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Traditional and Digital Publishing in Australia. Lecture 9 Publishing Principles and Practice ACP 2079. From Humble Beginnings…. A small printing press had been brought out in the first fleet, but it had not been utilised until November, 1795…
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Traditional and Digital Publishing in Australia Lecture 9 Publishing Principles and PracticeACP 2079
From Humble Beginnings… • A small printing press had been brought out in the first fleet, but it had not been utilised until November, 1795… • From:Borchardt, D.H. & Kirsop, W. (eds). The Book in Australia: Essays Towards a Social and Cultural History. Melbourne: Monash University,1988. (page 3)
Newspaper Publishing in Australia • Capital city newspapers are dominated by two corporations: • Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation, e.g. Herald-Sun, The Australian, The Daily Telegraph • John Fairfax Holdings, e.g. The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald.
News Corporation • Rupert Murdoch inherited The News (Adelaide) after his father Sir Frank Murdoch died in 1952. • From these beginnings he built the international media empire known as The News Corporation, which includes interests in: • 20th Century Fox • Sky News • British Sky Broadcasting • Foxtel • Fox Sports • The Australian • Harper Collins Publishers. • The New York Post • The Times (London) • News of the World (UK)
John Fairfax Holdings • Two main newspapers are: • The Age • The Sydney Morning Herald • Also the Sun-Herald (Sunday Sydney Morning Herald), The Newcastle Herald, The Standard (Warrnambool), The Border Mail (Albury), Illawarra Mercury (Wollongong) • Various New Zealand newspapers.
Magazine Publishing • Dominated by Publishing and Broadcasting Limited (James Packer) • For example: The Women’s Weekly, Woman’s Day, The Bulletin, Cosmopolitan • And digital publishing interests in ninemsn, allied to Channel 9.
Cross-Media Ownership Laws • The Australian Broadcasting Authority • Aims for diverse media ownership to provide fair and unbiased reporting • Broadcasting Services Act 1992
Television to 2006 • A person must not control television broadcasting licences whose combined licence area exceeds 75 per cent of the population of Australia, or more than one licence within a licence area. • Foreign persons must not be in a position to control a licence and the total of foreign interests must not exceed 20 per cent. • There are also limits on multiple directorships and foreign directors. (Source: Parliamentary Library, Australia)
Radio to 2006 • A person must not be in a position to control more than two licences in the same licence area. • Multiple directorships are also limited. (Source: Parliamentary Library, Australia)
Cross-media Control to 2006 A person must NOT control: • a commercial television broadcasting licence and a commercial radio broadcasting licence having the same licence area; • a commercial television broadcasting licence and a newspaper associated with that licence area; • or a commercial radio broadcasting licence and newspaper associated with that licence area. (Source: Parliamentary Library, Australia)
Cross-media Laws • The Federal Government announced new media cross-ownership laws in early 2007. • Certain restrictions on foreign ownership were removed. • See: http://www.xmedia.org.au
ABS Figures for thePublishing Industry • Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics, Survey of Book Publishers (Australia) 2003-04 (financial year), published 2005. • 244 book publishing businesses • 129 million books sold • Income $1561 million • Profit $152 million. • See 2007-08 figures.
Book Publishing in Australia • Profits for largest 20 book publishers: 9.5% • 20 largest publishers account for 72% of the industry • Book publishing employs 5,300 people • 3,547 work for the 20 largest publishers
Method of Sales • 77% were to retailers and other book distributors • 23% direct sales to customers • 1% sales via internet
The Impact of the Internet and Digital Publishing • This semester we have already looked at the rise of Internet booksellers like Amazon.com • We have also looked at the concept of Print On Demand books (Jason Epstein). • http://www.textlibrary.com/ebook_reader_devices_library.htm • http://www.microsoft.com/reader/us/shop/default.mspx
A Note about Traditional Skills in the Current Environment • The writing and editorial skills you develop are becoming more (not less) important as digital publishing competition intensifies. • A knowledge of design principles as well as layout skills become increasingly valuable as many fields of publishing demand more multi-skilling of writers.