This is a very interesting development. We have a Labor government, and several media groups with a propensity to suck up to government in order to retain ratings. You can't very well maintain relevance unless you court the favour of politicians. Politics dominates everything, not to mention 30% of GDP and more if there was a new mining tax.
Enter Gina Reinhart, the daughter of long-retired iron ore magnate Lang Hancock. She now controls a $5 billion iron ore empire in WA. The bad news is that the government is trying to control it, or extort wealth from her.
So what is Reinhart to do. Well, you launch a takeover bid for a newspaper. She has already spent $50mil to gain a 10% stake of the company. The implication is that she will probably soon be seeking control in order to ensure 'fair' coverage.
Gina, I just want to say that I would love to be a contributing writer to your paper. I am a mining engineer, I hate the collectivist government we have, I hate unaccountable, extortionate and unconditional taxes.
The bad news is that my partner is Filipino. :(
I suspect though she might turn you around, and she is great at search engine optimisation.
The sad reality is that one has to take over a newspaper in order to inject some objectivity into the media. The question is whether Gina can deliver.
------------------------------------
Author
Andrew Sheldon
