All aboard the campaign love bus. Apparently Real Julia consists of Julia Gillard and her team hanging out on the campaign bus with all the journalists. “Journos will be on their best behaviour on the media bus this morn — Ms Gillard herself has joined us,” tweeted Seven news journo Jodie Speers. But don’t expect them to be asking the tough questions: “Media circus has a whole new meaning. Cameras and spotlights in action on the bus — anything said is off-the-record tho,” she clarified. It might be off-the-record, but you couldn’t wipe the smiles off the faces of the journalists, judging by Latika Bourke’s tweetphoto:

presspack

Bourke continues in her mission to be the most influential tweeting journo in the nation, even managing to convince John Faulkner to tweet from her iPad. Faulks provided the best tweet of the election, even if it didn’t include the #ausvotes hashtag:

I have been asked to tweet by Latika. I have referred her to my personal explanation in the Senate re Facebook and tweeting. John Faulkner

But don’t expect him to become a regular tweep. “Blimey that took Faulks about ten minutes to write,” tweeted Latika, seconds afterwards. Perhaps this journalist/pollie love fest will encourage some more positive reporting for the Gillard camp? Stay tuned for tomorrow. — Amber Jamieson

ABC News 24 doing OK. ABC News 24 came back to earth yesterday with its prime-time share more than halving to 0.3% (0.7% on Sunday), last night. With pay TV included, its share didn’t fall, as it did (from 0.7% to 0.6%) on Sunday. But during the day Sky News beat ABC News 24. From 6am to 6pm Sky averaged 17,000, ABC News 24, 12,000 viewers. But from 6pm to 10.30pm (prime time), News 24 averaged 15,000 to Sky’s 12,000 viewers.

With this little victory, I wonder if the Sky supporters at News Ltd will notice it? Yesterday, The Australian’s Amanda Meade noticed ABC News 24’s figures, but not its winning margin over Sky on Sunday daytime and evening prime time.

In prime time last night ABC News 24 finished last among the ABC multichannels (it was second on Sunday night). That’s because there was more popular fare on ABC2 and ABC3. SBS TWO also did a lot better with a share of 0.8%.

ABC News 24 isn’t about garnering a huge audience, such as ABC2 does most nights, or Nine’s GO, 7TWO or Ten’s ONE. It’s all about providing a free 24-hour news service to as many people in Australia who want to watch, even those who presently have pay TV and pay for Sky News through their Foxtel or Austar subscription packages. — Glenn Dyer

The Oz not down to business. The Australian’s mobile/PDA edition hasn’t updated its business section since March 15! I’m a little sick of the deja vu I experience when I go to that section. — a Crikey reader

Tim Dunlop: Vote for your favourite journalist to lead the nation

“Whoever wins this election — and according to the media narrative, that is now almost inevitably the Coalition (and hey, that’s never wrong, right?) — I suspect it will go down in history as the election where the media itself became the story.”– The Drum

Newsweek (and its debt) sells for $1

“It’s official: Sidney Harman, the businessman who made his fortune selling stereo equipment, has secured a deal to buy Newsweek from the Washington Post Co and will announce the deal later Monday afternoon.” — Advertising Age

Frank’s cold was magazine gold

“Frank Sinatra Has a Cold ran in April 1966 and became one of the most celebrated magazine stories ever published, a pioneering example of what came to be called New Journalism — a work of rigorously faithful fact enlivened with the kind of vivid storytelling that had previously been reserved for fiction.” — Esquire

Get ready for more Afghan Diary style leaks

“Is the likelihood rising that someone with access to information will feel a moral obligation to ‘get the truth out’ — as the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq grind on and as many debate controversial practices such as waterboarding and secret prisons? The existence of WikiLeaks, of thumb drives, and of thousands of young soldiers recruited for the wars every year supports answering that question with a ‘yes’.” — Christian Science Monitor

Feeling depressed about your time online?

“Teenagers who spend excessive amounts of time on the internet are one and a half times more likely to develop depression than moderate web users, a study in China has found.” — Reuters

Subs get their day

“While glossy magazine journalists are a source of endless inspiration for television and film — from The Devil Wears Prada to Ugly Betty – their sub-editing office counterparts have been largely absent from screen, stage and page … However, a new play at London’s C-ck Tavern Theatre (which runs until August 14) breaks with this tradition and, in what must be a first, focuses exclusively on a team of sub-editors on an upmarket men’s magazine called Gentlemen Prefer” — The Guardian

Email is dead, long live Twitter

“[Neilsen] found that on average, about 23 per cent of our online time is spent on social networking sites, versus 8.3 per cent on email.” — Technologizer

Helen Thomas learns of Fox News’ front-row seat

“‘Too bad,’ she replied. Asked to elaborate, she said ‘What do I think of it? I think that I have no say, no power over that anymore … I hope they do a good job’.” — Mediaite

20 billionth tweet: “So that means the barrage might come back later all at once.”

“It has been accused of proliferating pointless babble online and the 20 billionth message on Twitter will have done little to rebut such criticism.” — The Guardian