The Australian launched its Chinese-language website today (cn.theaustralian.com.au), featuring curated coverage from the paper in simplified Chinese and updated on weekdays. Unlike the original website which requires paid subscription, the Chinese site is free to all to read.
That’s how they suck you in, before putting it behind a paywall.
The Great Wall?
The Great PayWall.
The English translation on Google Chrome works very well on the Chinese pages.
Herald Sun has confirmed that Switched On and Hit liftouts will merge next Wednesday (October 4) to become Hit+TV.
News Corp is in hot water again, this time with Sophie Monk’s management over the use of her image without permission to promote a newspaper subscription offer, which includes a bonus pair of Sennheiser headphones.
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Sam Weir’s replacement at The Advertiser will be Matt Deighton, who has been editor of The Mercury in Hobart for the past four years, and was previously editor-in-chief of Adelaide’s Messenger Community News for five years.
Townsville Bulletin editor Ben English will replace Scott Thompson as Gold Coast Bulletin editor, who has decided to end his temporary post for family reasons.
The first issue of Hit+TV supplement is inside today’s Herald Sun and features Ryan Gosling on the cover. It has brought in most content from the original Hit liftout, apart from Leigh Paatsch’s movie reviews which, for some reason, stay in Thursday’s paper. Also, the 7 day TV guide has been squeezed into 3.5 pages, with two days of listings on one page and the weather forecast underneath Tuesday’s listings, making it very hard to read. I prefer a day on a page format.
Here in Sydney, The Daily Telegraph still seems to have the separate liftouts for Wednesday TV and Thursday entertainment.
As of today, the TV liftout has been rebranded to “DT TV” and is basically just reviews on the 1st page and (a reformatted) 7 day TV guide for the rest. Listings for all major free to air TV channels + selected Foxtel channels are covered.
You people still buy newspapers? How retro. 
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Thursday is the traditional movie release date in this part of the world and reviews are regularly embargoed until the film hits cinemas (or 00:01 on the day of)
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I haven’t bought a News Corp paper in years but my parents still get the Herald Sun so I managed to see their copy. My goodness what a waste of what used to be (a long time ago) a half decent section. Now it’s just a few pages of fluff and then squeezing a week’s worth of TV listings of 15 or so channels into 3 pages.
You’d think they might have gone the other way and actually set out to create a more comprehensive TV listing or create content that might actually… you know… attract readers… but looking at it now I don’t know why you’d bother even browsing the HIT TV section. It’s just nothing now.
And then they’ll whinge that circulation is falling and how dare people be reading everything online now.
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The related party transactions disclosure detailed by News Corp ahead of the AGM in November at Fox Studios LA is interesting. Nova and News have a nice commercial relationship. Ten had disposed of its non television assets in recent years, so it’s odd that Ten would invest in a start-up capital venture fund, but of course Ten probably only invested because of the Murdoch connection. The first investment by Scaleup was in a company that also has James Packer’s money in there.
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More information on Scaleup here if interested - http://www.scaleupmediafund.com
Some of their first investments are online marketplaces include www.bettercaring.com.au and www.heyyou.com.au.
News Corp digital reporter and producer Shannon Molloy has resigned to join Amazon Australia as content editor. Molloy has worked with News Corp for four years in various roles including national entertainment reporter and national TV writer.
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The “re-imagined” Herald Sun website was launched late last night and shares the same look as the Daily Telegraph website.
On the one-year anniversary of the passing of journalist Rebecca Wilson, her old school St Hilda’s on the Gold Coast and News Corp have set up the Rebecca Wilson Alumni Award, which will provide a St Hilda’s student the opportunity to complete an internship at The Courier-Mail, The Sunday Mail or The Australian.
Herald Sun has done the right thing by reverting the 7-day TV guide in the Hit+TV liftout to a day on a page layout, instead of two days on a page which was just very hard to read.
Meanwhile, News Corp has appointed Chris Jones as new editor of Hobart’s The Mercury, and Jenna Cairney as editor of the Townsville Bulletin. Jones will take the helm of The Mercury after six months as executive editor of The Courier-Mail and Sunday Mail, while Cairney joins the Townsville Bulletin after three years as the Sunshine Coast Daily’s editor.
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Herald Sun veteran TV writer Colin Vickery has become editor of national “TV Guide” liftout in the Sunday NewsCorp mastheads.
Oddly, former editor Holly Byrnes, is no longer mentioned (perhaps stepping down due to her role as National TV Editor)?
Keating still has it.
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