MASS MEDIA

Murdochs at war – through media

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Original article by Myriam Robin
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 13 & 16 : 18-Feb-25

A dispute among the members of the Murdoch family over the future control of their media empire has been aired in public in recent days, with particular reference to an interview with James Murdoch. The dispute centres around the attempts of Rupert Murdoch to change the terms of a family trust so that his favoured son Lachlan gets sole control of it, while his siblings James, Elisabeth and Prudence miss out on what would be eventually gaining a majority control of it. Rupert Murdoch’s efforts have so far failed, and an appeal against a legal decision that went against him is not likely to succeed. It is suggested that the dispute could be settled by buying out James, Elisabeth and Prudence on terms that are more favourable than the 60 per cent of market value that they have been offered.

CORPORATES

The future of the Murdoch empire comes down to a court in Nevada

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Original article by Jim Rutenberg
The Sydney Morning Herald – Page: Online : 17-Sep-24

Edmund Gorman Jr is about to decide the future of the Murdoch family’s media empire in a courthouse in Reno in Nevada, with Gorman being a county probate commissioner. Gorman is expected to hear testimony from Rupert Murdoch and his four eldest children, with Murdoch seeking to change the terms of a ‘irrevocable’ family trust he agreed to some two decades ago. The trust gives Lachlan Murdoch and his three other siblings listed in the trust equal say over the controlling shares of the family’s companies after Rupert Murdoch’s death, but Rupert Murdoch wants Lachlan Murdoch to get full control of them.

CORPORATES

Rupert, Lachlan and me: inside the Murdochs’ medieval fiefdom

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Original article by Amanda Meade
The Guardian Australia – Page: Online : 6-Aug-24

Eric Beecher has written a new book called ‘The Men Who Killed the News’, which looks at the abuse of power by media moguls from William Randolph Hearst to Elon Musk. Beecher’s career in journalism included a number of years with the Murdoch family-owned News Corporation, with Beecher saying that News Corp is like a "’medieval fiefdom", where editors learn through "a kind of osmosis" rather than through direct instruction. Beecher says he had been working on the book slowly for years, with the impetus to finish it coming in 2022, when he was personally sued by Lachlan Murdoch over an article that appeared in Crikey; Murdoch eventually dropped the case in April 2023.

CORPORATES
NEWS CORP AUSTRALIA PTY LTD

Disney+ signals end to password sharing is near

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Original article by Sezen Bakan
The New Daily – Page: Online : 23-Jan-24

Streaming video giant Disney+ will join rivals such as Netflix in cracking down on subscribers who share their accounts. Disney+ has updated the terms of its subscriber agreement to explicitly state that customers must not share their subscription outside of their household; Disney+ defines a ‘household’ as the devices associated with a subscriber’s primary place of residence. Victoria University lecturer Marc C-Scott says streaming companies have the right to require people to pay for the service they provide. He adds that cost-of-living pressures are likely to prompt more Australians to switch between streamers and subscription tiers over the next 12-18 months.

CORPORATES
DISNEY+, WALT DISNEY COMPANY, NETFLIX INCORPORATED, VICTORIA UNIVERSITY

Corporates too reliant on Facebook

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Original article by David Swan
The Australian – Page: 13 & 17 : 6-Oct-21

Marcus Thompson says Facebook’s global outage highlights the fact that Australian businesses rely too much on the social media giant and many lack an alternative platform to engage with customers. Thompson, the former head of information warfare at the Australian Defence Force, says local companies need to become more self-sufficient and less dependent on offshore-based digital platforms. Localsearch co-founder Daniel Stoten says small businesses must have a presence on all social media sites that are used by their customers, rather than being reliant on one platform. The Facebook outage lasted for nearly six hours, and has been attributed to a faulty configuration change; it also affected WhatsApp, Instagram and Messenger, and had to be announced on rival platform Twitter.

CORPORATES
FACEBOOK INCORPORATED, WHATSAPP INCORPORATED, INSTAGRAM LLC, FACEBOOK MESSENGER, TWITTER INCORPORATED, LOCALSEARCH

The Hunter Biden story is a crucial moment: does Twitter care more than News Corp about fact-checking?

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Original article by Margaret Simons
The Guardian Australia – Page: Online : 23-Oct-20

A recent story in the ‘New York Post’ about the son of US presidential candidate Joe Biden has become the battleground over the principle that media organisations should not publish allegations unless they believe them to be true, and after they have undertaken appropriate checks. The story has pitched traditional media company News Corporation against social media giants Facebook and Twitter. The social media giants have sought to stop the story from circulating due to doubts about its veracity. News Corp in turn has accused them of censorship, while it has generally failed to acknowledgement that the original story may have been false.

CORPORATES
NEWS CORPORATION – ASX NWS, NEWS CORP AUSTRALIA PTY LTD, FACEBOOK INCORPORATED, TWITTER INCORPORATED

News Corp to close commercial operations at Storyful APAC

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Original article by Hannah Blackiston
Mumbrella – Page: Online : 8-May-20

Media giant News Corporation has advised that it will close the commercial operations of social media intelligence agency Storyful in Australia and the Pacific region. Storyful, which News Corp acquired in 2013, has about 200 employees worldwide. Its teams in the US and Europe will not be affected by the closure, while its APAC editorial team will remain intact. News Corp Australia’s publications will continue to have access to Storyful’s content.

CORPORATES
NEWS CORPORATION – ASX NWS, STORYFUL, NEWS CORP AUSTRALIA PTY LTD

Streaming titans to have tilt at our top tennis title

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Original article by John Stensholt
The Australian – Page: 23 & 25 : 28-Jan-20

The international broadcasting rights for the Australian Open expire in January 2021, and bidders are expected to include subscription video-on-demand providers such as Netflix and social media companies like YouTube. Tennis Australia’s chief revenue officer Richard Heaselgrave notes that most of the international rights will expire at the same time, which will allow the organisation to pursue global deals rather than for specific countries or regions.

CORPORATES
TENNIS AUSTRALIA, AUSTRALIAN OPEN TENNIS, NETFLIX INCORPORATED, AMAZON PRIME VIDEO, YOUTUBE INCORPORATED

Facebook News a powerful precedent

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Original article by Zoe Samios
The Australian – Page: 23 & 25 : 28-Oct-19

News Corporation CEO Robert Thomson has praised Facebook’s news service initiative, which has been launched in the US with a test audience of 200,000 users. Thomson says the Facebook News tab will help ensure that media publishers are paid for quality journalism, adding that Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg deserves "genuine credit" for the new initiative. Facebook has struck a deal to include content from News Corp publications such as ‘The Wall Street Journal’ in its news service.

CORPORATES
NEWS CORPORATION – ASX NWS, FACEBOOK INCORPORATED

Big Digital shift finally under way, says News

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Original article by Leo Shanahan
The Australian – Page: 19 : 9-Oct-19

News Corporation’s CEO Robert Thomson says digital platforms are starting to direct revenue to companies that produce original news content. He expects the flow of revenue to content producers will increase in coming years, which will benefit media companies and their shareholders. News Corp Australia recently struck a deal to be the exclusive local provider of news content for Apple’s News+ subscription service.

CORPORATES
NEWS CORPORATION – ASX NWS, NEWS CORP AUSTRALIA PTY LTD, APPLE INCORPORATED, GOOGLE INCORPORATED, FACEBOOK INCORPORATED, AUSTRALIAN COMPETITION AND CONSUMER COMMISSION