A new mag from Frankie. Frankie for blokes? Hipsters’ wildly-successful magazine of choice is expanding, with Gold Coast-based publisher Morrison Media to launch a new male-skewed title. Smith Journal was revealed today. “It’s unique, funny, inspiring and hands-on, full of stories about real guys living their dreams: makers, inventors, designers, thinkers and adventurers,” the press release states.

So who will read it? We grimaced at the marketing-speak in the presser …

  • For ranging purposes, he’s 18 to 40 years of age, but represents an attitude rather than an age bracket: uni students to urban dads and anywhere in between.
  • He’s a thinker. He’s a creative. He loves to browse retail stores and find something unique.
  • He appreciates music, domestic and international travel, design, good food and good booze.
  • He’s self-confident, passionate (loyal), classes himself as an original and likes to be inspired by intelligent conversations, new ideas and great content.
  • He has his own sense of style and  has income to spare. He’s an early adopter and an opinion former: young, independent and brand aware.

As magazines generally haemorrhage circulation, Frankie is finding more readers. Its February audit figure showed phenomenal growth of 32.5% to 50,832 copies per issue. Morrison clearly believes it is on a good thing. New magazine audit figures are released publicly on Friday.  — Jason Whittaker

Front page of the day. For the UK’s The Sun, it’s name-and-shame time …

Wolff on Murdoch’s Mob-like structure

“In my biography of Rupert Murdoch, I referred to News Corporation as Mafia-like, provoking the annoyance of my publisher’s libel lawyers. I explained to them that I did not mean to suggest this was an organised crime family, but instead was using ‘mafia’ as a metaphor to imply that News Corp saw itself as a state within a state, and that the company was built on a basic notion of extended family bonds and loyalty. But just because it’s a metaphor doesn’t mean it isn’t the real thing, too.” — AdWeek

London riots: snapper speaks of mayhem with dramatic shot

“The photographer who took the shot of a woman leaping from a burning building in Croydon used on five national newspaper front pages on Tuesday has told of the mayhem as she captured one of the most dramatic shot of the riots.” — The Guardian

Ten defends splitting up MasterChef finale

“In this guest post, Ten’s chief programming officer David Mott responds to criticism about that controversial decision to schedule The Renovators during Sunday’s MasterChef finale.” — mUmBRELLA

Study: use of anonymous sources peaked in 1970s

“Newspaper ombudsmen and media critics complain often about excessive and unnecessary use of anonymous sources, and yet the press uses them less frequently now than in the so-called ‘golden age’ of journalism.” — Poynter

Nine profit up, but mags a drag

“Nine Entertainment has underlined the challenges facing media companies, forecasting modest growth this year after posting a solid 2010-11 result amid troubled advertising markets and lower earnings from its magazine division.” — The Australian

Free-to-air 3D transmitters removed from broadcast towers

“Following trial 3D broadcasts during major sporting events in 2010 comes the news that 3D transmitters have been removed from free-to-air transmission towers around the country.” — Media Spy

Why Wall Street hates the AOL HuffPo deal

“AOL shares closed down 26 percent today, despite posting its first ad sales increase since the company was spun out from Time Warner. The problem? The disastrous AOL-HuffPo merger seems to be catching up to the internet conglomerate. ” — Gawker