Friday, February 10, 2012

Back Later

STORMY weather is due to hit Melbourne later this afternoon, leaving just a brief window  to squeeze in a quick nine holes. Back later, after the round and a stop on the way home at the tackle shop, where a few bits and pieces need to be picked up in preparation for an upcoming expedition, probably to the Snowy and some of its upper tributaries.

By the way, congratulations to newly installed Australian Financial Review supremo Michael Stutchbury, whose Saturday edition has gained a 3.7% circulation increase. The weekly editions shrunk, but the weekend gain suggests the paper's policy of re-tailoring content to its audience's taste may actually be producing results. If you wrote off the AFR under its previous leader, it is worth taking another look. The changes are not huge, but a sharpening edge is apparent in its coverage of, amongst other things, industrial relations. If this trend keeps up, the paper may well go from a once- or twice-a-week purchase to daily delivery at the Billabong.

The news at the Phage is terrible -- losses of around 6% -- and at the Silly, even worse, unless chalking up the largest single shrinkage of any newspaper in the nation is cause for celebration at Fairfax World Headquarters. For those interested, the latest numbers for all of Australia's print media can be found here and Tim Blair also has some thoughts.

Any professional journalists, especially Fairfax ones, who feel inclined to share their perspectives on what ails their employer's broadsheets should feel free to do so in comments. They will be posted later today.

7 comments:

  1. The Old and Unimproved DaveFebruary 10, 2012 at 12:56 PM

    When you can predict precisely what the newspaper's stories will say, what need to buy a copy ?

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  2. I think the folks as Fairfax will soon no longer be able to ignore the valuable lesson in political economy they are being given by their readership.

    On one hand we have those most dedicated readers who fork over their hard earned every day to obtain a print edition of the Herald or Age. Lets call them taxpayers. On the other hand there are the readers who obtain the same content for free on their technolgical device of choice. Lets call them welfare scroungers. There is of course a third group who get a print edition every day as a result of belonging to a gym where they are handed out for free. Lets call them the public service.

    In any case it will soon become obvious to more and more employees of this once great organisation that the dwindling number of taxpayers are being overwhelmed by the welfare scroungers and public servants.

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    Replies
    1. Elizabeth (Lizzie) B.February 12, 2012 at 10:52 AM

      And ain't that the truth, Super D! Someone should point it out to them though. On past form, they are unlikely to work this out for themselves. They'll crash, and it will all be Tony Abbott's fault.

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  3. Great to see the Fairfax press going down the gurgler.

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  4. I have never seen the need to buy The Age.

    My family have always found that the size of the average sheet of Sorbent is perfectly adequate for our requirements.

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  5. What Blackadder said about the newspaper King and Country applies exactly to The Age: it is "soft, strong and thoroughly absorbent" - which is why my Grandmother preferred The Age to any other newspaper for service in her dunny out the back.

    This is the only worthwhile service The Age provides for the community.

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  6. A Dill over at the Silly bemoans the old-fashioned concept of "retirement" .... she my have to face it sooner than she thinks if she can run those circulation numbers through her abacus.


    http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/society-and-culture/retirement-is-a-work-in-progress-20120210-1simq.html

    ReplyDelete