News Limited’s Greg Baxter and Me – Correspondence

I had a piece in Crikey today about News Limited’s The Punch using ABC journalists’ copy. In response, I received the following email from News Limited’s Director of Corporate Affairs, Greg Baxter. My response follows his email.

To: Margaret Simons
From Greg Baxter
Subject: crikey today

Your piece today almost defies belief. It was Mark Scot who attacked us remember and claimed the ABC content was free. All we did was respond. I don’t recall you having an issue with The Punch when it launched its ABC contributors at the time although of course Crikey dismissed it early because it saw straight away that The Punch would kill its numbers which it has. If ABC journalists are not allowed to appear on other media should the same apply in reverse e.g. should Michele Grattan be banned from Fran Kelly’s show? What a screwball argument.

Greg Baxter| Director, Corporate Affairs

And my response:

From: Margaret Simons [mailto:margaret@margaretsimons.com.au]
Sent: Thursday, 22 October 2009 5:42 PM
To: ‘Baxter, Greg’
Cc: ‘boss@crikey.com.au’
Subject: RE: crikey today

Dear Greg,
You may remember that some months ago we had some correspondence. I asked your permission to make it an on-the-record exchange, and you declined. I put you on notice, and you agreed, that henceforth all our exchanges would be on the record unless we explicitly agreed otherwise.

Therefore I regard your email to me as on the record, and I’ll be posting it on my blog, with this response. I will also be happy to post any further responses you may have. I am more than happy to debate you on this, but we will do it in public.

Now, regarding your email. Yes, Mark Scott attacked you, as I have reported extensively. News Limited returned fire.

When The Punch launched, I was not writing for Crikey, or for anyone else, having taken some months off to finish a book. However, Crikey did cover the issue of the use of ABC copy at the time.

You claim, if I understand you correctly, that The Punch has killed Crikey’s numbers. This is not true. Here are the figures for October so far, courtesy of Nielsen net ratings.
Page impressions
Crikey 1.4million
Punch 427,000

Unique browsers
Crikey 139,999
Punch 131,000

Time on site
Crikey 6.59 minutes
Punch 4.21 minutes.

I am told by those who pay my retainer that Crikey’s traffic continues to grow, and that there has been no noticeable impact from the launch of The Punch – which, by the way, I enjoy reading.

As for the “screwball argument”, most media organisations restrict their staff journalists’ right to work for competing organisations. News Limited certainly does. The Age presumably allows Michelle to appear on the ABC because they see it as being to their advantage.

As I reported, this may be the ABC’s philosophy too, together with new notions of the place of public “broadcasting” and the opportunities offered by The Punch platform.

However, most people – including Punch editor David Penberthy – can see the irony of News Limited using taxpayer funded content in the current context of attack and counter-attack between the ABC and News Limited. I am sorry you cannot.

Yours, Margaret