SYDNEY: New media laws in Australia have sparked takeover activity many fear will lead to a concentration of ownership in the hands of Rupert Murdoch and Australia's richest man James Packer, eroding free speech and democracy. "This is a real blow to democracy. Free speech and the multitude of voices and positions on a range of issues is at risk with this legislation," leader of the Australian...
IT TOOK 36 hours for the battle lines to be redrawn on Australia's media landscape after the Howard Government succeeded in its decade-long campaign to free up ownership. Bills to water down foreign ownership limits and end the ban on media groups owning both television and print media were approved by Parliament at 12.13pm on Wednesday. Ninety minutes later, Australia's richest man, James Packer...
New Zealand newspapers owned by John Fairfax Holdings could be broken off and floated on the New Zealand stock market or sold to a private buyer in the frenzy of media buy-ups across the Tasman, analysts say. Fairfax's open share register - dominated by institutional shareholders - meant it was one of three Australian media companies tipped as likely takeover targets. Others were Austereo and...
MEDIA baron Rupert Murdoch will be given an extension of his controversial "poison pill" corporate defence strategy at tonight's News Corporation annual meeting in New York. Company sources last night confirmed that Mr Murdoch, News chairman and chief executive, had the numbers for a two-year extension of the poison pill when the issue goes to a vote of shareholders. This was despite the fact that...
Oct. 18 (Bloomberg) -- Australian billionaires James Packer and Kerry Stokes today made the first moves in what is set to be the biggest shakeup of the nation's media in 20 years. Packer, Australia's richest person, agreed to sell half Publishing & Broadcasting Ltd.'s television and publishing assets to a venture jointly owned with CVC Asia Pacific, raising A$4.5 billion ($3.4 billion), the...
NEW DELHI: Subhash Chandra, head of India's biggest media group, and his partner will invest 7 billion rupees, or $154 million, to publish a newspaper in the capital, betting that increasing readership will lift advertising revenue. Daily News & Analysis, or DNA, plans to start its New Delhi edition and elsewhere in India within a year, Ashish Kaul, senior vice-president of Chandra's Essel Group...
TORONTO The publisher and editor-in-chief of Canada's largest-circulation newspaper have resigned in a shake-up in the upper ranks of the Toronto Star, the daily reported Tuesday. Publisher Michael Goldbloom and editor-in-chief Giles Gherson, who had run the paper since 2004, told the staff Monday they were stepping down. Other news media reported that Gherson told reporters and editors that it...
India's size poses many challenges to businesses but its geographic stature is one of the main reasons for its current hold on the imagination of foreign investors. The media and entertainment industries are a case in point, with a market of 550 million consumers that is impossible to ignore. It is no surprise then that, in investment circles, India is rather crowded now. "Every private equity...
Guardian Media Group is renaming its national and regional newspaper divisions to reflect its multimedia expansion. The publisher follows the Times and Telegraph who similarly renamed to reflect the importance of new publishing channels to their businesses. Guardian Newspapers Limited (GNL), the division that publishes the Guardian, the Observer and Guardian Unlimited, is to be renamed Guardian...
Talks about the future of the US newspaper industry tend to revolve around two cities these days. There is Los Angeles, where staff at the Los Angeles Times last month rebelled against a distant corporate owner. And there is Chicago, home to that same owner, the Tribune Company, where a special committee is considering breaking up the group’s newspaper and television properties to satisfy...
