Fairfax or Gina-fax? Let’s have the debate before it’s over
Former editor-in-chief of The Age Andrew Jaspan argues that Australia is just days away from suffering a major blow to its media plurality if mining billionnaire Gina Rinehart successfully takes control of Fairfax Media.
The next two weeks will be defining moments for Australia. It’s when Fairfax is likely to morph into Gina-fax.
On Tuesday Gina Rinehart, the world’s richest woman, is expected to confirm that she has acquired up to 19.9% of Fairfax. The current Board, led by ex-Woolworths and now Walmart director Roger Corbett, is expected to raise the white flag in their efforts to ward off Rinehart’s bid for control. Rinehart is believed to want two or three seats on the board, and control of the Fairfax’s editorial positioning. And what she wants she can afford to buy.
Running in parallel, Fairfax will announce this week one of the most radical restructuring of its metropolitan mastheads, The Age and Sydney Morning Herald. From July 1 the two papers will be nationalized, that is, converted into one newsroom across both titles. There will be some local differences to allow the content to be rebranded for the Melbourne and Sydney audiences, but two voices in our shallow pool of diversity will become one.
After reading this tripe, it’s no wonder The Age has gone downhill.
PS. and good luck with The Conversation – because no-one will be listening.
Well I think I might pop to a cafe with wi-fi before commenting in case she buys Mumbrella to shut it up too and comes after me.
“Is this the modern, open, progressive, democratic, tolerant, knowledge-based, clever country we aspire to be? Or are we seeing the same rise of the oligarch as in Russia where the resource-rich billionaires also dominate the media?”
I fear the latter, unfortunately.
It is typical of the friends of Fairfax, mainly non shareholders to bleat about their Fairfax. It’s very simple, Fairfax, in a breakup is worth between around 50 cps, depending on the timing of the $500m of restructuring and redundancies as newspapers decline. One has to be conservative as the newspapers in Sydney and Melbourne provide the online pool of UB’s that enable the Fairfax digital divisions to generate their declared profits. Drive, MyCareer, Domain, Essential Baby, RSVP, Stayz, all benefit immensely from this cross audience pool. One knocks $300m-360m off the valuation of the digital assets if the SMH/The Age were no longer to exist. And which they surely will. Of USA cities over 4m persons (13) only 11 have two daily newspapers. Sydney and Melbourne are naturally single newspapers towns this decade. These two cities are Fairfax’s Stalingrad, and Rupert is on the other side of the Volga with relatively endless commitment and resources.
Now Gina is paying 10 cps per share above the 50 cps breakup valuation to ensure that Abbott gets elected and the upper house control passes to the Coalition. This is for her a $47m extra cost premium (10 cps on 20% of capital which is $2.350b) She picks up billons in the termination of the carbon tax, MRRT on new mines (hers). And so she should.
But Fairfax metro journalists have lost the ability to keep these two titles journals of records under the current editorial independence guidelines. Relative to News, it is obvious that theses two newspapers don’t do the hard yards anymore that the News provides readers. By adopting this Chardonnay journalism Fairfax has lost the readers who count – right wing readers -who have the money. In the last election, of the 20 wealthiest electorates, 13 voted coalition. Fairfax, as Greg Gardiner, the best Fairfax GM of the past 50 years, said, “every day the SMH, AFR and Age shovels up **** in the face of their readers”. These are the wealthiest readers who can afford pay walls, $2.00 cover prices. Fairfax bleeds readers and circulation share to News.
For Gina, the chances of getting top quality conservative managers from the world talent pool are easy.
The key thing it’s not your Fairfax, it’s the shareholders Fairfax. Those making the noise wouldn’t buy shares and suffer the losses that have occurred, Gina has. They want something for nothing, just like the ABC/SBS viewer who gets a $1.3b pa service for their culture and not pay directly for it. And as though the Government should own any media at all, or not at least have the ABC/SBS advertiser or PAY TV financed.
I have a pretty decent A3 printer with quite a lot of ink left. I can write real good too. Who’s with me?
This horribly edited article, rife with typos, is probably the reason you’re the former editor in chief.
Sounds very ‘tin-foil-hat’.
How many people do you think get their news from paper or institution owned websites these days? You’ve missed the boat, again.
What a depressing thought! Rinehart in control of Fairfax. If this happens, I can see myself never bothering to read (let alone buy another Australian based newspaper again – I already avoid all Murdoch press). Instead I suppose I’ll just stick to the ABC and SBS fro my local balanced online new sources and then get my world news from the Guardian and The Independent in the UK online.
@ Hmmmm – You raise a good warning question there regarding the rise of the Australian Oligarchs. What a shame it could come to this.
Hello Mumbrella-folk! Small typo in the title (OF instead of OR).
Thanks Waah. Updated accordingly.
Cheers,
Cathie – Mumbrella
And what are you contributing Robbo?
I am and will remain a reader of The Conversation – it and sites like it are satisfying a need in society that will soon become more widely felt.
I’m not reading biased propaganda, Analog Penetration, that’s for sure. Unlike you.
The opposition are blaming the carbon tax for the loss of the two printing plants and the loss of 2000 jobs.
This would be the headline on the Herald and the Age today under a Fairfax run by mining companies.
When will Australia move beyond being “the lucky quarry”.
Australia just got dumber…and Robbo you seem to fine with that? We’re turning inot a creche of morons run by big mining companies. Our culture…what’s left of it?
Just reading a few of these comments should make us all despair! The ratbag right have taken over commercial AM radio, Ch 9 – post Packer’s legacy, Ch 10 since Rinehart, and now the only voice not simply regurgitating the propaganda of Tory lick-spittles: the Herald, is set to become prey to the fell stench of these Murdoch inspired miscreants.
It happened in the UK – read “Dial M for Murdoch” – just released. It is happening here – only worse! This is breathtakingly sinister!!
I don’t believe that the general public is stupid enough to take everything they read at face value. So what if gina-fax pushes “climate opinion & carbon tax agenda.” It would be blatantly obvious and consist probably .1% of everything that they publish.
An educated reader would inspect everything with a grain of salt and if they don’t like it, retreat to their blog, comments section or troll cave. Just like this article for example, you wouldn’t be the first ex-employee sprouting of managerial failure.
Now I’m not suggesting that you left on bad terms or carry resentment, just making a point and you’re probably right, there will be further reductions in talented staff and editorial independence at Fairfax. However, in a media format that is so rapidly in demise I don’t see this as a problem. Within 5 years, when physical newspapers are no longer financially viable they will have as much control of the media as you and I do via our keyboards.
As a reader, I want my news source to occur as having a sense of mastery: mastery of its purpose, its niche, its material, its expression. For a long time, Fairfax papers have not occurred to me in this way. Occasionally, some of the older journalists will still demonstrate this mastery, eg, John Silvester, but as a product it no longer does.
The absence of mastery shows up in many ways, including poor editing and grammar. You can pick up The Age on any day and find typos and errors galore. This piece itself is badly edited (presumably by the people at The Conversation). The following passage is awful:
“And that has left the company weak and defenceless to predators such as Rinehart. Staff, meanwhile, have been living in denial. Though finally last week the penny dropped among the editorial staff that Gina’s tilt at Fairfax will happen. That has led to great despondency, and many rightly concerned about their future. And of course, once in, she is in control, and they will be told if they don’t like it, they can ship out.”
Readers can smell this mastery. If you don’t show evidence of it, they will continue to turn away.
Mark,
I take on board your comments.
Climate debate may be a minor percentage of coverage but it is pivotal at this time.
The Liberals are falsely blaming every economic woe on the carbon tax and many intelligent Australians agree with them.
Just where will people be able to access unbiased news in future?
E
This is hilarious coming from Jaspan, the guy who forced The Age journalists to promote Earth Hour, a program in which Fairfax has shares.
Jaspan and co’s only concern is that other voices as well as theirs will be heard.
Since when was “billionaire” spelt “billionnaire”?
Ah, Mumbrella, how quickly you take on errors of the error-ridden. 😉
It’s pretty rich for an ex-editor who was dismissed from Fairfax to a cheer of relief across the Age editorial floor to start giving advice on how to run the rest of the business.
Fairfax cannot compete online with the ad free, subscription free Drum, competing with News Ltd is it’s only chance. To do so it must move to the Right, there is no other option it’s Nofax or Ginafax.
Choose wisely.
So what?
If you think media Plurality is doomed in this country write about it. If what you write has the ring of truth the people will reward your efforts with popularity. It is that simple.
The friut of debate is enlightenment and freedom of speech the DNA of democracy. Why close the lid on the treasure chest?
Fairfax can live, but it needs to stop being a niche market player. Why sing to a small choir and then complain about their failure to support you in the manner in which you would like to.
Fairfax needs to embrace diversity of opinion to make it stronger, not demand others to support its own thinly disguised political agenda.
Their stance on the debunked Al Gore Climate Change scam is just baffling. It’s 2012 and they are stuck in the past.
I think this is a great thing for Australian Media if Gina buys more into Fairfax. Let her buy more of the old dinosaur. Watch the cream leave and then watch ‘the cream’ launch into the digital news space themselves, without a paywall, engaging their audiences really well.
You watch the news space – I can see many speedboats getting launched, which are far more nimble than the oil tanker Reinhart. Yes she is worth more, however the speedboat is what everyone wants.
We shall see?
Content creators: Do something yourselves, you are great at writing content!!!!!!!!!!
Tim did it with Mumbrella!!
What has happened to Journalism over the last couple of decades? You have rejected your brief to report the news, and instead have gone for advocacy of any tin pot, half baked idea that comes along.
Oh, I know. It went to the Universities, since they are the paragons of “learning”. What has happened to those REPORTERS who got their apprentiships in the back of the Black Marias, and learnt to be cynical of everything that is spouted by Bozos.
All we are seeing is the end game for this failed system of “degree” qualified children.