Today in Media Files, Alan Jones alludes to hanging Clover Moore because of her support for a planned public sculpture, and Laurie Oakes’ replacement at Nine will be the ABC’s Chris Uhlmann.

Alan Jones alludes to hanging Sydney’s Lord Mayor. 2GB broadcaster Alan Jones has suggested Sydney Lord Mayor Clover Moore should be hanged over the city’s George Street in a tweet about the planned Cloud Arch sculpture:

Of course, Twitter has taken the opportunity to troll Jones in response, by referencing his arrest on an outraging public decency charge, and the suggestions of: better directions to public toilets, a huge rainbow banner saying, “yes”, and a joyous candy-filled pinata. 

Revolving door. The new Laurie Oakes has been announced — the ABC’s political editor Chris Uhlmann will fill Oakes’ shoes at Nine as national political editor from October. Oakes retired after almost 50 years reporting on federal politics earlier this month. Uhlmann said in a statement the new job was a “rare privilege”. “I am joining Nine because of its long and proud news culture and I am excited by the prospect of continuing the tradition,” he said. 

In Sydney, The Daily Telegraph‘s state political editor Andrew Clennell will join his former Tele editor Paul “Boris” Whittaker — now editor-in-chief of The Australian — at the national broadsheet in the same role. He also follows Simon Benson, whom he replaced as state political editor at the Tele after Benson moved to the Oz at the beginning of the year as national political editor.

And the ABC’s NSW state editor Shane McLeod is leaving Aunty, telling Crikey he’s looking at a few things to keep him busy when he finishes up next month, but hasn’t locked anything down yet.

Meltwater a ‘great place to work’. The media insights firm embroiled in a legal dispute with its main competitor has been named one of the top 10 places to work in Australia. Meltwater put out a press release yesterday with the news, announcing it is the seventh-best place to work in Australia, according to a survey by Great Place to Work — an insights firm. Meltwater has been accused of freeloading off competitor Isentia’s copyright licences for its own clients in a case that is still before the Federal Court.

Trying to interview people at their worst times. A CNN reporter reporting from a shelter in Houston for flood victims has been sworn at while interviewing a woman who’d just arrived. During a live cross, reporter Rosa Flores was asking a woman about her experience when the woman broke down: “People are really breaking down, and y’all sitting here with cameras and microphones trying to ask us, ‘What the fuck is wrong with us?'”. Flores ended the interview, backing away and apologising.

The interview has gained a bit of attention, and a CNN spokeswoman told The Washington Post the reporter had “handled the situation graciously”. “The people of Houston are going through a very difficult time. Our hearts go out to this woman and her family,” she said.

News Corp global retreat. News Corp’s retreat from Asia and Europe continues with news from Hong Kong that the Wall Street Journal’s Asian edition will stop being printed from October 7. The move was signalled back in July when the Dow Jones Co revealed plans to revamp the digital and print offerings in Asia, Europe and the US. Printing of the European edition is also being wound back, and digital subscriptions will now be given preference in both regions. Earlier this week Fox News Channel was switched off the Sky platform in the UK by Fox, ostensibly because it had so few viewers (several thousand a day according to UK media analysts). Seeing it has been rating poorly for years perhaps the withdrawal had more to do with the delays to approvals of the 21st Century Fox bid for the rest of Sky.

In an email to Asian edition subscribers, the Journal said it would distribute the last printed issue of the paper on October 6. Subscribers can shift to the online version. The newspaper costs HK$23 an issue in Hong Kong, while a digital subscription costs US$12 (HK$93.60) for 12 weeks (around A$15) . The US edition of the Journal is published Monday to Saturday. Asian and European editions are published Monday to Friday. 

In the three months ending June, the WSJ had 1.27 million daily digital-only subscribers, 322,000 more than the 948,000 the year before. It means the number of people who subscribe to the digital-only service now exceeds hard copy subscribers or a bundled product including both print and digital. The Financial Times moved to that position a long time ago and The New York Times has been in that situation for more than a year. Stories from the Journal will continue to appear in The Australian Monday to Saturday. — Glenn Dyer

Glenn Dyer’s TV ratings. Nine’s night, thanks to The Block. The ABC had a solid night though, with Shaun Micallef’s Mad As Hell averaging 1.05 million national viewers from 8.30pm and Utopia 1.04 million. The ABC’s new comedy Get Krackin averaged 607,000 nationally from 9.30 pm and won the half-hour slot. Ten repeated The Wrong Girl from last week at 9.40 pm — it could only manage 237,000 national viewers. Its second episode is on tonight at 8.40pm.

Ten’s Offspring had another weak night — 734,000 nationally — against 919,000 national viewers for The Bachelor from 7.30pm to 8.40pm. In fact the ABC won the slots from 8.30 through to 10pm. In the 6pm news battle — a one-off (?) win for Seven over Nine in Melbourne — 280,000 to 269,000.

In the regions, Seven News was tops with 567,000, followed by Seven News/Today Tonight with 493,000, with Home and Away third with 478,000, then The Block in fourth with 435,000 and fifth, Border Security with 414,000. I loved the way Seven started the latest round of repeats of The Vicar of Dibley on 7TWO last night at 7.30pm. There just isn’t enough content to fill all these channels. Ten has restarted repeats of Hogan’s Heroes at 6pm on One, before a double of M*A*S*H from 6.30pm.

It’s the curse of choice. Too many channels to chose from, and those channels have to carry content of some description. As Amazon and Netflix are showing (spending close to US$11 billion a year) original content is expensive and eventually the money will not be there as viewing and membership levels stabilise. So ads appear and more programs are repeated (there is no money to be made putting a black hole to air), viewers (especially younger ones) get upset and migrate elsewhere, and the cycle continues.

Tonight — World Cup Soccer qualifier for the Australian men’s team on Nine’s GO from Japan, the start of the final NRL round of the year on Nine and the AFL Footy Show up against The Front Bar on Seven. — Read the rest on the Crikey website