I have never been a participant in the traditional versus new media debate, resisting the rabid us or them sentiment sometimes present in the blogosphere (and amongst some journalists at media events). As an obsessive reader of newspapers, I have maintained that there is room for traditional press in a digital world.

However the recent actions of Fairfax management many be playing into the hands of new media advocates. The wholesale cutback of editorial staff at Fairfax have been described by ex-editor Michael Gawenda as “chilling”.

Mr Gawenda was editor of the Fairfax-owned The Age broadsheet for seven years from 1997. In his last few years, he said, the internet loomed as a threat but “Fairfax lost its classified monopoly and it failed to come up with a business model that took advantage of its long-time grip on classifieds”.

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National TV ratings: David Dale, Sun Herald blogs

A week that started wonderfully for Channel Nine, with 2.05 million viewers for the rugby league grand final, ended up like most of the others — with a smashing win for Channel Seven. Seven had the next five most watched shows (Packed to the Rafters, Find My Family, City Homicide, The Force and Border Security) and averaged 30.7 per cent of the prime time audience for the week.

Nine averaged 25.9 per cent. Its only other good news was 1.3 million for its new US drama The Mentalist, but some of these may have been people who forgot to change the dial after the grand final.

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B & T Magazine Cover

Julian Cole’s second appraisal of Australia’s Top 50 Marketing blogs has been published in B&T Magazine and I am proud to say that Media Hunter and Sticky Advertising have figured prominently.

The 10 October issue of B&T lists the Top 50 Marketing blogs and a feature article Welcome to Australia’s Marketing Blogosphere.

Media Hunter came in at #13 (up several spots from the original ranking) and was closely followed by fellow Sticky blogger Gordon Whitehead’s The Marketer at #14.

The most pleasant surprise though was seeing our new agency website www.stickyads.com.au being ranked #32 in Australia.

Having three sites from the one agency figuring so highly in social media and blogging circles is quite an honour and something that we will endeavour to maintain.

Once again congratulations to Julian Cole for taking the time to trawl the Aussie blogosphere. And congrats to B&T for embracing this new strand of the marketing world. It’s further proof that blogging and social media are gaining relevance in Australia.

As the economy goes down the gurgler, here is some of the news and discussion around Australia and the world:

Labor governments blamed for radio ad dive - A DISASTROUS quarter of advertising revenue falls in Sydney radio has sent the overall radio ad market into a tailspin.

Fairfax’s finest line up to leave Sydney Morning Herald - SOME of the longest-serving reporters at Fairfax Media’s Sydney flagship newspaper, The Sydney Morning Herald, will be told from today whether their applications to be made redundant have been approved.

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Don’t underestimate the seriousness of the current international financial crisis. I am no economic expert,

The Fugitive - Train Wreck 1993 by Jerry Jaynes

but I am convinced that we have yet to see the full extent of the train wreck that is the sub-prime and subsequent liquidity crisis that is beginning to wreak havoc on the World’s financial systems.

Even following the legislative approval of the US $800billion bailout, we are still standing on the precipice of the most serious economic downturn of our generation.

Ian Verrender, financial columnist at the Sydney Morning Herald warns:

There is no understating the seriousness of the situation in which we now find ourselves. This is a historic moment, a pivotal point in global affairs. And no one can really tell where we are headed right now.

As an agency owner, employer and primary source of family income, my focus is on how this financial crisis, and possible world recession will affect the industries in which I operate. It has been playing on my mind for some time now and I have drawn some conclusions that may be worth discussing.

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Newcastle TV ratings week 40, 2008

The first week without Friday night football has seen a sudden change in the ratings numbers for Newcastle TV. This time last year Prime staged a late season charge at NBN, coming within a whisker of winning a non-Olympics week for the first time ever. Last week’s result indicate that this may happen again in the next month.

Its also worth noting that with the finer spring weather, viewing numbers have dropped.

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National TV ratings. Source: David Dale, Sun Herald blogs

It was a humiliating week for Channels Nine and Ten. The only programs Nine could get into the top ten were two episodes of the American sitcom Two and a Half Men, while Ten discovered that it had become the fourth most watched network, dropping behind the ABC.

With Nine now showing five and a half hours of Two and a Half Men, Charlie Sheen has become the Gordon Ramsay of the second half-year. Nine’s hot new cop show, The Strip, has lost 400,000 viewers since its debut, and is seriously at risk of getting dumped to 10.30pm so that Charlie can move into its Thursday slot.

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Welcome to the new and improved Media Hunter.

I launched the Media Hunter in April 2007 after meeting with Gavin Heaton and having an in-depth discussion on social media, blogging and the future of marketing. Inspired by his efforts with Servant of Chaos, I decided to create a site dedicated to the industry I work in and region I live in. Hence Media Hunter.

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Today we are switching Media Hunter over from the original Typepad site to a Word Press platform. There might be a few hitches as the data is transferred and the new site populated.

Please bear with us.

Thx

Craig

In the 18 months since I began this blog Media Hunter has grown from a regionally focused experiment to become one of Australia’s leading media blogs. It now covers traditional media, digital media and social media despite originally looking mainly at media in Newcastle and the Hunter Valley.

I know that during this time many people around me- staff, family and friends -  have all wondered why I would want to dedicate a reasonable amount of time to writing and researching posts for an obscure little blog. Certainly, there were times when I really wondered why I was doing it too.

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