MEDIA NEWS:

A leading journalism academic says News Crap Australia’s tactic of attacking Victorian Premier Dan Andrews for withdrawing government advertising from print newspapers has “let the cat out of the bag” about the Murdoch media’s “pathetically low” circulation figures.

Professor Henny Jonningham (at right in main picture), chair of the Combined Universities’ Newswriting Tribunal representing journalism educators across Australia, said News Crap’s ongoing campaign against the Premier’s decision in its own Melbourne daily turdbloid The Herald Sun had provided some revealing figures.

Professor Jonningham said a story today attacking Andrews (at left in main picture) enabled a rudimentary calculation of circulation figures to be made.

“The decision by Mr Andrews also affects Nine Entertainment Group’s print editions of The Age and the Murdoch media empire has been quick to embrace its corporate enemy in its very obvious efforts to pad the figures it’s been throwing around to attack the Premier,” she said.

“Today’s Herald Sun continues the Murdoch whingeing by once again claiming 2.6 million Victorians ‘pick up a Herald Sun or Age newspaper every month’. (below)

“The term ‘pick up’ is obviously a reference to the papers’ circulation figures which News Crap and Nine usually refuse to divulge, not because it is commercial-in-confidence but simply because it is minuscule given the shift to internet-based news outlets driven by consumer preferences.

“Instead, ever since circulation took a nosedive they try to fool ad buyers by taking about ‘readership’.

“Up until a few years ago they consistently argued that ‘readership’ figures were obtained by multiplying a hard-copy newspaper’s circulation figure by 2.5, meaning on average the same paper was read by 2.5 people.

“That figure made sense in the pre-digital age. A newspaper thrown over the front fence each morning had a very good chance of being read by more than one or two people in the average household.

“But as the internet age advanced and circulation declined further and further, suddenly the accepted multiplier was four. That meant four people read each copy of a newspaper.

“Although Murdoch and other major publishers kept a straight face, most reasonable observers called bullshit.”

Professor Jonningham said even using a multiplier of only three, the 2.6 million figure for people “picking up” The Herald Sun and The Age worked out to be a circulation for each of just more than 40,000 a day if the figure was split evenly between the two papers.

“That rough figure can be checked by using the weekly readership figure of 1.5 million News Crap’s story touts for The Herald Sun and The Age. (above)

“Using the same very, very generous multiplier of three, you arrive at a daily circulation of 50,000 by again assuming an equal split between the two papers.

“So it’s safe to say that from News Crap’s own figures The Herald Sun is distributing – not necessarily selling – somewhere between 40,000 and 50,000 copies a day.

“What News Crap has done is let the cat out of the bag. It’s just published figures that actually back the decision taken by Premier Andrews.

“Of course News Crap being News Crap, it will never admit that and will continue to demand it be paid taxpayers’ money for no other reason that it is News Crap,” Professor Jonningham said.