Naughty Fairfax has been caught red handed trying to run two of its own newspapers into the ground prior to a forced sell-off.

This is exactly the kind of greedy behaviour the former Government’s cross media changes encourage and another reminder to the new Communications Minister to get moving on a safety net to encourage greater diversity for media consumers.

Under the terms of last year’s massive merger of Rural Press and Fairfax, the ACCC placed some conditions affecting several important community newspapers in the Hunter Valley and Lake Macquarie regions of New South Wales.

Fairfax agreed that it would sell off its two weekly free newspapers, the Newcastle and Lake Macquarie Post and Hunter Post, because they were similar in their circulation to two newspapers it was acquiring from Rural Press, namely the Newcastle and Lake Macquarie Star and the Lower Hunter Star.

Under the terms of the ACCC arrangement, Fairfax had to sell the two Posts as viable going concerns to ensure the areas continued to enjoy some media competition.

So what did Fairfax go and do? You guessed it. It cherry picked the best bits from the Posts and started publishing them in the Stars before it sold the Posts to another publisher, the Camillaro company owned by the Constantine family.

What did Fairfax take from the Posts? Only the main cash cow, the Domain real estate listings, and the highly successful That’s Entertainment section.

These sections suddenly migrated to the Star newspapers and lo and behold the local businesses went with them, leaving the Posts as shadows of their former selves.

It’s little wonder the matter came under the gaze of the regulators and not surprising that the ACCC has ruled that Fairfax breached its undertaking.

The ACCC announced on Friday that That’s Entertainment, or a supplement like it, cannot be published in the two Star newspapers and has also ruled that the Stars can’t publish Domain, or a section like it, for at least twelve months. So the complete list of clients and advertisers in Domain now has to be returned to the new owners of the Post newspapers forthwith.

It all goes to prove that while media companies preach ad nauseam about the need for competition and argue incessantly for the highest standards of conduct, they are remarkably relaxed on both counts when it comes to furthering their own interests.