Fairfax regionals hit by outsourcing. Fairfax Media has confirmed it will axe 75 jobs at its regional papers as the company shifts its regional typesetting and page layout operations to India-based production company 2adpro. In a letter sent to staff on Friday, acting general manager of regional Rod Tremayne said the decision — first flagged in March — would affect 23 regional “pre-press” sites around the country. The 75 jobs lost includes staffers from The Northern Daily Leader in Tamworth, The Courier in Ballarat, The Examiner in Launceston, The Daily Advertiser in Wagga Wagga and The Border Mail in Albury-Wadonga. Jobs will also go in Queensland, South Australia and Western Australia.

In his letter Tremayne describes 2adpro as “an international company that delivers quality services to media companies around the world”. The rapidly growing company’s website lists two offices in India (Bangalore and Chennai) and one in California. — Matthew Knott

PV D’oh! The prognosticators are prognosticating a long Labor spell in the wilderness come September 15. They’re probably right, but some of the evidence is a little wonky. Take Peter van Onselen in The Abbotian, spending a thousand words arguing that when parties are defeated badly it takes them a long time to come back — a thesis so explosively, intuitively brilliant it may bag him not only a Walkley but the Pritzker architecture prize as well. And of course it contains the usual furphy:

“In 1996 Labor was ousted once again with a significant defeat, winning just 49 of the 148 seats. It subsequently took four elections and nearly 12 years before Rudd came back to win in 2007. Labor worked its way through four leaders before it finally got there.”

Incisive, except of course that two years after 1996, Labor won a majority of the overall two-party preferred vote: 51% to 49% with a 5% swing. In any genuine democratic system — rather than the addled lottery we currently run — it would have been in power, Kim Beazley remembered as a quiet saviour and John Howard as history’s joke. As it was he took the party back to holding 67 seats, the number that Van Onselen says gave the Coalition a platform for recovery in 2007. So the subsequent three losses have quite different causes to low numbers.

Why do Rightoids continue to ignore this inconvenient fact? Because it helps perpetuate the myth of Howard as the embodiement of the nation’s spirit, rather than a cheesy-grinned chancer. Luckily, it also hides the reality of conservative victory from such people — that it based on an unspoken contract that they won’t go too far. When they do — as with WorkChoices  or the GST — judgment can be swift and brutal. Labor might be out for a long stretch, but its best chance of getting back in remains PM Tony Abbott. — Guy Rundle

Video of the day. Daily Telegraph megaphone Piers Akerman stunned his fellow Insiders panellists on Sunday by claiming that rumours about the s-xuality of Tim Mathieson, the partner of Prime Minister Julia Gillard, had been circulating in the Canberra press gallery for years. Host Barrie Cassidy was furious, telling Akerman: “You’ve just done precisely what Howard Sattler did and passed on rumours, and that’s just as pathetic, quite frankly.” By the end of the show, a red-faced Akerman had apologised to the PM.

Front page of the day. It’s the front page that’s got the whole world talking — and media types debating whether they would publish pics from such a harrowing moment. UK tabloid Sunday People (part of the Daily Mirror stable) scooped the world with pictures of celebrity chef Nigella Lawson looking petrified as husband Charles Saatchi grabs her throat.

Melbourne 3AW presenter Dee Dee Dunleavy — who calls herself the “Queen of Melbourne radio” — weighed into the debate today on her blog, writing:

“Nigella, like it or not, you’re a beacon for women from all walks of life. If you want us to buy your books and watch your shows on how to run our kitchens, then we need you to make a stand on domestic violence.”

Dunleavy’s blog has drawn howls of criticism from women on Twitter, including from News Limited columnist Miranda Devine. “Victimising the victim — how does that help?” pondered Devine.