Today in Media Files, Prince Philip killed off for the second time in a year, this time by The Telegraph, and Nine News Darwin’s presenter will continue to present the news remotely after newsroom cuts.

A rough year for Prince Philip. As the Queen’s consort retires this week, the UK’s Telegraph has managed to kill him off, accidentally publishing a prepared obituary online yesterday. The article, headlined “HOLD HOLD HOLD Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, dies at XX”, included a note to staff saying, “This file needs to be a living file – and will serve Apple News as well as be the main news story. Please stick to the format below.”

The Telegraph has apologised for the error, saying it was reviewing its publishing processes.

Philip announced in May he would be retiring from his public duties, and the pending announcement sparked wild speculation in the press. British tabloid The Sun ran into the same problem as The Telegraph, accidentally publishing an obituary for Philip.

Nine Darwin presenter remains after cuts. Nine News Darwin presenter Jonathan Uptin will move to Brisbane to continue in his role as the network rolls in the Darwin bulletin to its Queensland production. Nine announced last month it would cut local production of the only commercial TV bulletin in Darwin, instead presenting and producing it out of Brisbane. A small team of reporters and cameramen will remain in Darwin, and long-time presenter Uptin was given the option of moving to Brisbane to stay in the role. He will co-host all seven of the regional Queensland bulletins.

Uptin told the NT News he’d decided to remain with the network:

“I’m still a Territorian, and I think it’s really important we still have a Territory face as part of the news service. Even though we’ve still got local journos, local cameramen and there will still be local news stories, it’s nice, in my opinion, to have a familiar face there who gets the local stories, who knows the pronunciation of your local suburbs.”

Fairfax paper drops to four days a week. Fairfax NZ daily newspaper The Nelson Mail is reducing its publishing days down to four a week, with a daily electronic newsletter, to cut costs. Its sister paper in the Marlborough region was cut back to four days a week in March. 

The Oz fails on NAPLAN report. “Schools Hit By Writing Skills Slump!” screamed the headline of The Australian yesterday. Pia Akerman and Greg Brown were on Lolstralian duty, with this beat-up of NAPLAN results. The whole of NAPLAN, introduced in the first Rudd government is a FAILURE! Of reading, writing and numeracy, how many have improved over the past five-year period? Two out of three!

Two out of three? Er, hang on. Yes, the article with the strapline “Funding Fails To Lift Schools Results” details how the funding has actually improved results in two of the three key areas. In writing, there has been a — the horror! — 0.5% fall over the past year.

Reading the report using the skills of, you know, literacy and numeracy would suggest that NAPLAN has improved more than it has let slide, and that the recent year’s 0.5% slide in writing standards is well within margins of error. Indeed the average 0.5% fall nationally consists largely of larger falls in South Australia and especially the Northern Territory. In NSW the drop is less than 5 points out from a high of 420, and 10 points in Victoria and Queensland. 

The front-page article then links to a Jennifer Buckingham analysis piece, which is a tangle of cherry-picked stats and evidence-free assumptions. Years 3 and 5 of this thing are good, years 7 and 9 bad, NT reading results in year 3 are good, etc. But there have been important gains in Queensland, WA, and NT since 2008. Why?

“While it is difficult to pinpoint why, it is reasonable to assume sustained incremental improvements are due to better teaching.”

No, it bloody isn’t reasonable. It’s simply disregarding the possibility that increased funding, of itself, may lift the results of backward states. Pure ideological propaganda, evidence-free, from a Centre for Independent Studies hack. And just another day at the Lolstralian beat-up factory — Guy Rundle

Wall Street Journal scooped on own transcript. The Murdochs’ most important newspaper, The Wall Street Journal, has been scooped on its interview with President Donald Trump, with Politico publishing a transcript. It was another rambling, fact-challenged affair. Unlike the interview the rival New York Times did with Trump earlier in July, after which the transcript was on the paper’s website almost immediately, the Journal and editor Gerard Baker decided to keep it secret.

The Journal wrote about the session, leading with Trump’s talk of a tax code overhaul. It only included parts of the transcript. With many of its own journalists believing the paper is too close and too friendly to Trump (thanks to the views of Rupert Murdoch, who is reportedly one of the people Trump calls to discuss things and to canvass opinions), the leaking of the transcript could be seen as an act of rebellion from inside the paper.

Before the leak, Journal deputy editor Matt Murray warned staff in a conference call about leaking the transcript, saying it would be a breach of trust, Politico reported.

The full transcript (like that of The New York Times interview), reveals a President who is ignorant and still “elaborating”. New York magazine has pulled together the best bits. — Glenn Dyer

Amazon nabs tennis broadcast rights. Amazon has beaten Sky (The Murdochs’ 39%-owned associate, which 21st Century Fox is bidding for) for the UK rights to all ATP tennis matches, including the Masters (except the four grand slams). Sky is feeling the cost of the existing English Premier League contract, which was behind a 14% slump in UK earnings in the 2016-17 financial year. Sky has been cutting staff and costs and has raised subscription fees to meet the additional cost of the contract — Sky is paying 4.18 billion pounds in the current contract, against 2.28 billion pounds in the previous contract. That’s nearly 2 billion pounds over three years, so it’s no wonder Sky is losing interest in the little-viewed tennis after 2019, when the current Sky contract ends. Amazon bid a reported 10 million pounds a year. Sky was paying about 8 million pounds and dropped its new offer below that level, according to UK reports. The ATP are not fools and took the higher price because Sky cut its existing price, which was a signal that it didn’t really want the coverage. Tennis audiences around the world are falling. Sky showed its declining interest in the sport last year when it dropped its broadcast of the US Open titles after coverage for the previous 25 years. — Glenn Dyer

Glenn Dyer’s TV ratings. For the second time this week, the bands have broken on the elastic keeping the Oztam ratings system connected to the wider world — or so it seems. National and regional data were delayed this morning, (there is Pay TV data) but the metro info lodged in the pipe was pushed out in time. 

What we did learn from the metro data was that it was another Nine night as Seven trundled along in second without a real winner after 7pm. Ten gave us another night of the 2017 Bachelor meat market. Seven News and Seven News/Today Tonight were the only programs with a million or more viewers in metro markets.

Ten’s Offspring could only manage 559,000 metro viewers — that was after The Bachelor had 715,000. That’s a drop of 21%. Nasty. The Bachelor’s core audience should have hung around in greater numbers for Offspring (which is reality TV compared to the rubbish on The Rose Killer AKA The Bachelor).

Shaun Micallef was more cheeky than mad on Mad As Hell — although the citizenship stuff on our MPs and Senators was spot on. Utopia recalled media training sessions I have seen in the past — disasters because those who succeed rarely understand what they are saying. And when the minister in Utopia appears, why am I reminded of a younger, slicker Barnaby Joyce? — Read the rest on the Crikey website