Man beheads baby, licks up blood — News.com.au, 6th February, 2014

Naked man shot dead while eating teen's face — News.com.au, 6th February, 2014

This model plane is incredible — News.com.au, 6th February, 2014

Hello, I'm Paul Barry, and welcome to Media Watch as we gaze into our crystal ball and peek into the future of print and online news

Those were three of the top stories earlier this month on what's now Australia's most popular news site, News.com.au.

And here are a couple of others.

George Clooney kills off dad in latest prank — News.com.au, 6th February, 2014

18 signs you're dealing with a narcissist — News.com.au, 6th February, 2014

Busted! The celebs who've lied about their age — News.com.au, 6th February, 2014

They call this stuff click-bait and it's what news sites all over the world are now using in their battle to sell advertising.

They're forced into offering this fare-or so they believe-because they need to make money, and it's now almost impossible to do that from print

Double digit declines for newspapers — Australian Newsagency Blog, 14th February, 2014

Yes, newspaper sales are plummeting again .

Audit Bureau of Circulation figures for the last 3 months of 2013 show another huge fall ... with Fairfax Media's The Age and Sydney Morning Herald down by a shocking 17% from the same period of 2012.

News Corp's Herald Sun and Daily Telegraph fared slightly better, but still fell 12%, after even bigger falls in the previous quarter.

And how bad is that? As one former News Corp editor told Media Watch:

"It's slaughter" — Ex-News Corp editor, comment to Media Watch

Or in the words of another ex-News Corp executive, who was equally shocked:

"It's a bloodbath. I've never seen figures like it." — Ex-News Corp executive, comment to Media Watch

In absolute terms the Herald and Age are now selling not much more than 130,000 copies each a day.

Meanwhile, the mighty Herald Sun has sunk below 400,000 and the Daily Telegraph below 300,000.

The glory days are well and truly gone.

But believe it or not, the news on advertising revenue is even worse. And that's where it really hurts.

Fairfax Media's 2013 results show that print advertising revenue for its two big Metro mastheads-the Herald and the Age-fell by 25% last financial year, or by almost exactly $100 million.

Meanwhile, at News Corp ... total revenue for their Australian papers was down by around $120 million in the last quarter, or 10% from the previous year.

According to media analyst Roger Colman:

It's a pretty poor outlook for The Fairfax Group and News Corp looking at the numbers in Australia. — Roger Colman, Media and Internet Research, CCZ Statton Equities, statement to Media Watch, 13th February, 2014

That is an understatement.

Insiders tell Media Watch that The Australian is losing $40 million to $50 million a year. **The Australian has assured us that this $40 million to $50 million figure is 'factually incorrect'. Media Watch has corrected the record

The Daily Telegraph is also losing money.

And even Brisbane's Courier-Mail-which was once a goldmine has hit hard times.

Six or seven years ago News Corp's Queensland papers-which include the Gold Coast Bulletin, Cairns Post and Townsville Bulletin-were making $270 million profit before interest and tax.

This year-we're told-they're budgeted to make less than 1/10th of that and are in fact on track for a loss.

According to Colman this is the new reality:

Print product is unprofitable Monday to Friday. Commercially, the newspaper has ceased to exist, other than as a magazine on the weekends. — Roger Colman, Media and Internet Research, CCZ Statton Equities, statement to Media Watch, 13th February, 2014

As profits at Australian newspapers evaporated last year, five News Corp editors got the chop.

And Kim Williams, the new CEO, resigned .

One former News Corp executive tells Media Watch:

Kim Williams wanted to change, but the Old Guard knocked him off... — Ex-News Corp executive, statement to Media Watch

Now it's not clear what News Corp's strategy will be. In the words of another former News Corp executive:

The business is heading towards the cliff. At least Kim was trying to grab the wheel. Now they're heading to the edge with their foot flat to the floor and hoping for a soft landing. — Ex-News Corp executive, statement to Media Watch

Over at Fairfax ... the Herald, the Age and Fin Review are also fighting for their lives, despite drastic cost cutting over the last two years.

Fairfax has shed some 2,000 jobs , announced the closure of its two biggest printing plants, shut down magazines, moved to a tabloid format and got rid of some its best-known writers .

On the plus side, the Age and Herald have put up paywalls on their popular websites-with some success-and CEO Greg Hywood maintains it's all going fine ...

I've been here since 1976 and let me say that our journalism has never been better... In this company at this time everyone is hungry to succeed. — Greg Hywood, CEO, Fairfax Media, 7th November, 2013

But the share price still tells a sorry tale.

At around 72 cents-which is admittedly higher than it has been-Fairfax Media is worth only 1/7th of what it was worth seven years ago.

And where has the value gone?

To the new online sites that hijacked its advertising.

As former Fairfax adviser Daniel Petre told Colleen Ryan for her book Fairfax: The Rise and Fall.

DANIEL PETRE: Eight billion dollars of market cap ... is now tied up in [realestate.com.au], carsales and Seek. That has basically come out of Fairfax. And Fairfax is worth $1.3 billion. That is the scale of the tragedy ... — Fairfax: The Rise and Fall, by Colleen Ryan, 2013

Ultimately, it's the loss of advertising that poses the main problem for these newspapers, especially if it continues, because that's where so much of their money still comes from.

And this is true at News Corp too, even though it owns realestate.com.au, because its tabloid papers risk losing the display ads they still rely on.

As a former executive admitted:

Everyone knows the classifieds are gone. The big worry is the big retailers' ads. They know what customers want to buy and they can marry it up, and they're not going to need newspapers at all in a few years. — Ex-News Corp executive, statement to Media Watch

Compounding this is the difficulty newspapers have making money online.

More and more, advertisers are spending money with Google and Facebook, because they can target their customers.

And even if ad volume is going up, ad rates are going down.

Last year Fairfax's digital ad revenue rose by only $5.5 million, while its print ad revenue fell $100 million, or almost 20 times as much.

To cap it all, big international media groups are now muscling in on our market.

Britain's Guardian launched an Australian website in May last year and is now a regular in the top ten.

The Daily Mail is also now here and whizzing up the charts with stories like this.

Now that's a tandoori tan! Jackie O tweets orange face after losing 'spray tan bingo' — Mail Online, 13th February, 2014

The Mail Online is the most popular English-language news site in the world, with an audience of 58 million people per month, and a very particular approach to news:

LOOming on the horizon... the precarious privvy perching over a 2,600m Siberian cliff and frequented by the brave, stupid or very desperate — Mail Online, 27th November, 2013

The Mail is famous for its kooky stories and crazy headlines, which are designed to be picked up by online search engines.

It's also notorious for the so-called sidebar of shame, packed with celebrity gossip and wardrobe malfunctions, which publisher Martin Clarke says will certainly be coming our way.

MARTIN CLARKE: We don't call it the sidebar of shame, but yeah obviously the right rail with its great showbiz content, yes that will definitely be there, but with an awful lot more Australian personalities. — ABC Radio National, RN Breakfast, 28th November, 2013

The Mail-which has formed a joint venture with Nine Entertainment-is looking to hire 50 local journalists to bring us truly Australian content.

So what will it look like?

Here's an example of what to expect :

Three Aborigine boys airlifted to hospital after circumcision ritual goes horrifically wrong and they are left sitting in 'pools of blood' — Mail Online, 23rd January, 2014

That story came with a totally unrelated picture that looks like it came from a tourist brochure.

A family of aboriginals strolling in the wild, near Darwin, Australia. — Mail Online, 23rd January, 2014

But once the Mail Online gets its bearings, it is expecting to take Australia by storm. Here's Martin Clarke again:

MARTIN CLARKE: My view in life is there's not much point going into races where you want to come second. So, we have a massive market penetration in the UK and a very dominant position. We're expanding our position in the US all the time and I see no reason we shouldn't become a very big player in Australia. — Mumbrella Hangout, 27th November, 2013

Industry insiders say the Mail is already scaring the bejesus out of its competitors like News.com.au.

And they are running more and more Man bites Dog stories in an attempt to fight back:

NATARSHA BELLING: ... Let's see what is trending online this morning, Alison Stephenson joins us from news.com.au. Good morning Ali what are people looking at today? ALISON STEPHENSON: Good morning guys I've got a bit of an odd one for you today, a woman who hated being named 'Sheila' and said that her name was one of the ugliest out there has legally changed her first name to 'Sexy'. 41 year old Sheila Crabtree from Ohio told the court how she wanted a name that reflected her personality ... — Channel Ten, Wake Up, 13th February, 2014

Sexy Crabtree. What's not to like about a story like that?

Well ... one of our viewers who is on News.com.au's daily email list has complained to Media Watch about the stuff that now lands in his Inbox, like this batch last Wednesday.

Son, 16, 'killed mum with dumbbell' — News.com.au, 12th February, 2014

'America's sweetheart is a b****' — News.com.au, 12th February, 2014

Woman's fury over 'mile-high sex snub' — News.com.au, 12th February, 2014

Says James our informant

This email paper is continually full of such rubbish, undoubtedly picked up from the international wires. It smacks of laziness on the part of reporters and perhaps says something of the audience - tech smart but socially dumb!! Avoids the paper grappling with the real issues of our Australian community. — Viewer 'James', email to Media Watch, 12th February, 2014

But media websites like News.com.au have yet another new kid on the block to fight.

The internationally-renowned BuzzFeed launched here in Australia just over 2 weeks ago with a barrage of lists ... that you really don't need to read:

50 Reasons Why Australia Is The Lucky Country — BuzzFeed Australia, 16th February, 2014

12 Things You May Not Know About The Movie 'Wolf Creek' — BuzzFeed Australia, 16th February, 2014

31 Heartwarming Photos Of Animals Returning Home After Bushfire Evacuations — BuzzFeed Australia, 16th February, 2014

Oh all right, let's have a look .

Aaaahhh. Heartwarming isn't it?

BuzzFeed of course is a massive success, with a worldwide audience of 43 million people per month**- almost as many as the Mail Online-which grew by 76% last year.

**These comScore figures do not include mobile traffic

Famous for its cute cat videos and its lists, BuzzFeed creates content that people want to share. Mainly young people and mainly on Facebook.

These include sponsored stories co-written by Buzzfeed, which advertisers love because they can pay by results when their message is shared.

BuzzFeed now wants to be seen as a serious news site, and in America it's hiring political, business and investigative reporters.

But it's taking on just 3 journalists in Australia to cover our news and to look for...little furry animals...

SCOTT LAMB: Americans love cute cats, this is a true thing. Maybe in Australia it's going to be quokkas or some other cute animal ... — ABC News 24, 31st January, 2014

Some of BuzzFeed's stories do have serious intent.

Like this one:

7 Ways The ABC Could Be More On Australia's Side — BuzzFeed, 29th January, 2014

But even then it's more like comment and comedy.

So is any of what BuzzFeed does really news or journalism?

SCOTT LAMB: That's an excellent question. I would say that list of cats can be journalism. Certainly, we have reporters and writers at BuzzFeed who are very traditional journalists in most sense. They go out into the world and get new information. The way that they present it, though, is varied. And sometimes a list of cats is a great way to tell a story. It depends on what point it is that you're trying to get across. — ABC Radio, PM, 31st January, 2014

Journalism or not, BuzzFeed will be trying to steal readers from the big Australian news sites, and so will the Mail Online.

This will put those sites under pressure to be more sensational, more celebrity-focused and less interested in real news.

BuzzFeed and the Mail Online will also steal advertising dollars from those established Australian sites and make it even harder for them to make a living.

Indeed, some believe the globalisation of Australian news will drive the locals out of business and leave us with franchises of international media brands.

Says Roger Colman:

ROGER COLMAN: It's hard to see independent, stand-alone businesses like the SMH, Daily Telegraph and The Age surviving the onslaught. — Roger Colman, Media and Internet Research, CCZ Statton Equities, statement to Media Watch, 13th February, 2014

We hope that's too pessimistic.

And with smaller start-ups like The New Daily, launched in November, and the Saturday Paper due out in March, it's certainly not all doom and gloom.

In fact some say these are exciting times in journalism. Especially if you like cat stories.

And you can read more about all this on our website, where you can also read a transcript and download the program.

You can also send tips to that website and contact me or Media Watch on Twitter.

But for now that's all from us, Good Bye.