Category Archives: News Corporation

Major newspapers could face a $40m hit if governments follow Victoria in abandoning print advertising

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Data highlights total government spending on print as experts say Daniel Andrews’ move will be watched

Major metropolitan newspapers could lose up to $40m in advertising revenue if state and federal governments follow Victoria’s lead and pull their print advertising.

In 2022 state and federal governments spent about $40m placing government ads in major capital city newspapers, and another $5m on digital advertising on news websites like heraldsun.com.au and theage.com.au, according to media agency data collected by Standard Media Index.

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Bruce Lehrmann drops defamation case and settles with News Corp over Brittany Higgins reports

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The two parties reportedly settled with News Corp saying it had not paid any damages and the articles in dispute would remain online

Bruce Lehrmann has discontinued defamation proceedings against News Corp over its initial reporting of Brittany Higgins’ allegations after he settled with the media company.

News.com.au said in a statement that the settlement involved the payment of a portion of Lehrmann’s legal costs only.

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News Corp denies it played a part in Stan Grant’s decision to leave Q+A amid racist attacks

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Murdoch’s Australian media chief calls on ABC to ‘correct the record’ after accusations that excessive coverage encouraged racist social media trolls

Rupert Murdoch’s top executive in Australia has defended News Corp’s reporting of the ABC’s coronation broadcast and denied it played a part in Stan Grant’s decision to stand down from hosting Q+A after becoming the target of racist attacks.

News Corp Australasia chief executive Michael Miller responded to an interview on Monday in which the ABC news director Justin Stevens accused News Corp of targeting the ABC because the public broadcaster threatened its business model.

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ABC coverage of King Charles III coronation tops Australian ratings despite being attacked by monarchists

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After being accused of being ‘obsequious’ over Queen Elizabeth’s funeral, ABC included discussion of colonialism and monarchy’s relevance

The ABC’s broadcast of King Charles’ coronation was labelled “despicable” by monarchists, but viewers loved it and gave the national broadcaster an easy ratings win over the commercial networks.

The king’s procession averaged 1,182,000 viewers on the ABC, putting it ahead of Seven’s 1,096,000 and Nine’s 738,000, according to OzTAM which now measures viewing through broadcast TV and streaming devices.

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Lachlan Murdoch drops defamation proceedings against independent Australian publisher Crikey

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Move comes days after Fox reached a $US787.5m settlement with the voting equipment company Dominion in a separate defamation lawsuit

Lachlan Murdoch has dropped his defamation proceedings against the independent Australian media company Private Media, the publisher of Crikey.

The Fox Corporation CEO said he was ending the case in light of the settlement in the US of the Dominion lawsuit against Fox News.

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Consumer advocates reject media calls to preserve exemptions to Australian privacy law

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Centre for Responsible Technology ‘supportive’ of proposed reforms, calling them the ‘first significant upgrade of privacy laws in four decades’

Consumer digital rights advocates have rejected media companies’ call to preserve their exemption to privacy law, warning that commercial models should not be put ahead of public interest.

Peter Lewis, the director of the Australia Institute’s Centre for Responsible Technology, said it was “disappointing” that the Right to Know coalition “set up with the laudable goal of protecting journalists and whistleblowers is now being deployed to prosecute Big Media’s business interests at the expense of the public they purport to serve”.

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Australian media companies reject proposed privacy law reforms

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Coalition of organisations says changes would have ‘devastating impact on press freedom’ and are not in public interest

Media companies have rejected a proposal to reform Australian privacy law, warning that the changes – including a right to sue outlets for serious invasions of privacy – are not in the public interest and would harm press freedom.

The Right to Know coalition warns the attorney general’s department’s proposal, released in February, would have “a devastating impact on press freedom and journalism in Australia without any clearly defined need or benefit”.

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Bruce Lehrmann told employer ‘false allegations’ had not hurt his ability to lobby effectively, documents show

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List of ‘friendly’ journalists and other media personalities Lehrmann was ‘outraged’ at also among evidence submitted to the court

The former Liberal staffer Bruce Lehrmann told the tobacco giant he lobbied for that the public revelation of rape allegations against him had “not hindered the relations within my political network” and said he was still able to influence federal policy to “further the business financially”, documents show.

New documents filed in Lehrmann’s defamation case against News Corp, Network Ten, Lisa Wilkinson and Samantha Maiden reveal Lehrmann’s correspondence with British American Tobacco Australia, his then employer, in the days and months after Brittany Higgins’ allegations were first made public in February 2021.

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Bruce Lehrmann to argue defamation proceedings delayed by legal advice, mental health and court case

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Lehrmann is suing Network Ten and News Corp, and reporters Lisa Wilkinson and Samantha Maiden, for defamation outside the usual 12-month time limit

Bruce Lehrmann will argue he was delayed in launching defamation proceedings against Network Ten and News Corp because of his mental health, the high-profile criminal case against him and due to prior legal advice, a court has heard.

Lehrmann is suing the two media outlets and reporters Lisa Wilkinson and Samantha Maiden in the federal court, alleging he was defamed in stories reporting Brittany Higgins’ allegations of rape in February 2021.

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Ladbrokes fined nearly $80,000 for failing to stem damage from man who stole millions for gambling

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Regulator finds firm did not inquire as to source of Gavin Fineff’s funds and instead ‘provided attractive bonuses’

The sports wagering company Ladbrokes has been fined nearly $80,000 for serious breaches of its licence and failing to limit damage caused by Gavin Fineff, a financial adviser who stole millions of dollars from his clients to service his gambling addiction.

Fineff has pleaded guilty to multiple fraud-related offences in the New South Wales district court and is awaiting sentencing. He lost more than $8m to sports gambling, with much of that money belonging to friends and clients, some of them elderly and vulnerable.

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News Corp to cut 1,250 jobs after missing second-quarter estimates

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Reduced ad spends due to rising inflation and higher interest rates have battered Rupert Murdoch’s media conglomerate

Media conglomerate News Corp said on Thursday that it would cut 1,250 jobs after it missed estimates for second-quarter earnings due to weakness in its news and digital real estate businesses.

Rising inflation and higher interest rates are forcing companies to curb their ad and marketing spend, denting one of the major sources of revenue for companies such as News Corp, which has major publishing platforms including the Wall Street Journal and New York Post in the US, The Sun and The Times in the UK, and The Australian.

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Republican who urged Trump to declare ‘Marshall’ law only regrets misspelling

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Text from Ralph Norman to Mark Meadows, Donald Trump’s final chief of staff, urged president to declare martial law

A Republican who urged the Trump White House to declare martial law to stop Joe Biden taking office has only one regret: that he misspelled “martial”.

The text from Ralph Norman of South Carolina to Mark Meadows, Donald Trump’s final chief of staff, was given to the January 6 committee by Meadows and revealed by Talking Points Memo.

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Emma Tucker to become first female editor-in-chief of the Wall Street Journal

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British editor of the UK Sunday Times, which is also owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp, will take the position in early 2023

Emma Tucker, the British editor of the UK Sunday Times, was named on Monday as the new editor-in-chief of the Wall Street Journal, and will become the first woman to lead the 133-year-old business title.

The move, announced by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp, will happen in February next year when Tucker, who will also run Dow Jones Newswires, will succeed Matt Murray, who will depart after a four year tenure.

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Sky News host Chris Smith suspended after allegations of inappropriate behaviour at Christmas party

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Company says ‘the welfare of our staff is our absolute priority’ and it will ‘take these allegations very seriously’

Sky News host Chris Smith has been suspended after accusations that he behaved inappropriately toward colleagues after the broadcaster’s Christmas party over the weekend.

Smith was with other Sky News Australia employees at The Establishment in Sydney. He reportedly joined colleagues at The Ivy Sunroom at midday on Saturday for the formal event before going on to The Establishment. After concerns about his behaviour were raised with senior executives, he was stood down immediately.

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Peter Gleeson leaves News Corp’s Courier-Mail and Sky News after multiple instances of plagiarism

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In one case the Courier-Mail columnist and Sky News presenter filled almost half a column with the unattributed reporting of a regional ABC journalist

The Sky News presenter and Courier-Mail columnist Peter Gleeson has left News Corp after multiple instances of plagiarism were uncovered.

The Courier-Mail announced his fate on Thursday, and it did not pull any punches: “In a personal note to The Courier-Mail editor Chris Jones today Mr Gleeson said: ‘I apologise for breaching News Corp’s Code of Conduct and instances where I have not met the standards required’.

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Murdoch press turns on Donald Trump in favour of ‘DeFuture’ Ron DeSantis

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Rightwing media empire looks for new Republican protege after poor showing in midterm elections

Rupert Murdoch has reportedly warned Donald Trump his media empire will not back any attempt to return to the White House, as former supporters turn to the youthful Florida governor Ron DeSantis.

After the Republican party’s disappointing performance in the US midterm elections, in particular the poor showing by candidates backed by Trump, Murdoch’s rightwing media empire appears to be seeking a clean break from the former president’s damaged reputation and perceived waning political power.

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Daniel Andrews pledges veterans card while Matthew Guy offers stamp duty savings for first home buyers

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Premier says more to come on cost-of-living measures and asks ‘what is the point’ of News Corp story on his 2021 fall

The Victorian premier, Daniel Andrews, has pledged $37m to introduce a veterans card if re-elected later this month, while the opposition leader, Matthew Guy, offered stamp duty savings for first home buyers.

The Victorian veterans card, to be rolled out from mid-2023, would entitle the state’s 90,000 veterans to a $100 discount on the registration of one vehicle, as well as free trailer and caravan registration and free fishing and boating licences. Veterans would be entitled to free public transport on Anzac Day and Remembrance Day.

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Tylenol murders: daughter tells of toll of unsolved killings, 40 years on

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Seven people died in 1982 after taking painkillers from bottle someone – police do not know who – had slipped cyanide pills into

Forty years after the infamous Tylenol murders killed her father and two other close relatives, a Wisconsin woman refuses to take the popular pain pills.

Kasia Janus also always verifies products are properly sealed before she buys anything at stores, she said in a recently published series of interviews with CNN that described the gut-wrenching legacy left behind for her by the unsolved Tylenol killings, which made tampering with medications as well as other consumer goods a federal crime but remain unsolved.

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Steve Price’s article claiming ‘minority’ white male status prompts press council complaints

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News Corp columnist framed himself as among a minority of white men who could no longer voice their opinion

Australia’s press watchdog has received multiple complaints about a widely condemned News Corp column by Steve Price in which he complained he was among a white “minority”, a claim that flies in the face of evidence on media diversity.

The Herald Sun ran Price’s column over a full page on Saturday, allowing him to bemoan the inclusion of “coloured or Asian people” in television advertising, among other things.

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Rupert Murdoch’s flagship Australian newspaper deletes story on sex life of British royal

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The Australian’s online youth section, The Oz, published salacious gossip about a royal based on an unverified online rumour site

It is known as the most conservative newspaper in Australia but on Friday Rupert Murdoch’s national masthead ventured into the surprising territory of highly salacious and unsubstantiated gossip about the British royal family.

Minutes after the Guardian asked the editor-in-chief of the Australian, Christopher Dore, to comment on why the unusual article purportedly about a royal’s sex life had been published, it was taken down.

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