Death of an Advertising Salesman
- Author:
- Lawrence Gibbons
- Posted:
- Friday, 18 March 2011
This week, Rupert Murdoch quietly shuttered yet another local publication in Inner Sydney. On March 14th, Nine to Five joined a fast growing grave yard of once independent Sydney publications shut down by News Limited. Writing her own obituary in the final edition of the magazine, editor Abi Weeks noted, “… after 22 years 1132 issues and more than 45 millon distributed copies, this is our final edition.”
Since 1988, Nine to Five had offered CBD commuters a shopping guide to Sydney’s city streets. Founded by a small British based publishing company, the free city magazine was a spin-off of a similar recruitment rag handed out at London Tube Stations. In its heyday, Nine to Five was chock-a-block full of ads from employment agencies, city shops and services catering to young office workers commuting from the burbs into the City for work, fun and play. In the mid nineties, the owners of the Wentworth Courier, the Hannan family acquired the independent publication and added it to their stable of inner city publications, which included the City Weekly another once independent, free distribution City magazine, launched by Eric Beecher (the owner of Crikey) and long since shuttered by Rupert Murdoch.
In 2007 News Limited acquired the Hannan’s FPC Courier group of inner Sydney publications and merged it with its own Cumberland community newspaper chain. When Australia’s largest newspaper publisher gobbled up the half billion dollar group of prestigious City publications, the ACCC rolled over and went back to sleep. At the time, the City Hub accurately predicted that News would close down a raft of once competing weekly publications to consolidate its monopoly position in the Australian newspaper marketplace. On Sydney’s streets, where three local publications once competed for the lucrative CBD advertising marketplace, the Murdoch owned MX newspaper is now the only game in town. By shutting down first the City Weekly and then Nine to Five, News has established a monopoly position in the CBD. The company has also saved on exorbitant distribution costs, since Town Hall charges hundreds of thousands of dollars for the right to hand out free publications on the publicly owned footpath. While Clover Moore’s free speech tax is beyond the means of most local newspaper publishers (ensuring that no local competitor will fill the vacuum left by News) a global corporation like News Limited sees little reason to dip into profits to line Town Hall’s coffers.
A big company like News Limited doesn’t need to be concerned about the little guy. After a raft of journalists, designers distributors and sales people were sent home, no one bothered to tell the advertisers, who had supported the local publication, that the magazine’s last edition would appear on the streets on March 14th. Local small businesses in the CBD, who had entered into contracts with News Limited to advertise in Nine to Five were distraught to learn their vehicle of choice had been driven off the Harbour Bridge by Rupert Murdoch. Others were confused by news that their ads would be shifted into other Courier publications in which they had not agreed to advertise. As Rupert Murdoch once quipped, “Monopoly is a terrible thing, till you have it.”
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March 18th, 2011 @ 2:20 pm
It has indeed been sad to watch the decay of the once independent and mighty Hannan-owned Courier Group since its purchase by the media monster that is News Ltd.
I’d describe them as a mere shell of what they once were – but I fear this is giving them too much credit.
Let’s face it the courier papers are now just cookie-cutter replicas of the Cumberland papers – which have slowly become more and more homogenised in the last decade.
But Rupert is not to blame – after all, he doesn’t really know what’s going on with the suburban papers he owns in Sydney and other cities around the globe.
The real criminals in this scenario are the suit-wearing sycophants who hope that by manipulating the bottom line though a maze of closed publications; relocation and non-replacement of staff; and adding to the already ridiculous workloads of those employees left behind, they will somehow gain more favour than the suit on the adjoining office and one day get to wield more power than their neighbour.
March 19th, 2011 @ 10:40 am
Almost any other publisher would look at this situation (the closure of a competitor) and see fantastic opportunity. The City Hub uses it for yet another whinge about Murdoch.
This is something consistently wrong about the tone of City Hub. All we get is persistent whining commentary. Whinges about Clover, whinges about Labor, whinges about “development”, whinges that there are too many people in Sydney and whinges about News Ltd.
Have I left anything out? Lighten up, Mr City Hub. Although perhaps you are just annoyed that Mr Murdoch hasn’t yet knocked on your door. But honestly, why would he bother?
March 22nd, 2011 @ 2:42 pm
Well somebody seems to have an irrefutable grudge and the ability to make it a public affair against Rupert Murdoch and the MX. The majority of the general public have not even heard of this Nine to Five publication. I certainly haven’t but am included as part of the ‘young working class’ category. Please do not get me wrong, it is always an unfortunate event when people lose their jobs. Is that a valid reason to submit a jealousy ridden article? I think not. I agree with the fact that Monopoly is a terrible thing, till you have got it. Clearly your childlike ranting and raving characteristics are a viable subject for that exact point.