Gadflies and glasshouses

Dr Mumbo was disappointed (but not surprised) about how little reaction there was to the news that Fairfax Media will no longer be submitting its digital subscriber numbers for scrutiny by the Audited Media Association of Australia but will instead from now on mark its own homework.

A clue on just how opaque this will be for the market came in the Greg Hywood-led company’s annual report, published during the week. It claimed 209,000 digital subscribers across the SMH, The Age and AFR. And revealed they delivered annual revenues of $38m, which adds up to $3.50 a week each.

But among the more hypocritical commentaries came from The Saturday Paper ‘s Gadfly diary, which noted the “surprise” under the headline “Hywood to hell”.

Dr Mumbo is a fan of The Saturday Paper, but leading the charge on transparency, it is not.