Dr Mumbo

What Fairfax and News could achieve if they worked together

Dr Mumbo is all too aware Nine and Fairfax could be merging later this year, but he’s also been keeping a keen eye on the increasing collaborations between rivals Fairfax and News Corp.

And it seems he’s not the only one.

At this year’s News Media Awards co-host Andrew Hansen, who noted the new awards format brought together the newspaper people with the advertising people – “so the alcoholics are now with the cocaine addicts” – was also keen to explore what would happen if the two companies worked more togehter.

In a song about how much publishers hate Facebook – which will forever more be stuck in Dr Mumbo’s head – Hansen traversed through publishers’ recent troubles.

“Facebook came along and stole our news stories,
Brought down our income and our mood.
It put them for free in people’s daily feeds,
Along with 50 boring photographs of food.”

The solution to outdo the much-hated Facebook? Fairfax and News Corp doing more than just sharing a printing press.

“News Corp said ‘We like to make our readers scared’,
Fairfax said ‘Mine only read Domain’
News Corp said ‘Let’s print a joint story then,
About house prices brought down by African gangs’.”

Co-host Craig Reucassel didn’t want to ruffle too many feathers, however, warning could-be winners: “If you disagree with any of the results tonight, please don’t argue with the umpire because Mark Knight is over there with a pencil.”

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