Traditional and Digital Publishing in Australia

Lecture 9Publishing 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 AustralianHarper Collins Publishers.The New York PostThe 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

Sales by Category

Sales by Category and Origin

Fiction and Non-fiction Sales

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/

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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.