AUSTRALIAN NEWSPAPER HISTORY GROUP NEWSLETTER ISSN 1443-4962 No. 37 May 2006 Compiled for the ANHG by Rod Kirkpatrick, 13 Sumac Street, Middle Park, Qld, 4074. Ph. 07-3279 2279. E-mail:
[email protected] 37.1 COPY DEADLINE AND WEBSITE ADDRESS Deadline for next Newsletter: 15 July 2006. Subscription details appear at end of Newsletter. [Number 1 appeared October 1999.] The Newsletter is online through the “Publications” link of the University of Queensland’s School of Journalism & Communication Website at www.uq.edu.au/journ-comm/ and through the ePrint Archives at the University of Queensland at http://eprint.uq.edu.au/) CURRENT DEVELOPMENTS: METROPOLITAN 37.2 MEDIA REFORM PROPOSALS Communications Minister Helen Coonan issued on 14 March an outline of proposals to reform Australia’s media laws. She wanted feedback from stakeholders by 18 April. Under the proposals, newspaper groups and radio groups could be acquired by free-to-air TV networks and vice-versa – and so, Nine, for instance, could buy John Fairfax Holdings, and News Ltd could buy Channel 10. Free-to-air channels would face competition from emerging digital TV players. Senator Coonan said the cross-media and foreign ownership restrictions would be removed by 2007 or 2012, but the Government would require at least five “commercial media groups” to remain in metropolitan markets and four in regional markets. Extensive coverage of the Coonan proposals was provided in, for example, the Australian of 15 March (pp.1, 6, 7, 13, 31, 34) and 16 March (pp.2, 14, 17, 19, 22 and 25) and the Australian Financial Review of 15 March (pp.1, 11, 14, 28, 47, 48, 49, 57, 59 and 60).