Who’s close to The Age then? If you believe Nick Leys in this morning’s Australian Media Diary, Crikey is very close indeed to “senior staff” at The Age. He reckons that we “ran several pro-Age” stories in June concerning The Age‘s battles with the Herald Sun. If Leys is referring to his former paper’s pick-up of an Age exclusive without attribution over the bugging of Victoria Police deputy commissioner Sir Ken Jones, then he might be pleased to know the Herald Sun has learned its lesson.

Last Tuesday it ran another pick-up of an Age scoop, this time over revelations Baillieu government parliamentary secretary Bill Tilley had leaked emails from Sir Ken to the Sunday Herald Sun. “Fairfax newspapers” had the story, reporter Stephen Drill admitted, with the Herald Sun unable to contact Jones or ex-cop Tristan Weston who had apparently leaked against ex-chief commissioner Simon Overland.

Elsewhere in Media Diary — his third effort following the resignation of predecessor Caroline Overington — Leys claims Bruce Springsteen last toured Australia in 1985. Springsteen, of course, laid down a hit-filled three-hour triumph during The Rising world tour in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane in March 2003. — Andrew Crook

Town fights back against Fairfax. On August 28 The Sunday Age ran a story on troubled Ballarat suburb Wendouree West — “Nothing comes easy in Wendouree West, but beyond the hardship is a community with a strong and beating heart”. The article — noting that some residents call it “the ghetto” and were mostly “poor, almost exclusively white, out of work and out of luck” — corresponded to an exhibition of photos of the suburb and its locals taken by Meredith O’Shea for the Ballarat International Foto Biennale.

Interestingly, the original story appears to have been removed from The Age online. The following week, The Sunday Age wrote a follow-up article noting that its original story had “inflamed some residents” and that a second protest meeting was planned to discuss the story, with residents angry that the original article didn’t talk about all the positives coming out of Wendouree West. Yesterday’s Sunday Herald Sun also covered The Age spat with the suburb, in a double-paged spread titled “How Fairfax came to Wendouree and sneered at the residents“. The Sunday Herald Sun noted Wendouree residents “claim they are victims of vilification by Fairfax Media” and that one resident was seeking legal advice over whether The Sunday Age had breached the Victorian Charter of Human Rights with its article …

Stay tuned for what happens next, but if you’re looking for more information about Wendouree West, the Sunday Herald Sun put together a handy list of the best things about it:

— Amber Jamieson

Daily Tele story defies laws of nature. Crikey reader Santo asks: “Where are the sub-editors these days?” as the Daily Telegraph carried a story on its website on the weekend which said a baby was born 11 months premature:

Front page of the day. Today’s New York Post front page carries a horrific photo of the Reno air show disaster:

The Department of Corrections. Today’s Sydney Daily Telegraph apologises for an error … from its April 18 edition:

War at MCM as founder seeks to fire chairman

“The board of MCM Entertainment Group, one of Australia’s largest independent providers of radio shows, is in turmoil, with its founder and biggest shareholder pushing for the company’s chairman to be fired.” — mUmBRELLA

Pressure on attorney-general to block Met move

“The attorney general, Dominic Grieve, is facing growing pressure to block an attempt by the Metropolitan police to use the Official Secrets Act to force journalists to reveal their sources.” — The Guardian

In e-Books, publishers have rivals: news sites.

“Book publishers are surrounded by hungry new competitors: Amazon, with its steadily growing imprints; authors who publish their own e-books; online start-ups like The Atavist and Byliner.” — New York Times

Journalists flock to LinkedIn.

“A survey from Arketi Web Watch Media reports that journalists are on LinkedIn more than any other social network. In other words 92% of today’s journalists are now actively using LinkedIn. That is up from the reported 85% of two years ago.” — Social Times