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CommBank marketing chief accuses media inquiry of trying to ‘regulate the unregulateable’

Andy LarkOne of Australia’s most influential marketers has joined the chorus of voices coming out against proposals to boost regulation of online media.

Andy Lark, chief marketing officer of Commonwealth Bank and himself a prolific blogger, has spoken out against the proposal to regulate online news sites in the same way as newspapers, TV and radio. The proposal suggests that sites the offers news and analysis should be regulated by a new News Media Council even if they have audiences as small as 41 page views per day. Assuming all 41 views come from 41 different people, this still only equates to a reach of 0.00017% of the Australian population.

Writing on his blog, The Daily Lark, he referred to a definition of news media leaned on by Ray Finkelstein in the Independent Media Inquiry – “The news media are those that gather, analyse and disseminate news, often with their own opinions added”.

Lark said that the traffic levels would make his own offering a “regulatable blog”.

He said: “Lets put those tax payer dollars to better use. Kids are going uneducated. We have too many living beneath the poverty line. We need crtical infrastructure now to lay the foundation for growth. What we don’t need is more bureaucracy focusing on social media.”

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