January 27, 2009 – 7:31 pm
As reported in the Sydney Morning Herald Irsh media baron Tony O’Reilly has withdrawn from sale his stake in APN News and Media.
Meanwhile on the other side of the world, he has signalled his willingness to put The Independent and the Sunday Independent up for sale, to reduce the debt of his Independent News and [...]
January 27, 2009 – 6:52 pm
My long article on threats and opportunities for the ABC and SBS, resulting from an Australia Day reading of submissions to the Government’s review of public broadcasting has been published at Inside Story.
January 27, 2009 – 3:43 pm
The troops at the Canberra Times are feeling unloved since it was announced that the man they thought would be their next editor, Mick Millett, was going to the ABC instead. Doesn’t anyone want them?
This morning the newsroom was abuzz with a rumour that betrays how nervous they are feeling. It was along the lines [...]
January 27, 2009 – 11:55 am
Remember Allan Kessing? He was the former Customs officer accused and convicted of leaking a report on airport security lapses to the Australian newspaper. The pursuit of Kessing was an unedifying episode from the days of the Howard Government.
In December last year he lost an appeal against his conviction. The latest news is that he [...]
January 27, 2009 – 9:00 am
Some go to the beach. Some have barbecues. Lucky them.
I spent Australia Day reading through some of the more than 2400 submissions to the Government’s review of public broadcasting. I could dress this up as patriotism, I suppose. No. It’s just sad.
Anyway, the result is a short news story for Crikey later today, plus a [...]
January 26, 2009 – 12:39 pm
The English Sunday Times newspaper is reporting that Tony O’Reilly’s Independent News & Media publishing empire is preparing to sell assets to try and clear some of its debt. The focus is Verivox, a German price comparison website and other online assets.
INM’s stake in APN has been on the block since November, of course, with [...]
January 23, 2009 – 9:17 pm
Michael Backman has been in touch to say that he DOES NOT blame the subs. See the update to my earlier post today.
January 23, 2009 – 4:30 pm
One of the arguments one hears from within the ABC against the outsourcing of production is that it leads to Auntie spending its dollars on programs which, after a few months, end up on pay television.
A different view emerges from a submissions from the pay television sector to the Government review of public broadcasting. They [...]
January 23, 2009 – 12:32 pm
As reported in the Crikey e-mail today, Michael Backman has written to Jewish community leaders apologising for the distress caused by his controversial column, published in The Age last Saturday. Backman says in his letter of apology:
I can now see that some of the forms of words used did not adequately explain what I intended [...]
January 23, 2009 – 9:20 am
More than 2400 submissions were made to the Government’s review of public broadcasting. They have just been published on the web.
I haven’t had a chance to look at them yet, and today is a busy day. Crowd sourcing welcome – if anyone wants to point me to something that should be looked at, my e-mail [...]
