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June 20th, 2012 
FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda
Rupert Murdoch cuts and spends. Photo: AFP
News Ltd is expected to announce a major round of job cuts this morning, joining Fairfax Media in streamlining print and digital operations.
The job cuts, possibly numbering about 1000, come just two days after Fairfax Media revealed plans to lop 1900 jobs, or about one-in-five staff, over the next three years.
News is expected to hold a staff meeting at 10.30am, AEST, to reveal the job losses.
Rupert Murdoch’s News, though, has acted ahead of any job cut announcements with a surprise takeover bid for Consolidated Media Holdings, a major stakeholder of Foxtel and Foxtel Sports.
The News bid values ConsMedia at $3.50 a share, or about $1.97 billion, and has the blessing of billionaire James Packer who holds a 50 per cent stake in the company through Consolidated Press Holdings (CPH).
‘‘CPH welcomes News’s proposal and looks forward to [ConsMedia] and News working together to address the detailed terms and conditions,’’ Mr Packer said in a statement.
CPH considers the offer price to be fair will support the proposal in the absence of a superior cash offer, he said.
If successful, News would emerge with 50 per cent control of Foxtel, the country’s biggest pay TV operator, and all of FoxTel Sports. Telstra holds the other half of Foxtel.
Mr Packer, meanwhile, would all but exit Australia’s media market, leaving him with just a 6.9 per cent stake in Ten Network.
The ConsMedia deal, though, would bolster Mr Packer’s warchest by about $1 billion as he considers expanding his 10 per cent stake in Echo Entertainment.
On a much smaller scale, News is also understood to have purchased the niche business commentary website Business Spectator and its sister Eureka Report publication.
Williams review
News chief executive Kim Williams, himself a former head of Foxtel, has been reviewing News’ operations since taking the top job in December 2011.
News, , prints The Australian, Sydney’s The Daily Telegraph and Melbourne’s Herald Sun newspapers, has been battling the same decline in advertising spending that has bedevilled other media companies in Australia.
As with newspaper companies worldwide, however, the company is also struggling to adjust to the drift of readership to online services that tend to generate much lower advertising revenue than traditional newsprint.
One media analyst, who asked not to be named, said News Ltd faced similar challenges to Fairfax.
“Just like you’re seeing with Fairfax, they’re are having to realign their cost bases and find a pathway to a digital-only model,” the analyst, declining to be named, said.
“In achieving that pathway there is going to be a lot of cost reduction and redundancies.”
Estimates of the News jobs cuts from analysts and union officials range from 400 to 1000, with half of the cuts to come from the editorial departments.
Cheque book media
News, though, is also be getting out the cheque book with its bid this morning for Consolidated Media.
ConsMedia owns a quarter of Foxtel and half of Fox Sports Australia.
Wise Owl equities research firm director Imran Valibhoy said the potential acquisition by News Ltd would help free Mr Packer’s hand for more involvement in his casinos business.
“For James Packer to come out and say he’s happy with the proceedings thus far, [means] he may be looking more towards his casinos business area,” he said. “For this business to be taken off his hands, may not be such a bad thing.”
News Ltd sees “potential” in Consolidated Media in a time when the sector is not only gripped by change but by consolidation, said Mr Valibhoy.
“Print media may be struggling but online media is still going very well,” he said. “It all comes down to the content,” he said.
“If you have good content you can charge what people will pay for it.”
If you look at the UK, no one expected The Times to do well charging for content, but it has, said Mr Valibhoy.
Niche business
The Australian, meanwhile, reports News is expected to announce as early as today that it has bought the Business Spectator and Eureka Report businesses, splashing out about $22 million.
BusinessDay understands the online deal was completed some weeks ago after Fairfax turned down an offer to acquire the company, Australian Independent Business Media, for about $30 million.
BusinessDay is owned by Fairfax Media.
BusinessDay, with AAP
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