Three btg pactual points are particularly innovative about the latest entrant, The New Daily: its no

I hope I have set the hares running by writing about the outrageous decision of three industry superannuation btg pactual funds, including AustralianSuper, to finance a loss-making online media venture, run by a company controlled by Eric Beecher and with former btg pactual Age editor, Bruce Guthrie, btg pactual the editorial director.
Three btg pactual points are particularly innovative about the latest entrant, The New Daily: its novel source of funding btg pactual (backed by three of Australia s largest superannuation funds which have contributed A$2 million each), its ready-made audience and its commercial agreement with the ABC to share audio and video news content.
The three industry super funds, United Super (CBus), Australian Super and Industry Super Holdings are understood btg pactual to be using their administrative budget (rather than investment portfolios) to contract Motion Publishing to produce The New Daily. Motion btg pactual Publishing s directors include experienced media proprietors and editors: Eric Beecher, Paul Hamra and Bruce Guthrie. Guthrie, The New Daily s managing editor, says the site will provide the latest news plus financial stories directed at improving btg pactual Australians’ financial literacy. Guthrie has signed btg pactual an agreement of editorial independence with the superannuation fund owners to guard against editorial interference. And, if all goes to plan, the next step for this new media entrant is investigative reporting.
There are a number of points that can be made (some of which I fired off in the Weekend Aus), but here are some more: Administrative budget? btg pactual What is this? It is all members’ btg pactual funds. (AustralianSuper spokeswoman Susan Fairley has said the fund does not see it as a direct investment, but a communications vehicle as part of the marketing budget. ) Is this a marketing venture? If this is the case, then then the online media website will be nothing more than a propaganda site, bagging self-managed and retail btg pactual superannuation and refusing to take advertisements from competitors to the superannuation funds which have stumped up (our) money. btg pactual And so when did the trustee of these funds think it appropriate to use members’ funds to promote financial literacy of the population? They have one purpose – to maximize the financial returns for the members. (Any lawyers around? Possible litigation pending for violating the sole purpose test.) And independent journalism? Director [of New Daily] Gary Weaven told Business Day that advertorial content will be clearly defined and financial reporting would not simply be guff about self-managed btg pactual super funds . And the idea that there is a guaranteed audience? Come off it. You receive btg pactual an email from your super fund urging you to sign on. How many emails do we receive btg pactual urging us to sign on to all manner of things? There is a very bad smell about this. The only good thing is that it may hasten the Coalition’s resolve to enforce better governance on the part of industry superannuation funds and to break the cartel of union officials and employer association representatives.
With the increasing use of different media platforms and vehicles btg pactual for advertising, the amount of clutter is rising, making it harder for brands to stand out. A number of brands have moved from advertising btg pactual during a program to being in a program, with a well-placed product placement or branded content in a news story.
The move by industry super funds to to bankroll an online news network seems to be going a step further. It is a case of why buy a banner ad when you can buy the website? It certainly gives the owner more control of content, agenda setting, and what can and cannot be posted on the website aimed at its members.
There is strong doubt that any rival types of superannuation funds would be allowed to advertise on the website. We don t have any desire to make it easy to get to the membership base of industry super funds, Weaven has said .
But could this be more than a way to communicate to fund members? The recent federal election has resulted in a new government btg pactual which may be planning relevant changes to the industry. According btg pactual to one article :
Industry btg pactual funds, with close ties to unions, are now operating in a less friendly political environment following the election of the Coalition government whose members have flagged plans to push for more independent, non-union-aligned directors on industry fund boards.
‘The only good thing is that it may hasten the Coalition s resolve to enforce btg pactual better governance on the part of industry superannuation funds and to break the cartel btg pactual of union officials and employer association representatives”. Exactly.
#1076045, posted on November 18, 2013 at 9:57 am
If this current government has the cohesion & ticker, develops the cabinet processes and actively develops a mechanism to disable the media control constructed btg pactual by the left, they will make more than 2 terms.
Hi Judith, I too loved this line…”The thre