Dash for Cash. Michaelia Cash’s current crisis is a gift for headline writers, so we’ve picked out some of the best.

smh.com.au, October 26, 2017

Daily Telegraph, October 27, 2017

The Australian, October 27, 2017

The Daily Telegraph, October 27, 2017

A-listers’ anti-piracy hypocrisy. “I’d like to talk to you about illegal downloads”, Bryan Brown says in a voice that sounds like he’s asking us all to step outside and settle this like men. The new anti-piracy ad is screening across a lot of meeja. “You could get viruses,” he says, the vague suggestion being that this is something that could be arranged. “Or you could spend a few bucks and watch it properly”.

Well, yeah, if you’ve got a few bucks. Trouble with these A-list anti-piracy campaigns is that it’s always multi-millionaires telling you to pay up, so their fees can be paid. In all the years of campaigning against piracy, no-one seems to have thought of putting a sound recordist, a gaffer, or even a scriptwriter on screen to point out that most of the money goes to fairly basic salaries. Who knows? For every anti-piracy ad, there’s a story about an Aussie star buying a new mansion. Maybe A-listers could donate some of their wealth for free, or low-price screenings for people who can’t afford a cinema ticket. You know actual self-interest, like your own, that you’re spruiking in the ads. — Guy Rundle

Reader support grows at The Guardian. The Guardian has announced it now makes more money from its paid supporters than it does from advertising revenue. In a note to readers, editor-in-chief Katharine Viner said the outlet now has more than 800,000 supporters from 140 countries. Half a million of those are subscribers or members, and the remainder have given individual contributions.

Eating our lunch. Alphabet (Google’s parent company) continues to eat the ad revenues of companies across all areas of the media, entertainment and anywhere else as its third quarter report showed with revenue surging to $US27.8 billion from $US18.27 billion in the September quarter of 2016; net income of $US6.73 billion was up from $US5.061 billion; paid clicks were up 47% year-on-year in total, while cost per click continued to fall, down 21%. But buried in the Alphabet accounts was nasty figure — the cost of acquiring traffic for Google’s search rose significantly, up 32%. That’s the cost of getting ads in front of mobile users, so Google has to pay a cut of its ad sales to Apple and other companies that integrate Google search into their mobile products and services. — Glenn Dyer

Tech boom boom: Amazon’s sales and profits surged, Microsoft is making a bomb, and Alphabet (Google) continues to soak up ad spending across the board. But the big stand out from Thursday’s tech-heavy quarterly reporting day was, believe it or not, Donald Trump’s favourite ‘newspaper’, Twitter. Twitter shares rose strongly (18.5%) despite another loss, another drop in revenue and a snafu with its user figures since 2014, but only realised recently by the company. Twitter had a third quarter net loss of $US21 million, down from a $US103 million loss a year ago and says it could make a profit in the current quarter, which would be the first since it listed on Wall Street four years ago. Revenue fell in the quarter — down 4% to $US590 million, but daily user numbers rose 14% to 330 million. The improving outlook for Twitter means it is yet another media company benefiting from the Trump Presidency and his mad tweeting from early in the morning. — Glenn Dyer

Glenn Dyer’s TV Ratings. All hail Sophie, Queen of TV — free now to marry Stu in the 2018 hit special called The Honeymooners? Jarrod joins Apollo in a beauty parade for next year’s Bachelor after last night’s rejection on the finale of the Bachette. Soph’s rescue of the Ten network climaxed with a massive 2.20 million audience last night, of which 1.64 million were in the metros. The rest of the program grabbed 1.75 million viewers nationally. If Ten was still a listed company this would have sent the shares higher, even at its lowest point in early June. Gogglebox grabbed 1.3 million nationally straight after and proved to be funnier than much of the “comedy” on TV these days. Their verdict next week on Sophie’s choice last night will be well worth waiting for. 

Seven News again beat Nine News in Sydney (and nationally and in the metros). Seven’s wins in Sydney are starting to become a late year habit. That’s a small glimmer for what has been a miserable three months for Seven. In the regions The Bachette Decision topped the night with 564,000 people, with Seven News second with 509,000, then Seven News/TT with 444,000, the finale of The Bachette was fourth with 437,000 and Home and Away was fifth with 429,000. — Read the rest on the Crikey website