Rupert Murdoch was in town this year for the Frank Lowy tribute dinner and demonstrated his 'funny old man walk' to the delight of wife Wendi. (copyright the Shuttle)
The UK's most controversial blogger Madame Arcati is revelling in the news that another of her predictions has come to pass- the closure of the TheLondonPaper, a News Corp give-away tabloid that is about to close after Rupert Murdoch pulled it's funding.
Arcati was furious over the paper's 'ageist' policies where 'bright young things' replace older but seasoned hacks who know the rounds. It's common practice in most newspapers now with the majority of writers on 2 or 3 year contracts as old-timers retire. The days of secure employment are well and truly over in the publishing world.
TheLondonPaper is a less lightweight version of Mx, the thin freebie that is thrust into passenger's hands at Sydney & Melbourne subway stations by bright-eyed young backpackers from Germany & Sweden on temporary work visas.
Murdoch opened Mx after Fairfax Newspapers announced plans to launch their own afternoon give-away tabloids to compliment their hugely popular Sydney Morning Herald and Melbourne's The Age.
When News Corp announced they would launch a competitor, Fairfax backed off only to have Murdoch go ahead and launch Mx anyway a short time later.
The problem is of course, Mx competes directly with Murdoch's most popular Australian titles , the Daily Telegraph and the Herald Sun and has started to bite into their markets. Why fork out cash for the Daily Terror when Mx offers shortened versions of the same tales for free ?.
(disclosure : in the interests of fairness we should point out that the Shuttle had been lined up for a major position on the Fairfax give-aways which evaporated with it's non-publication. We were well pissed off ! )
