News Corp’s free mass-market news site, news.com.au, was the first to publish details of Wells’ $100,000 trip to New York under the headline ‘Eye-watering cost to spruik social media ban’ last Tuesday evening before mysteriously sending the link dead shortly after.
But sources with insight into the publishing decision have told On Background the story was pulled by editor-in-chief of Free News and lifestyle Mick Carroll because it jarred with News Corp’s advocacy through its Let them Be Kids campaign for the Albanese government’s social media ban for under 16s.
The story, produced by News Corp’s NewsWire service and published to news.com.au on the Tuesday evening, was based on a Senate Estimates questions on notice document leaked to the journalists which included details of Wells’ itinerary during the trip and the substantial costs.
Readers of the first edition of The Weekend Australian Magazine for 2026 got a surprise when they reached the back of the book on Saturday.
Gone was Phillip Adams’ regular column. In its place a column from News Corp Australia veteran Steve Waterson. Was Adams sick or taking leave?
The page where Adams’ column normally lived saw a brief tribute from Waterson with his first column headed: “I do hope I can entertain people half as well as Phillip Adams”.
do you mean we don’t get to read his ridiculous gossip column every Sunday? He made half the shit up. Was a disgraceful reporter with an axe to grind on so many of his enemies.
What’s the Buzz was actually one of my favourite sports columns (with The Age’s Geoff McClure second and Herald Sun’s Jon Anderson third). I first came across Phil’s column when I first started reading The Sunday Telegraph in 2003.
Adams cited columnists Bernard Salt and Nikki Gemmell as the last remaining “moderates” on the magazine during the exit interview with this masthead.
But the Weekend Australian Magazine continues to ring the changes, with Gemmell’s weekly column now dumped as well. We are told author and cook Charlotte Ree has been enlisted as replacement.
When On Background called Gemmell last week to confirm this, her response was: “I’m staying, and I’ve been promoted!”
That’s quite the turnaround, and it turns out she is staying, as chief film critic. But doesn’t The Australian already have a well-known film critic in Stephen Romei, you might ask? Indeed they do.
The magazine is now the domain of a gaggle of regular columnists, its features filed by contracted contributors and journalists from the broadsheet moonlighting on its august pages.
I’ve heard that too. I don’t think she is, but if Hitler were about today, he’d be all over her to try and get her to be the face (and body) of the perfect Aryan woman.
The jeans campaign she fronted, used some language that was designed to stir up controversy. I’m sure the ad agency had the idea that it would. They knew what they were doing casting her, knowing she has been a MAGA supporter in the past.
The Age and SMH’s Calum Jaspan wrote in his column today that The Australian’s film critic Stephen Romei had been shown the door. It turns out that Romei was dumped a few weeks into 2026. Romei was a 40-odd year veteran at News Limited/News Corp, working as The Australian’s literary editor, and foreign correspondent, and film critic for the last 15 years.
The company’s second quarter revenues rose by 6%, to $2.36 billion, driven by the “three core drivers of the business” as CEO Robert Thomson put it: Dow Jones (publisher of the Wall Street Journal), digital real estate services, and book publisher Harper Collins. EBITDA rose by 9% to $521m.
Net income dropped by 21% year-on-year to $242m, although the comparable December 2024 quarter saw a spike due to the sale of Singapore real estate hub Property Guru.
News media revenues were flat, remaining at $570m, with increased circulation and subscription revenue wiped out by a decline in advertising, primarily in print. A rise in digital subscribers was also offset by a drop in print readers.
Earnings decreased by 5% to $70m, “primarily driven by lower contribution from News Corp Australia” as well as startup costs for the California Post. Digital now makes up 43% of total news revenue, compared to 39% in the second quarter of FY25. News Corp Australia’s digital subscribers rose by 4%, from 1.126m to 1.168m.
