Hear the one about the media mogul who had to start up a new media outlet because his existing one wasn’t doing what he wanted?
Kerry Stokes’s The Nightly — an online version of that quaint tradition of the evening commuter newspaper — launches today and represents a major vote of no-confidence in Stokes’ Seven Network. As Crikey reported recently, the only reason Stokes retains his major minority stake in Seven West Media (which plumbed to an all-time low of 22 cents on Friday) is for its “strategic” value: its politically conservative influence via the Seven Network and The West Australian newspaper.
The Nightly is also reportedly backed by right-wing climate denialist mining heiress Gina Rinehart (she also invested in Ten in the Lachlan Murdoch era, and had a $300 million stake in Fairfax that she sold in 2015), fossil fuel advocate and mining billionaire Chris Ellison and Harvey Norman CEO Katie Page.
Stokes, Rinehart and the rest of the fossil fuel lobby essentially control Western Australia via a compliant Labor Party, which acts as watchdog and policy fixer for the extractive resources sector. But the Seven Network, which backs war criminals and provides reliably pro-Coalition news and current affairs, is both struggling financially and clearly failing to deliver the kind of influence over politicians and public opinion that was once par for the course for a free-to-air network.
The Nightly, which shares an editor-in-chief with the West Australian, will be “economically conservative” and will, according to the Financial Review, carry advertising from two of Australia’s most toxic and politically powerful industries, fossil fuels (Woodside) and gambling (Ladbrokes). One of its contributors will be the former editor in chief of The Australian, Chris Dore, who lost his job at News Corp in late 2022 after making lewd comments to a woman at a company function.
While fossil fuels companies appear relatively safe under the pro-gas Albanese government, which even consulted them on how little Petroleum Resources Rent Tax they should pay on offshore gas, gambling is in the firing line in Canberra in relation to the saturation level of advertising the industry inflicts on television viewers through the free-to-air industry, including on Channel Seven. Nine Entertainment has already fired a warning shot at the government not to cut off precious revenue flows from the gambling sector. A new outlet to push “economically conservative” (i.e. anti-regulatory) views will be advantageous for the gambling companies.
With billionaire backers, The Nightly could lose money for years or decades while the likes of Stokes, Rinehart and Ellison, Charles Foster Kane-like, continue to fund it — and claim tax losses from it. Indeed, that might be the only non-government “viable” media model going forward. But the online newspaper’s target niche is hard to understand: the east coast market is already served by right-wing News Corp tabloids that have the advantage of local sports coverage as well as the standard mix of celebrity gossip, if-it-bleeds-it-leads local crime and car prangs, and clickbait lifestyle guff.
The Australian and the Financial Review already cater for higher-brow conservatives whose lips don’t move when they read, while the plagiarism central at the Daily Mail has the nip-slip and granny panty celebrity market sewn up. How east coast audiences will react to what will essentially be a West Australian fossil fuel industry attempt to tell them what to think is unclear — but it’s clear that the Seven Network isn’t delivering the goods on that front.
And who will be the target readers? Last week Seven had an average Monday-to-Friday audience in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane of 542,000 while rival Nine’s audience in the three cities was a bit larger — 582,000. They are news-interested people, mostly aged 50 or more. That might be the target for The Nightly, but they like their news with pictures and in short bursts — then there are their favourite newsreaders as well.
These people are mostly at home by 6pm and have a long-standing (if fading) habit of watching the news broadcast. ABC News viewers an hour later would not be interested. A couple of hundred thousand people are watching the ABC, Ten and SBS from 6-7pm (which is the time slot for the Seven and Nine News). By 7pm, The Nightly will be old news, digital dross for someone’s fish and chips.
Well, who knew we needed another vanity publishing frolic from Kerry Stokes and his mates?
The Nightly is an evocative choice of title, no doubt hoping to hom—phonically summon the spirit of the late great Australian journalist Philip Knightley, who was among other things deeply interested in propaganda and its uses. Or maybe it’s not.
But as the article inquires, what will be The Nightly‘s USP; how will it stand out? It obviously has the advantage of offering the billionaire mining sandgroper perspective on a plate to a nation that has no doubt often felt deeply deprived by lack of it. And as the Crikey Worm puts it, this is to be a ‘high brow’ offering. I take this to mean it will, along with its glorification of everything extractive and fossil fueled (fossil referring to oil, coal, gas, Stokes or Rinehart as you like), offer such delights as regular readings of the heiress Gina Rinehart’s celebrated poetry, perhaps by the author herself. I can hardly wait.
ModBot madness: As shown in the second paragraph first sentence above, the list of letter sequences (as a word or letters forming part of a longer word) the ModBot cannot tolerate now includes the prefix derived from Greek used in countless words to denote sameness; as opposed to difference which uses the prefix ‘hetero-‘.
Will Crikey put a stop to this amazing stupidity?
Never! Crikey is proud of its ModBot’s eccentricities and it takes a cruel pleasure in ruining a well-drafted comment. On the subject of Right-Wing poetry, Rundle once claimed that Andrew Bolt wrote poetry prior to his illustrious career of head-kicking for New Scorp. I’ve never been able to find any of it online. Was Bolt waylaid in becoming Australia’s Ezra Pound?
Had he been that might explain why he became, 80yrs too late, an Angry Penguin.
It’s a mystery as to why any semi-sentient creature reads Moloch muck but terrifying that Blot has access to vast swathes of rural Australia due to the inexplicable & inexcusable decision to run SKY & the Beobachter Stürmer of SAD on WIN & affiliates.
By doing so they side step any ACMA or other regulations.
The beastly Blot could not become an Ezra Penny. Vacant skulls are unproductive.
Perhaps he collaborated with Gina?
Collaborated! If collaboration is him writing furiously while Reinhardt reclines on a chaise lounge dictating a la Barbara Cartland style.
Well it just WinstonSmithed my reply to your question so the answer is clearly NO!
they said “economically conservative but socially progressive” or something like that. Which probably means Kochie waxing lyrical about kids with cancer?
How many oxymorons can we construct from “economically conservative but socially progressive”?
There’s sufficient evidence in the public domain now to define “conservative” as slow and/or stupid. Resisting evolution? Believing in the Abrahamic fairy tales? Trickle down? Every interaction of a conservative with the environment results in extinction level events.? Go on, get me started on AGW.
This “news” program is like giving methadone to a junkie. It keeps the hooked on being hooked. Unfortunately conservativism will never die. It’s not even conservative. How is propping up dying industries so profits keep flowing to the big end of town, conservative?
Fortunately BK did not waste too much time on this nonsense.
It’s the killer combo.
“Socially progressive” means saying all the ‘right things’ and ‘economically conservative’ means nothing can actually get done.
What this looks like is that despite their backers they’ll make the right noises about climate change but then use a mixture of:
a) economic scaremongering that elevates economic risks over actual climate change risks (that are also actual economic risks);
b) fiscal conservatism that maintains governments have no money to do anything (except subsidise fossil fuel companies and rebuild destroyed communities);
c) pro-marketisation that is both anti-market (because fossil fuels are oligopolistic) and also ensures the status quo (because the private sector lacks the focus and scale required to tackle the biggest challenge humanity has ever faced (basically like the private sector trying to get to the moon in 1950 x 1 billion).
This combo basically paralyses the political debate because it appeals to the modern left, keeps the right angry, and protects the interests of the oligarchs.
Old tactic, but following how a RW cartel has been allowed to dominate our media, sounds like more filling the space with noise?
“Socially progressive” and “economic/fiscal conservatism” is the cancer of our times.
All anyone has to do is be or be seen to be “socially progressive” and then they can use “economic/fiscal conservatism” to prevent real change.
Even those who claim to be “socially progressive” aren’t because many are quite anti-free speech and are bigoted in their own right. They just go along with “mainstream views” (which is not even mainstream just a magnified minority that happen to work in media and advertising who think they hold “progressive views”).
Meanwhile their “economic/fiscal conservatism” means it’s all style over substance. Nothing can get done whilst we believe governments with their own currencies have no money, and the private sector is the answer to all problems.
I compared climate change to the plans to get to the moons in the 1960s x 1b. Quite simply the private sector would never have the money, resources or power to get to the moon in the 1960s. They can now only because governments laid all the groundwork.
We see “social progressivism” and “economic/fiscal conservatism” across the media including the ABC even the ABC directly suffers from “economic/fiscal conservatism”. The ABC actually thinks it’s funded by taxpayers and that the federal government has a finite budget. It’s only questions of federal politicians is how they ‘cost’ their policies like they’re running some kind of household budget. But they celebrate Mardi Gras so they’re considered ‘left wing’.
(I don’t mean to have a dig at Mardi Gras which for me is, ironically despite all its glamour, one of the best examples of substance over style! A protest movement that got their stuff together, put aside their differences, and achieved – actually achieved – a great outcome AND had a party in the process.)
Seven News should come with a Medical Warning that Watching it can shrink your brain and turn your heart cold .
Try 9 in Adelaide. In the third minute they will be onto football. At the 32nd minute the ads dressed as news items begin followed by an ” update” on the same sport as previously covered. Then of course the weather, delivered by somebody doing their best to give the impression they personally interpreted all the data to produce the forecast. Then the sad sign off usually involving brief purile discussion about a short novelty video plucked from tik tok.
Stokes Nightly wet dream?
More media brown droppings, enough to block society’s dunny. Little jackboot Stokes, the playschool warrior.