May, 2011

Here is a link to a fascinating interview in the Ben Grubb case. Via @stilgherrian. http://stilgherrian.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/brianhay-20110518-final.mp3

Okay, I now have some comment from Fairfax management on my earlier post. To recap, Bronwen Clune is quoting investigations by Fairfax staff that allegedly show Fairfax has grossly underestimated the number of pages that will have to be sub-edited by Pagemasters under the oursourcing deal: In Hywood’s calculations of pages that need to be [...]

Can this be true? Bronwen Clune has a post alleging that Fairfax has grossly underestimated the number of pages that need to be be subbed by Pagemasters under the outsourcing deal. Can this be right? Making calls….

I don’t normally blog or Tweet personal, but I had to share this one with all of you freelancers out there who are struggling with your words today. Driving my three year old grandson (actually my step-grandson. It’s complicated) to childcare today, I remarked to him that he was being very quiet. He sighed deeply, [...]

Head over to YouCommNews to read the latest…here.

The advertising trade magazine B&T is claiming that at least three advertisers have requested that their spots not be shown during Andrew Bolt’s new show on Channel Ten. The advertisers TeleChoice, MrRentals and iPrimus are understood to have withdrawn, the article says. Channel Ten is quoted as attributing the withdrawals to the fact that some advertisers [...]

The 3AW rumour file this morning had a story suggesting that Anthony Catalano has sold his Weekly Review operation to Fairfax for big bucks. I just spoke to Catalano, and it isn’t true. He said: “I just got off a plane and heard the same rumour. If I have been sold, then I don’t know [...]

If we enter into the fantasy that the decision to outsource subbing at Fairfax has not already been made, then we believe that today is the day when CEO Greg Hywood will communicate with his staff and the union on their proposals for alternative rationalisations. The Fairfax staff campaign site is here. They are appealing [...]

I have been talking a bit to the team at Our Say in recent months. They are five young web entrepeneurs running an experiment in participatory democracy in which people post and vote for questions that they want answered by our political leaders. For those of us interested in innovation in journalism, and in particular [...]

Some of The Age’s most senior journalists have put their name to a statement stating that the outsourcing of sub editing will be a “serious threat to the identity, integrity, quality and independence of The Age and The Sunday Age.” The statement, posted under Latest News on the Age Independence Committee website is signed by [...]