critic Robert McChesney
put it so well, ‘entirely bogus’.
For what the public did not know was that in order to be professional, journalists had to ensure that news and opinion were dominated by official sources, and that has not changed. Go through the New York Times
on any day, and check the sources of the main political stories – domestic and foreign – and you’ll find they’re dominated by government and other established interests. That is the essence of professional journalism. I am not suggesting that independent journalism was or is excluded, but it is more likely to be an honourable exception.
Consider how the power of this invisible government has grown. In 1983 the principle global media was owned by fifty corporations, most of them American. In 2002 this had fallen to just nine corporations. Today it
is probably about five. Rupert Murdoch has predicted that there will be just three global media giants, and his company will be one of them.”
STRONG FIRST QUARTER 2008 RESULTS FOR AUSTRALIA’S TEN TV NETWORK
Ten Network Holdings Ltd reported strong first quarter 2008 results yesterday.
Group revenue rose 11 percent on the prior corresponding period, while group EBITDA was 14 per cent higher at $122.5 million, delivering a 38 percent operating margin.
Revenue from the company's television business, Network Ten, was up 11 percent in the period, ahead of the 10 percent forecast management provided in October.
Based on that performance, management remains confident Ten’s share of the metropolitan TV advertising market in the six months to December 2007 will be ahead of the 30.3 percent share it achieved in the prior corresponding period.
Ten's first quarter television EBITDA jumped 18 percent.
INDIA TO LAUNCH YET ANOTHER ENGLISH-LANGUAGE DAILY NEWSPAPER
English-language newspaper launches are the flavour of the month throughout Asia, with new publication announcements occurring almost every week.
This week announcement comes from India’s Sakaal Group of Publications, a leading media house in Maharashtra and Goa.
The company plans to come up with two television channels and another English newspaper in 2008, according to Exchange4media.
The group already publishes Daily Sakal and Gomantak newspapers in Marathi-language, and Gomantak Times and Maharashtra Herald in English, besides other publications.
The English daily by the group will be launched in Pune in April 2008, and subsequently in a phased manner in major Indian cities. It will be targeted at SEC A and A .
“We have not yet decided on the price of the newspaper, nor have we finalised the promotional activities,” Uday Jadhav, ceo, Sakaal Publications told Exchange4media.
AUSTRALIAN TV PRODUCER TELLS STAFF TO TAKE A WALK
The Australian today ran this rather unusual email from Seven network producer Adam Boland to his production staff:
"Gang, I need to take a daily walk - but there's no f..king way I'm doing it on my own. As such, I'm introducing compulsory daily walks at 12:30pm each day for anyone in the office at that time. Applies to staff on Sunrise AND The Morning Show. There will be a different route each day - and it will last 20 minutes. Bron correctly points out that it will help build your appetite for lunch. This starts tomorrow. Non negotiable. Bring shoes. AB."
HOW RUPERT MURDOCH CAME TO BE HUNG IN RIVAL FAIRFAX MEDIA’S NEW NEWSROOM
The mystery of how dozens of images of News Ltd supremo Rupert Murdoch were hung in the new Fairfax newsroom offices in Sydney – or has it?
The Australian today publishes a missive from Fairfax Media boss Lloyd Whish-Wilson revealing,
"Staff are only too well aware of last week's problem with the wrong illustration being used for the graphics on the communication pillars on levels one, three and four Much was made of it in the Murdoch press, who also quoted some unnamed Sydney Morning Herald staff. Fairfax is being sent an official apology by the architects, who take ultimate responsibility and who failed to double-check the images. The error occurred between the architects and the people doing the graphics for the building. The panels were installed out of hours and it was the next morning before the error was picked up. The Murdoch press reaction is to be expected. In the reverse case, we'd probably have done the same. However, as many staff have expressed to me, the really disappointing thing was that some of our staff appear to have publicly got some joy out of using a mistake by a contractor to belittle the place in which they work or to automatically assume management erred. Very strange behaviour."
But Fairfax corporate spokesman Bruce Wolpe said the images were not a mistake and had been commissioned as part of a series on Australian business leaders.
AUSTRALIAN MEDIA PERSONS OF THE YEAR WINNERS
Winners of the Australian Media Person of the Year are:
Digital
Finalists
Paul and Andrew Bassett, joint chief executives and founders of Seek.com.au, for continued strong performance and growth.
Simon Baker, chief executive of realestate.com.au, for strong performance and acquisitions.
Jack Matthews, chief executive of Fairfax Digital, for increasing its share of online advertising at a faster rate than its competitors.
Winner: Jack Matthews.
Content (business)
Finalists
Ian Robertson, Holding Redlich lawyer, who helped convince the government to launch its screen producers' incentive package.
Angelos Frangopoulos, chief executive of Sky News Australia, and David Speers, its political editor, who positioned the pay-television network as the main source of TV news during the federal election.
Tim Worner, Seven Network's director of programming, who took risks and commissioned a slate of local programming that ensured Seven's dominance.
Winner: Tim Worner
Content (creative)
Finalists
The Chaser team, for their impact on pop culture and fierce satirical commentary on the political process, including their APEC security stunt, which made headlines across the world.
Chris Lilley, for his scripts and performance on Summer Heights High.
The late Matt Price, The Australian's sketch writer and a regular on TV and radio, for making politics interesting and understandable.
Winner: The Chaser
Publishing
Finalists
John Hartigan, chairman and chief executive of News Limited, who led the media industry's Right to Know campaign.
David Kirk, chief executive of Fairfax Media, who pushed through the company's merger with Rural Press and followed up by taking Fairfax back to radio.
Winner: John Hartigan.
Radio and TV
Finalists
David Leckie, Seven Network chief executive, who led the network to its first ratings win in nearly 30 years.
Kim Williams, chief executive of Foxtel, for continued growth, rising profitability and innovation.
Tony Bell, former chief executive of Southern Cross Broadcasting, under whom, over 15 years, the company's market capitalisation rose from $7 million to $1.35 billion.
Mark Scott, ABC managing director, who has handled sensitive issues such as editorial independence and bias allegations with skill and aplomb.
Winner: David Leckie
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