Media briefs: Abbott Jr’s mag … Wake Up down … News on News …

Abbott’s daughter on fighting for the gays. You can check out Frances Abbott’s scholarship-winning design skills at her website, hollamarycreative.com. Under the moniker “Franny MADE”, the PM’s daughter puts together a Frankie-esque magazine by the name of EVA, which she bills as “a biannual collection of stories, celebrating the awkwardness to the awesomeness of every day and every body” …

The mag features interviews with creative types, fashion pics, cider reviews and Absolut Vodka ads. But the standout is a story called “50 shades of gay”, in which Frances muses about lessons from a children’s book called The Rabbits Wedding — the story of a black rabbit who marries a white one. She writes:

“I can imagine some of you are sniggering at the simplicity of this tale.The reason why I believed it was worth writing about was because it is a sweet and innocent story, teaching children about love and relationships.”

When the book was published in 1958 it “caused an uproar”, she writes, because it had a political message:

“The controversy that surrounded The Rabbits Wedding made me realize how lucky we were to live in a contemporary multicultural society like Sydney but also caused me to recognise how many more issues that there are within society to work on, gay marriage for one example … To conclude, I believe that maybe we could all learn a lot from going back to the basics, by reading children’s books. Especially ones about bunny rabbits.”

In another article about the noodle markets in Sydney’s Hyde Park, Frances recalls how her friends were once “robbed while drunk on goon at Mardi Gras”. We’ll leave it up to readers to decide whether her design skills are worthy of a $60,000 leg-up … — Marni Cordell

Wake Up finally put down. Channel Ten was keen to see the back of its doomed 6.30-8.30am morning show, Wake Up, shutting down its website less than half an hour after the last episode aired this morning. The show had been on air for six months. A first-time Wake Up viewer might have believed that this morning’s episode was uncharacteristically ridiculous. News presenter Nuala Hafner and a member of the crew broke out in a Disney duet, and the celebrity reporter, Maude Garrett, shimmied at the camera at the end of her report. But it wasn’t just finale madness. The memorable on-air moments, which rolled toward the end of the episode, showed zaniness was par for the course.

Fun wasn’t the only theme of the morning though, with Hafner and co-host Natarsha Belling both breaking out in tears. Belling also gave thanks to her mum, who had “held [her] hand over the last two weeks”. James Matherson kept it together, inspiring his audience with a “united Australia” speech: “We didn’t always get the numbers, but we always did it with heart.”

Producer Adam Boland said early on he had wanted a show that was “intentionally different” from Sunrise and Today and was aiming for something that was a little more out there, but it never resonated. Wake Up struggled against Sunrise and Today, only reaching ratings of around 35,000-50,000. The announcement to end the show was made on Wednesday. Around 150 staff will be affected by Channel Ten’s cuts. — Danielle Thompson

Everything is awesome! Breaking: News Corp thinks News Corp is just swell. That’s the word from page 4 of this morning’s Daily Telegraph, with a glowing (those more unkind than we might say sycophantic) story by Matthew Benns about the inspirational speech by News Corp CEO Robert Thomson to his Australian underlings. Here is our favourite bit:

“‘We should all recognise that a great idea in Australia will resonate around the world — that is the lesson of the journey of News Corp.”

Rousing stuff. The good news continues with a longer story in the media section. Benns asserts: “Across all platforms, the company reaches 86% of the Australian population aged over 14.” We wonder how they are counting over there at the Murdoch empire, because their circulation figures tell a different story …

Those bludging models … Remember The Daily Telegraph‘s front page yesterday, comparing the number of New South Wales denizens on the disability support pension with the number of Australia’s war wounded? It’s an odd comparison anyway (there are also fewer people eaten by sharks every year than people on the DSP, also fewer politicians in NSW Parliament … just trying to be helpful), but it turns out the long queues of able-bodied Australians queuing up to rort the system on the Tele‘s front page are not, in fact, able-bodied Australians on the DSP — they’re models on the stock photography site Shutterstock. Thanks to @Jeff_Sparow on Twitter …

By all accounts it’s a highly versatile image. We’ve found those “Aussie welfare slackers” as a queue of tourists lining up in Mexico, foodies queuing up for the hottest restaurant in town on a nude-themed chicks’ blog, people waiting for their drivers’ licences in the US, and those waiting for green cards.

Video of the day. This 1991 skit from Seven’s Fast Forward is strangely … familiar …

Front page of the day. Man of the moment Joe Hockey is the subject of a new authorised biography, called Hockey: Not Your Average Joe. The blurb describes him as “one of Australia’s most popular politicians with one of the nation’s toughest jobs” (we are tipping that might have been written before the budget). The book is written by Madonna King, a Brisbane Times writer and former ABC presenter …