Rudd’s health plan:

John Tevelein  writes: Re. “Mungo: Rudd, despite handing out health biscuits, has hard calls to make” (yesterday, item 15). PM Rudd’s “National Health And Hospitals Network For Australia’s Future” policy will INEXTRICABLY link 60% of future health funding to a set proportion of GST revenue.

With health funding requirement growing at 10% pa compared to GST at 6%,  Rudd’s policy is very Yes Minister about how the future gap  will be funded.  The rate of GST will obviously need to grow, probably by indexation so it doesn’t need to be announced, and in consequence the balance of GST that the States receive will grow by the same margin.

By tantalisingly waving additional funding in front of Premiers over the weekend like a crack pedlar offering free samples, the PM is aiming to get the Premiers addicted to his plan.

A cash strapped Premier would need to be very addled indeed not to see the possibilities.

The iPad:

Zachary King writes: Re. “Beecher: the iPad won’t save newspapers” (yesterday, item 6). I am fascinated by the fact that all the discussions concerning the search for a new business model for newspapers is constantly focussed on the concept of “pay for content”.

A cursory review of revenue streams for newspapers shows that the vast bulk of it — more than 90% — comes from advertising with the small portion remaining coming from the buy price.  Even the Fin Review which is the most expensive Australian paper with the most price elastic customers (they don’t care how much it costs) has a similar break down.

The transition to digital is killer not because of declining circulation per se, but because a direct transition to digital advertising only generates about 10% of the revenue that print currently does.  The declining circulation will in turn cause further falls in advertising revenue but it seems incredibly myopic/crazy/negligent to be so focussed on a segment which only delivers 10% of your revenue.

If I was a shareholder I would be in revolt.  Most of the talk about paywalls, pay per view etc seems to be driven by Murdoch — so is it a case of crazy like a fox?  Or myopic like a guy who by all reports has never browsed the internets?

Press Gang:

Gabriel McGrath writes: Re. “Daily Proposition: eat breakfast (or dinner) with the staff of the Junior Gazette” (yesterday, item 19). Well done to Daniel Barrett to spreading the word regarding Press Gang. It’s “just a kids show” …  in the same way that The Simpsons…  or…  Pixar films are… “just for kids”.

Well worth your time, and … if you’ve got teenagers … it’s a million times better than most TV shows currently aimed at them. If you stick around … till the final episode of the last series, it’ll knock your socks off.