More real estate woes for Fairfax. Relations between Fairfax and Melbourne real estate agents have plunged to a new low in the wake of an extraordinary snafu in Saturday’s editions of the paper. A long-running glitch in the Fairfax publishing system meant incorrect listings were included for open-for-inspections and auctions, forcing production staff to re-publish the correct listings in news and business sections and run a prominent front-page apology.
Real estate agents were emailed late on Friday night by desperate Domain staff to warn of the error. The balls-up is likely to inflame tensions between advertisers and Fairfax management, after agents walked away from the Melbourne Weekly to secure ownership stakes — and cheaper ad rates — in a rival publication run by former Age property editor Antony Catalano. Rumours persist that Catalano’s defectors will soon stitch up a deal with News Limited to transfer the bulk of Domain’s advertising to either The Australian or the Herald Sun, a decision that would rip a $40 million hole in Fairfax’s revenue.
Meanwhile, Crikey can reveal that the desperate cost-cutting regime inside Fairfax initiated by CEO Brian McCarthy and operations manager David Skelton was set to claim another scalp with the scrapping of the third edition of the paper. The removal of the late-breaking edition would have stopped night time sports results, including AFL, being delivered to outer-Melbourne metro and regional areas. But following an internal email warning of the changes, journos rebelled, and the edition will stay. For now. — Andrew Crook
And the Pulitzer Prize goes to … the journalism of the future. The Pulitzer Prizes for journalism have been announced, with one of the top honours going to a story that has been touted as the future of journalism. The prize for investigative reporting went to Sheri Fink for her piece on hospital patients who were allegedly euthanised by overstretched doctors in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. The article was backed by not-for-profit investigative journalism outfit ProPublica, which receives grants from philanthropic foundations and makes its stories available for publication by mainstream news outlets. The story was co-published on the ProPublica website and in the New York Times Magazine, and also plugged on Crikey last year.
The investigative reporting prize was jointly awarded the writers of another series that exposed a rogue police narcotics squad, Barbara Laker and Wendy Ruderman, published in the Philadelphia Daily News. Meanwhile, the public service prize went to Daniel Gilbert at the Bristol Herald Courier for his series on the mismanagement of natural gas royalties. The prize for breaking news reporting went to the staff of The Seattle Times for their coverage of the shooting deaths of four police officers.
Other prizes were awarded for Explanatory Reporting, Local Reporting, National Reporting, International Reporting, Feature Writing, Commentary, Criticism, Editorial Writing, Editorial Cartooning, Breaking News Photography and Feature Photography. — Elizabeth Redman
A “dud” story, but Kevin’s not blushing? The Daily Telegraph declared Labor’s health plan a “dud deal” in its headline — though it fails to mention why this might be the case in the story itself. Meanwhile, how much of the $650 million in funding for elective surgeries will be spent on providing more modest gowns for hospital patients?
Foursquare does a deal with the Financial Times
“For Foursquare, this is an opportunity to promote itself to a wealthy and entrepreneurially minded user base, while the FT gets a very fashionable marketing campaign.” — The Guardian
A KGB agent bought The Independent, then its editor quit
“Mr Alton, who has led the paper for the past two years and is regarded as one of Fleet Street’s finest journalists, said: “I think it’s right that the new owners should be free to appoint an editor of their own choosing.” — The Telegraph
Everyone’s a critic, baby
“The explosion of online opinions — amateur filmgoers on Rotten Tomatoes, ordinary readers on Amazon, casual diners on Yelp — is fun and entertaining… But why does that supplant the need for full-time reviewers?” — The Washington Post
Not just the iPad, there’s a whole alphabet full of them
“Just as Apple’s iPhone shook up a complacent cellphone industry, the company’s iPad is provoking PC makers — and non-PC makers — to fight back with new devices.” — New York Times
Perhaps this is the future of media…
“Kids’ print media consumption is tiny and falling. Kids’ digital media consumption is going through the roof.” — Business Insider
… and perhaps that’s why editors are worried
“Pew surveyed members of the American Society of News Editors and Radio Television Digital News Association and found that less than half of them believed their organisations would be solvent in 10 years without the discovery of a significant new revenue stream.” — Huffington Post
When the feral Boys from the Bush pushed Catalano down “The Age” lift-shaft they relieved themselves of a river of gold. Catalano was Mr Property in Melbourne. What did they think he’d do, retire to an Alpaca hobby farm?
Rural Press: says it all.