We warn the Czar. We’re sure China’s new leadership team of Xi Jinping and Li Keqiang will sit up and take notice at The Australian Financial Review’s prescription for exactly what they should do when they take office. Today’s editorial in The Fin contains unsolicited advice and instructions for the new regime:

“… the CCP must now confront other critical economic and social challenges facing China, some of which were outlined in The Australian Financial Review earlier this week in an article from our Chinese partner, Caixin … China needs to shift from manufacturing to innovation and from an investment-driven economy to one that is consumer driven … China’s antiquated tax system also needs an overhaul”.

The Fin also urges Xi and Li to remove controls on interest rates and currency. The Fin’s possibly misguided sense of self-importance was also on display at the US election; the paper first editorialised that people should vote for Mitt Romney, then, when Romney lost, told Obama what to do.

These editorials hark back to the famous case of the Hobart Mercury, which once wrote “We warn the Czar of Russia …”. Interestingly, while this phrase has entered media lore, it appears the Mercury may have been poking fun at a tiny newspaper on New Zealand’s North Island (the Woodville Examiner), which actually wrote the story and the headline. Crikey found the phrase in the Mercury of September 20, 1892; the story was quoting the NZ paper.

Historical frolics aside, Crikey is keen to keep tabs on the most self-important, grandiose editorials around the country through regular “we warn the Czar” updates. We rely on readers to send us the best examples; email us here. Be sure to keep us in the loop if your local rag is warning the Czar. — Cathy Alexander

Male, pale and stale? Not in pay. If you’re looking for female leaders in the Australian television industry, look no further than subscription TV where many of the local operations of high-profile channels are run by women, including MTV, Disney, Discovery, Aurora, Viacom and BBC Worldwide. At Foxtel, eight female senior executives report to a male CEO, while women make up four of the 11 board positions on the sector’s representative body, the Australian Subscription Television and Radio Association. It’s a far cry from the more traditional broadcasters where CEO positions have been, and continue to be, dominated by a small handful of men.

“About 53% of viewers are women. The nation’s population is 51% women,” says ASTRA’s outgoing CEO Petra Buchanan. “In my view it makes sense that we should be at a gender equity basis in the industry.” Buchanan decided to implement an industry-wide survey of subscription TV’s local workforce in order to determine the contribution of women. She found women fill 44% of the sector’s 4657 salaried, part-time and contract positions, and that more men than women are working part-time.

Buchanan tells Women’s Agenda she has a few theories as to why so many women reach leadership positions in the sector. Having spent 10 years in communications and public affairs at Discovery Communications in the US, she’s seen how the evolution of cable opened doors up to women who were simply fed up with the more traditional broadcasters. — Angela Priestley (read the full story here)

Video of the day. Yes, but can Michelle Obama sing? China anointed a new president yesterday, Xi Jinping, and that means China has a new first lady; well-known singer Peng Liyuan. She’s the lead in this ditty entitled “As the war approaches” (that’s not her husband Xi singing with her). We love Michelle Obama’s fashion sense and vegetable garden, and Tim Mathieson’s ability to draw baths and watch his partner on TV, but Peng is setting a new bar for first ladies/blokes around the world …

Front page of the day. China Daily reports on its new leaders: