Welcome to an audio-led edition of Unmade. Today we talk to author and Crikey proprietor Eric Beecher as he publishes a book condemning the power of media moguls. And further down, the Unmade Index bounces back a little after slumping on Monday and then losing some more on Tuesday.

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‘They do it to make money and they do it to wield power’

In today’s audio-led conversation, we talk to one of the leaders of Australia’s independent media sector, Eric Beecher.

A former editor-in-chief of the Sydney Morning Herald early in his career, Beecher has been involved in building and selling two big publishing businesses, and is currently proprietor of Private Media whose flagship is trouble-making daily newsletter Crikey.

Last week, Beecher’s new book, The Men Who Killed The News, was published by Simon & Schuster. In it, he takes aim at media moguls around the world who use their influence for their own ends. A major focus is the Murdoch family. Beecher has gone from working for Rupert Murdoch and selling a business to what was then News Ltd, to being an influential critic of the company and being unsuccessfully sued for defamation by Lachlan Murdoch.

The conversation also covers the imperfection of the industry-funded Australian Press Council (“the lesser of evils”) his views on the sort of public interest journalism that deserves to be publicly funded (“It’s about scrutinzing power and government. I do not believe it includes lifestyle journalism”) and what’s likely to happen in the Murdoch family’s new succession battle.

Beecher describes the unregulated influence of owning a media company as “the loophole in democracy”.

We talked to Private Media CEO Will Hayward last year:

Unmade Index slide ends

The Unmade Index recovered slightly yesterday after its drops of 3.6% and 1.2% to start the week. Yesterday the Unmade Index improved by 1.08% to 477.9 points.

Among the larger stocks, printing and marketing services group IVE did best, growing by 3.4%. Seven West Media was up by 3% after hitting a four year low on Tuesday.

Enero, owner of agencies including BMF, hit its own four year low yesterday, dropping to a market capitalisation of $106m

Today’s podcast was edited by Abe’s Audio.

We’ll be back with another newsletter tomorrow.

If you’re interested in retail media, don’t forget that discounted earlybird tickets are on sale for another 12 days for the next edition of REmade on October 1. And our call for entries for the REmade Awards is now live.

Toodlepip…

Tim Burrowes

Publisher - Unmade

[email protected]

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