Andrew Bolt and Luke McIlveen (Images: AAP/Private Media)
Andrew Bolt and Luke McIlveen (Images: AAP/Private Media)

News Corp posts strong second-quarter results 

News Corp’s quarterly revenue results revealed a 3% increase in earnings on the same period last year, lifting the media giant’s profits to US$2.59 billion.

CEO Robert Thomson said the profits were due to the company’s shift to a digital and subscription-based revenue, discarding its reliance on advertising. Revenues were primarily driven by extra revenue at the company’s REA Group and growth in the professional information business at the Dow Jones segment.

These improvements, however, weren’t reflected Down Under, with News Corp Australia only adding 16,000 digital news subscriptions in 2023, compared to larger improvements in the United Kingdom for The Times and at the American Wall Street Journal. Perhaps News Corp’s Australian turn to AI might assist in bringing its subscribers more value going forward.

Thomson also stated the companies’ push to be a “core” content provider for generative-AI companies, emphasising the need for high-quality content and spruiking its “advanced negotiations” with AI companies over content access.

“We patently prefer negotiation to litigation, courtship to courtrooms. But let’s be clear, in my view those who repurpose without approval are stealing and are undermining the very act of creativity,” he said.

“Counterfeiting is not creating, and the AI world is replete with content counterfeiters.”

This comes as News Corp Australia made dozens of editorial staff redundant in early 2023. This included high-profile names such as Rhett Watson, the managing editor and commercial director of News Corp’s national regional and community network. Around the same time last year News Corp saw a 7% decrease in revenue, largely due to a reduced number of subscriptions to its mastheads, pay TV and streaming services.

News Corp Australia boss Michael Miller told last year’s World News Media Congress that the company’s local mastheads were producing 3,000 articles a week using proprietary generative AI, largely without disclosures that the articles were written using AI. 

Bolting to conclusions

Andrew Bolt’s “work” might read like low-hanging fruit for this prestigious column to you, our dear readers, but sometimes your correspondent needs to feel a bit better about himself. Bolt, the bastion of journalistic integrity that he is, penned a column on January 31 declaring that “flag-waving Aussies have become public enemy number one”. 

In it, he told the story of Frank Strazdins and Di Thorley, who walked about Melbourne on January 26 with little Australian flags atop their heads (there’s no clarity on whether those flags were in fact made in Australia) when they were allegedly stopped by Victoria Police officers and told they were being arrested for inciting a riot, by way of wearing flags on their heads. Outrageous. We used to be a country. 

Victoria Police, however, has a different version of events, as reported by one of our former colleagues at the Nine papers.

In a strongly worded statement, Victoria Police said an officer approached Strazdins and advised him that his attire may be provocative, given the 30,000-strong Invasion Day protest approaching them up Melbourne’s Swanston St. Police say there was no arrest nor threat of arrest — the officer in question even advised the pair of how to avoid becoming inadvertent targets of the protesters. 

“It is nonsensical to suggest any police officer would threaten to arrest someone for wearing any national flag, let alone an Australian flag,” the statement read. 

“The actions of police are routinely scrutinised by the media and rightly so … But we will not tolerate our police officers being subject to fanciful stories that have not been fact-checked. We will not cop that.”

Bolt’s story in the Herald Sun included two lines from police. Despite Victoria Police’s protestations, there has been no change to the headline nor any retraction or correction. The story was also picked up Sky News (as well as its digital website) and the Daily Mail. While the Daily Mail ran the police statement in full, at the time of writing the Sky News piece has not included the police statement nor does it appear police were contacted for comment. 

McIlveen rushes to reassure staff 

Newly minted Nine executive editor Luke McIlveen delivered his first broad communication to staff in an all-staff meeting this week. Capital Brief reports McIlveen ruled out job cuts or a shift in tone towards the tabloid-style journalism he’s experienced in. McIlveen previously led the Daily Mail and Fox Sports, which concerned some Nine staff when he was appointed. Nine staff also expressed to Media Briefs concerns about potential austerity measures.

McIlveen told the meeting he saw the premium journalism of The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald as important to the success of the company. 

“I love papers … but the real point of difference we have against our digital competitors at News, the ABC, even Facebook, is our stuff is premium. And it’s stuff you can’t find anywhere else,” he told the meeting. 

“So anybody who has any sort of concerns about whether we’re going to shift direction into a tabloid direction, or we’re going to suddenly produce click-y content. That to me is not the value of these mastheads. 

“It’s not in my interest to do that — it’s in my interest to keep telling the stories, breaking the stories we break.”

Moves

  • Veteran broadcaster Phillip Adams farewelled ABC’s Late Night Live after more than three decades presenting the program, announcing the end of his time on the show on air this week. 
  • Billi FitzSimons moves into editor-in-chief at Instagram outlet The Daily Aus, replaced as editor by deputy editor Emma Gillespie. 

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