The Age of treason. The Age‘s deputy arts editor Kylie Northover doesn’t appear to dig the hollow celebrity guff on her own paper’s website. Northover, who tweets as “MelbourneBitter”, sent the following missive on Thursday evening to her 1125 followers:

Fairfax is currently merging its warring digital and print arms under new Metropolitan Media chief Jack Matthews, but on the latest evidence the tricky task could take awhile. — Andrew Crook

Unfortunate news graphic of the day. Someone, somewhere, at BBC local news is totally getting fired tonight (as spotted by @willardfoxton):

Oz makes moran-ic error. On The Australian‘s business and media pages for today, if you scroll down the list of stories, on the left-hand-side, you will the headline: “Scandal nets an award for Ten”. The accompanying photo is for Matt Moran the chef, not the Ten reporter.

— Glenn Dyer

Welcome back Clive James. Welcome back Clive James, says Stephen Romei, one of the last true gentlemen at The Australian, noting that the Kogarah Kid has been very ill, “and we now know he has leukaemia”. Romei is being polite. Many people knew that James had been ill, but he had given no details of his illness — and people had respected his privacy. Until, that is, Luke Slattery of the Australian Literary Review got involved.

After James, repeatedly asked by Slattery for an article, explained the reasons for his inability to contribute — a tangle of several different illness, the most serious of which was the big C — Slattery ran it as a news story in The Oz. The matter was of no conceivable legitimate public interest, and James was in a Cambridge hospital, a process perhaps not best served by the UK lit celeb media storm that followed. A strange thing for Slattery to do to someone he claims as not merely a contributor, but a friend. — Guy Rundle

Sheridan’s description of ‘illegals’ deemed illegal

“Australia’s journalism watchdog has upheld a complaint against The Australian’s columnist Greg Sheridan over his use of the term ‘illegals’ to describe asylum seekers arriving in the country by boat. The newspaper also has a further complaint upheld that Sheridan had misrepresented a parliamentary hearing on the issue.” — mUmBRELLA

Fairfax reviewing paywall

“Fairfax Media’s strategy for charging readers to access online content from mastheads such as The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald is becoming clearer, with chief executive Greg Hywood saying yesterday prices would be low and levied only on ‘very special material’. The company has already announced it is reviewing the digital paywall for the national business daily, The Australian Financial Review, which has been widely criticised as being too expensive.” — The Australian

Sky drops Mangos for racist remarks.

“John Mangos, the long-time Sky News presenter, has been forced out of the subscription television channel after being suspended for making inappropriate on-air remarks. The Australian reports that the veteran presenter received a text message from the organisation’s chief executive Angelos Frangopoulos last night, referring him to an email stating that his contract had been terminated.” — Media Spy

AOL insider speaks out about conditions

“We — by which I mean me and my fellow employees — were all so grateful. Which allowed us to ignore — or willfully overlook — certain problems. Such as the fact that AOL editors forced us to work relentless hours. Or the fact that we were paid to lie, actually instructed to lie by our bosses.” — The Faster Times

Man gunning for 50% of Facebook passes polygraph test

“Paul Ceglia, who says that a 2003 contract entitles him to half the Facebook holdings of the company’s co-founder and chief executive officer, Mark Zuckerberg, showed no deception on a polygraph test about his claim last week, his lawyers said in a court filing.” — The Sydney Morning Herald

Guardian journo badly beaten for second time in Pakistan

“Five days after he published an account of abduction and torture by suspected Pakistani intelligence agents, a journalist working for the Guardian has been badly beaten by uniformed men who said they wished to ‘make an example’ of him.” — The Guardian