Paper review: Thomson’s ‘holiday’; Gruen urged to talk about media; New Idea has no idea
For a man who’s supposedly on holiday, Robert Thomson has certainly found a lot of time for The Australian.
And in today’s interview on the front page of the Australian’s media section, the editor of the Wall Street Journal following a remarkably similar line to that of his boss Rupert Murdoch in taking a swipe at Google.
Thomson, who was probably speaking to his sister title at about the same time that Rupert Murdoch was telling a US conference that Google was stealing from publishers, took a strikingly similar approach, accusing Google of being a parasite. It’s almost as if the attack on Google is planned rather than off-the-cuff thinking.
Meanwhile, a question that Thomson does not address in the piece is whether he’s doing any business during his “holiday” in Australia. Mumbrella hears he’s been in the News Ltd offices several times. A conspiracy theorist would wonder why there’s no question in the piece – even if accompanied by a denial – to him about any potential launch of an Australian or Asia Pacific edition of the Wall Street Journal.
Still with The Oz, John Sintras, CEO of Starcom, complains that media folk have been ignored by The Gruen Transfer, telling the paper:
“I have been waiting patiently through series one and the latest episodes to see if there is any acknowledgement of the contribution from the world of media, both the content itself and different communication touchpoints.”
The West Australian continues to annoy powerful people, reports The Oz, detailing how a judge said The West had “re-victimised” a woman who had been carjacked by the way it reported her reaction to the court case.
Falling standards are also a concern for Mark Day, who warns that New Idea‘s Bec and Leyton Hewitt blunder will have a lasting effect.
The Australian also has a somewhat different take to Mumbrella’s on the changes to sister title Alpha‘s distribution, asking whether the move could lift sales. The same article also reveals that News is to close its Parents magazine after a 44% fall in circulation.
The Australian Financial review reports more bad news for magazines and elsewhere, with Universal McCann downgrading most of its ad revenue predictions for media. The agency now says that metro TV advertising will fall by 11% in 2009, with magazines down 9.7%.
But ad agency M&C Saatchi is going well, with revenues up 20% to $29.7m, says the Fin.
Meanwhile, there’s a curious story about The Logies in Sydney’s Daily Telegraph. It takes a couple of reads to work our what they’re getting at, but they seem to be hinting that organisers TV Week are fiddling things in favour of their stablemate the Nine network.
Tim Burrowes founded Mumbrella in 2008. He worked on Mumbrella until 2021. At various points he was editor, content director and editor-at-large.
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Alpha
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John Sintras
Logies
M&C Saatchi
News Ltd
Robert Thomson
Rupert Murdoch
Starcom
The Gruen Transfer
The West Australian
Universal McCann
