Sam the Koala’s popularity has yet to wane. It’s been three months since those infamous photos of Sam the Koala stormed the interwebs in the days after Black Saturday, but the shine doesn’t seem to have worn off for Victoria’s one million strong Herald Sun army.

In an attempt to stem the continuing tide of demand for hard-copies of the roadside pics, taken, as it turned out, months before the fires, callers to the Herald Sun shop in Melbourne’s Southbank are regaled with the following recorded message.

“Thank you for calling the Herald Sun shop. The photographs of Sam the Koala with David Tree is extremely popular [sic]. If you wish to order the photographs online please visit www.heraldsun.com.au”.

It also seems the Hun shop is a hotbed of old-school Catholicism with the anonymous voicemailer at pains to pronounce the “haitch” in both “http” and “HWT”. — Andrew Crook

Interesting editorial from the Bendigo Advertiser … we all make mistakes?

Make no mistake about it

There is an old saying in the newspaper business that doctors bury their mistakes while reporters put them on the front page. To err is human. And so it is that this newspaper is the product of many human minds and hands.

Any mistakes made in the daily production of this newspaper are generally due to the rapid turnaround of each edition and the late-breaking and ever-changing nature of the news itself.

The mistakes may be the result of oversight or omission, but are never, as we are sometimes wrongly accused, perpetrated with malice or veiled intent to offend, hurt or harm.

In the past couple of weeks, The Advertiser has had its fair share of bouquets and brickbats from all quarters over our coverage of particular events; from the decision to proceed with Walk Bendigo through to Community Cabinet meetings and future development of the airport.

We even copped some flak on our website over the publication of our UFO story, albeit mostly in good humour. On the positive side of the ledger, our Anzac Day special edition on Saturday was warmly praised as too was last week’s report on the former QC jailed on child porn charges.

We publish without fear or favour; we accept the criticism of our readers and welcome their feedback or commentary in the form of letters to the editor or posts on our website, and we sincerely apologise for our mistakes. Remember the proverb: if you don’t make mistakes, you don’t make anything.

Channel 10 denies axing Simpsons in budget cut. Channel 10 has hosed down a report that it will axe The Simpsons and replace it with news, extending the one-hour 5pm bulletin to 90 minutes. With new episodes recently purchased of The Simpsons which celebrates 20 years on screen at the end of this year, a Ten spokesperson said today that reports the program was being thrown off air were incorrect. “The Simpsons is not cancelled,” the spokesperson said. — news.com

First Tweeter to get arrested for micro-threats was a tea bagger. Daniel Knight Hayden, 52 got arrested by the FBI for the content of his Twitter account. Which makes Hayden the first dude to get popped by the G-Men for micro-blogging. AP/Huffpo writes: “An Oklahoma man was arrested by FBI agents earlier this month for posting a series of messages on his Twitter account threatening to use a tax day Tea Party protest to commit politically-motivated mass murder.” It’s a kind of odd self-fulfilling prophecy: Hate big government violently enough and they will come and lock you up. — FishbowlLA

Coke pushes pay-for-performance advertising model. Coca-Cola Co. is trying to start an industrywide movement toward a “value-based” compensation model like one it’s adopted that promises agencies nothing more than recouped costs if they don’t perform — but profit margins as high as 30% if their work hits top targets. Usually tight-lipped Coke disclosed its plans at the Association of National Advertisers Financial Management Conference in Phoenix on April 20, saying it wanted to nudge the industry into adopting value-based models as a standard practice. If it succeeds, agencies accustomed to being able to book profits long before they deliver work won’t have that sort of certainty anymore. — Advertising Age

The international paradox of social networking expansion. Web companies that rely on advertising are enjoying some of their most vibrant growth in developing countries. But those are also the same places where it can be the most expensive to operate, since Web companies often need more servers to make content available to parts of the world with limited bandwidth. And in those countries, online display advertising is least likely to translate into results. — New York Times

Scrabble boards spring to life with crocodiles and hula dancers. Animated Scrabble ads from Ogilvy & Mather in Paris probably overstate the level of excitement in a typical Scrabble game, but hey they made Scrabble look cool and the artwork is funky:

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e2DY1KxkW-w[/youtube]

— AdFreak

Remember that excuse for not showing coffins coming home from war? Turns out families are okay with it. In the weeks since the Pentagon ended an 18-year ban on media coverage of fallen soldiers returning to the US, most families given the option have allowed reporters and photographers to witness the solemn ceremonies that mark the arrival of flag-draped transfer cases. Critics had warned that military families needed privacy and peace activists might exploit the images, but so far the coverage has not caused problems. — Editor and Publisher

Condé Nast’s Portfolio magazine closes . Condé Nast’s $100m US business magazine, Portfolio , closed today after launching two years ago to great fanfare. The glossy magazine failed to gain enough readers and advertisers to compete against Forbes, BusinessWeek and Fortune in the crowded magazine market and had trouble attracting advertisers. The magazine had a circulation of 415,000, not enough to compete with its rivals. — Guardian