MasterChef judge Matt Preston has joined News Ltd as a high profile food writer and, from the looks of it, he's going to be a busy man, with each state's News masthead claiming ownership of the eminent epicurean.

So MasterChef judge Matt Preston has joined News Ltd as a high-profile food writer. He defected from Fairfax last year and Rupert’s tabloids are excited. So excited that today there’s a prominent article in the Herald Sun (page 11), The Daily Telegraph (page 7), Adelaide’s The Advertiser (page 7) and The Courier-Mail (page 2).

Preston will be writing for “taste“, a new weekly food section in News Ltd’s tabloids, and from the looks of it he’s going to be a busy man as he’s not just joining “Team News”, but will be joining the respective teams of the Herald Sun, The Daily Telegraph, The Advertiser and The Courier-Mail.

At least that’s what News’ well-oiled publicity team wants its readers to think:

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So it’s a well-co-ordinated publicity campaign. Every media organisation does this. But what concerned us most here at Crikey was how similar the song sheet was in each story. taste editor Jana Frawley must have got tired of giving the exact same quotes to each paper, replacing the city to match the relevant paper. A boon for the readers, indeed!

Cravat-a-licious? More like a load of croquembouche.