Gideon Haigh on the changing media landscape

 Ex-library. Mint condition. PB. 112pp. $15 including postage anywhere in Australia.

Veteran journalist Gideon Haigh assesses the future of news media in light of the internet's effects on traditional forms of publishing and broadcasting.

Veteran journalist Gideon Haigh assesses the future of news media in light of the internet's effects on traditional forms of publishing and broadcasting.

In the last decade, customary news media have crumbled before the effects of the internet on advertising, circulation and viewership. In the next decade, they will be supplemented, if not supplanted, by new news media. In this insightful, informative and candid survey of possible futures, veteran journalist Gideon Haigh considers the options for his industry and his craft. Who wins? Who loses? What are the implications for practitioners, professionals, politicians and the public?

Gideon Haigh is the author of twenty-six books. The five sections that comprise The Deserted Newsroom first appeared as individual pieces in Crikey's Brave News World series.

A selection of Clive James' best TV reviews

 

Very good condition. PB. 240pp. $15 including postage anywhere in Australia.

'His contribution to the art and enjoyment of TV criticism over the past ten years has been immense. His work is deeply perceptive, often outrageously funny and always compulsively readable'

Said the judges of the British Press Awards, in naming Clive James Critic of the Year for 1981. The Crystal Bucket offers a further selection of his inimitable TV criticism for the Observer.

'C.J. didn't get where he is today just by being funny. He is humane, liberal and compassionate . . . What he writes is always pertinent and always witty . . We own him a deep debt of gratitude' Gavin Ewart, Listener

'Few critics have a more unerring ear for woolliness and doubletalk or a more scathing and entertaining way of dealing with it' Lesley Garner, Good Housekeeping

'He is one of the most remarkable figures in British cultural life at the moment: a poet and gifted literary critic who is also genuinely liked by the mass audience' Michael Mason, London Review of Books

'One of the few columnists who make you laugh aloud . . . if there were angels he would be on their side: and that would certainly include Charlie's Angels' Melvyn Bragg, Sunday Times

SOLD Niki Savva's political memoir

 

SOLD

Mint condition. PB. 305pp. $20 including postage anywhere in Australia.

From one of the most senior correspondents in the Canberra Press Gallery comes a rare account of life as a political insider.

Born in a small village in Cyprus, Niki Savva spent her childhood in Melbourne's working-class suburbs ­— frontiers where locals were suspicious of olive oil, and Greek kids spoke Gringlish to their parents.

Only a few decades later, despite all the challenges of being a migrant woman in Australia, Savva had risen through the ranks of political journalism at The Australian, and had gone on to head the Canberra bureaus of both the Melbourne Herald Sun and The Age.

Then in 1997, family tragedy struck, and she was forced to reassess her career. In spite of her own Labor convictions, she became Liberal treasurer Peter Costello's press secretary, a role that she kept for six years before moving on to join John Howard's staff.

This is one of the few books about Australian political life written by an insider with decades of exposure to its major players. Hilarious, moving, and endlessly fascinating, Savva's is a story that moves between countries, cultures, careers and, ultimately, political convictions.

The history of Sesame Street

 

Ex-library. Mint condition. HB. 380pp. $25 including postage anywhere in Australia.

Now an acclaimed documentary from Screen Media, the New York Times bestselling account of the story behind one of the most influential, durable, and beloved shows in the history of television: Sesame Street.

“Davis tracks down every Sesame anecdote and every Sesame personality in his book . . . Finally, we get to touch Big Bird's feathers.” —The New York Times Book Review

Sesame Street is the longest-running-and arguably most beloved- children's television program ever created. Today, it reaches some six million preschoolers weekly in the United States and countless others in 140 countries around the world.

Street Gang is the compelling, comical, and inspiring story of a media masterpiece and pop-culture landmark. Television reporter and columnist Michael Davis-with the complete participation of Joan Ganz Cooney, one of the show's founders-unveils the idealistic personalities, decades of social and cultural change, stories of compassion and personal sacrifice, and miraculous efforts of writers, producers, directors, and puppeteers that together transformed an empty soundstage into the most recognizable block of real estate in television history.

Understanding Murdoch and his power

 

Rare book. Excellent condition. PB. 563pp. $20 including postage anywhere in Australia.

The ongoing News Corporation scandals have catapulted Murdoch and his global media empire into the public eye as perhaps never before. 

In the English-speaking world, and increasingly in 'untapped' but potentially lucrative markets such as China, Murdoch wields an influence as political kingmaker second to none.

How did he do it? How did this empire, a loose 'archipelago' of media islands large and small, come to be so successful and influential? How did it all come to the current, disastrous state? And will the empire survive scandals that have outraged people around the world and rocked the media?

Building on many years' research and featuring many previously undisclosed revelations, THE MURDOCH ARCHIPELAGO is the definitive survey of Murdoch's life and times; how power flows from influence; and whether this should (or if it can) be regulated.

Travels across Pakistan's wild frontier

 

Excellent condition. PB. 334pp. $20 including postage anywhere in Australia.

Australian Benjamin Gilmour travelled to Pakistan determined to shoot a film on its wild frontier.

He had never made a movie before and it was illegal and extremely dangerous for him to do so in the region.

But Ben was driven by his passion for the Pashtun people of the North West Frontier Province and for the remarkable gun-making town of Darra Adam Khel.

This book is the behind-the-scenes account of the highly-acclaimed film, Son of a Lion.

But it is more than just a 'making-of'. Ben tells the story of a country with an amazing and rich culture, and of the proud and loyal people who befriended him.

A tragic story of child abuse in Australian TV

 

Slight water damage otherwise mint condition. PB. 271pp. $18 including postage anywhere in Australia.

Beating Murdoch in Court

 

A piece of Australian media history.

Mint condition. HB. 358pp. $20 including postage anywhere in Australia.

Man Bites Murdoch is Bruce Guthrie's explosive account of almost 40 years in the news business, his brutal dismissal from Australia's biggest selling paper, the celebrated court case that exposed the inner workings of the world's biggest media company, and the treachery of its most senior executives.

Guthrie survived tuberculosis, Melbourne's gritty northern suburbs and a boss who twice tried to sack him in his first six months in newspapers, to become a foreign correspondent and then one of Australia's feistiest and most controversial editors. His CV boasts editorships of The Age, The Sunday Age, Herald Sun, Who Weekly, The Weekend Australian Magazine, even a stint at America's celeb-news bible, People. Then, just as he claimed one of the industry's most glittering prizes, he fell foul of Rupert Murdoch and his henchmen, who promptly dispensed with his services. What would any self-respecting Broadmeadows boy do in such circumstances? Sue them, of course.

Man Bites Murdoch exposes the back rooms of Australian business, politics and media and offers a front-row seat at the many seismic events that played out over the last 20 years, including Murdoch's relentless push for growth both here and overseas, young Warwick Fairfax's ill-fated takeover of the family company and the extraordinary impact of the internet.

About the Author

Bruce Guthrie began his media career as a copyboy at The Herald in Melbourne in 1972. After completing a cadetship, he worked in a variety of reporting roles for the paper until 1985, when he was appointed US west coast correspondent for the Herald and Weekly Times, based in Los Angeles.

In 1987 he returned to Australia and became deputy editor of The Herald, leaving two years later to help launch The Sunday Age.

He was appointed editor of that paper in 1992 and editor of The Age in 1995. He joined Time Inc. as a senior editor at People magazine in New York in 1998, and became editor of Who Weekly a year later.

In 2004, he returned to News Limited to become editor of The Weekend Australian Magazine and to launch The Australian's monthly magazine, Wish.

He was appointed editor-in-chief of the Herald Sun, Australia's largest selling daily newspaper, in February 2007 - a role he filled until his dramatic and unexpected exit in November 2008.

Guthrie is married to journalist Janne Apelgren and lives in Melbourne with their two teenage children and a golden retriever named Tilly.

A journalist unpacks the world's most powerful media mogul

 

Mint condition. HB. 446pp. $20 including postage anywhere in Australia.

From the author of the Sunday Times Number One Bestseller Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House

Rupert Murdoch is one of the greatest deal-makers alive. His companies possess extraordinary political and cultural power. Whether it is the Sun and the rise of Thatcher, BSkyB and the transformation of football, or Fox News and the war on terror, we have been living in the age of Murdoch since the late seventies.

But who is he? What drives him?

With unprecedented access to Murdoch and his inner circle, Michael Wolff chronicles the astonishing growth of the mogul's giant media kingdom.

Drawing upon hundreds of hours of interviews he offers us a portrait of a Machiavellian titan; overbearing, but loving, father; love-struck husband; and a cynical and brilliant newsman.

The resulting book is unrivalled in its intimacy and candour and tells a tale of business that is both the story of a man's life, and the story of our times.

Fighting Murdoch in Britain

 

Mint condition. PB. 340pp. $20 including postage anywhere in Australia.

For years Rupert Murdoch's newspapers had been hacking, spying, blagging, bribing and destroying the evidence.

They thought they were untouchable. They were wrong.

This is the book that exposed the shadow state at the heart of Britain.

Now fully updated with the very latest in the News Corp scandal, it tells the story of how a criminal conspiracy involving politicians, the police and the press was revealed; the smears and threats they used to cover it up; the brave whistleblowers who cracked open the case - and what it now means for all of us.