overview
ABC, SBS, BBC
Advance
Annenberg
AOL
APN
Astors
Aust industry
Aust Networks
Beaverbrook
Bertelsmann
Black
Cox
Disney
DMG
Elsevier
Fairfax
Financial Press
Fleet Street
Hearst
Liberty
Maxwell
News & Murdoch
New Yorker
NY Times
Packer
Sony
Thomson
Time Warner
Tribune
US Networks
Viacom
Vivendi
W Post
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Packer
The Packer empire, one of
the two defining forces in Australian media politics, embraces
television (the leading Nine Network and 25% of Foxtel), property,
publishing (Bulletin, Womans Weekly etc), gambling (Crown
Casino), telecommunications (One.Tel) and other holdings. Unlike Alan
Bond and other would-be media moguls - discussed in the Australian
Networks page of this briefing - he's still alive and kicking.
studies
There are surprisingly few books about
the Packers. The best is probably Paul Barry's The Rise &
Rise of Kerry Packer (Sydney, Bantam 93), a penetrating study of the man and empire.
Bridget Griffen-Foley's Sir Frank
Packer: The Young Master (St Leonards, Allen & Unwin 00) largely
reheats her The House of Packer: The Making Of An Empire (St
Leonards, Allen & Unwin 00), arguably overly respectful and marked
by its origins as a PhD thesis. Both supersede R S Whitington's Sir
Frank: The Frank Packer Story (Melbourne, Cassell 71).
Ross Fitzgerald's Red Ted: The Life
of E G Theodore (St Lucia, Uni of Qld Press 94) offers a more
nuanced portrait of the empire's early days and Sir Frank's partner Ted
Theodore, the former Qld Premier and proto-Keynesian
federal Treasurer.
Other perspectives are offered in the major biographies of
Rupert Murdoch (we recommend George Munster's A Paper Prince over
William Shawcross' Murdoch) and Gavin Souter's two studies of the Sydney
Morning Herald (SMH)
group - Company of Heralds and Heralds & Angels
(Melbourne, Melbourne Uni Press 81 and 91).
Stone's Compulsive Viewing:
Inside Packer's Nine Network (Melbourne, Viking 00) is a 60
Minutes flavoured account - colour, action, a fascination with the
big fella and legal stoushes - of the leading commercial network. Hery
Blofeld's The Packer Affair (London, Collins 78)
and Christopher Forsyth's The Great Cricket Hijack
(Melbourne, Widescope 78) deal with the World Series
Cricket imbroglio.
For
broadcasting policy consult Trevor Barr's incisive Newmedia.com.au:
The Changing Face of Australia's Media & Communications (St
Leonards, Allen & Unwin 00) and the blow
by blow account in The Gatekeepers: The Global Media Battle to
control Australia's Pay TV (Annandale, Pluto Press 00) by Mark
Westfield.
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