From the Crikey grapevine, the latest tips and rumours …

Lazarus arriving … for free. After last week’s look at the best-selling books by politicians, one tipster found it amusing that former PM John Howard’s book Lazarus Rising was so far ahead of the pack. Our correspondent received this note in December 2011:

“Dear Subscriber,
As a valued subscriber to The Australian, we’d like to thank you for your support.
Please enjoy this complimentary copy of John Howard’s autobiography Lazarus Rising.
Regards,
The Australian Subscriptions Team”

We wonder how The Australian‘s subscribers unwittingly contributed to the sales of the autobiography, reported at 100,000 (which is very high indeed for a book by a pollie). Did you receive a complimentary copy of Howard’s tome? Let us know.

Fairfax Regional’s growth prompts scepticism. Fairfax Regional’s titles have been crowing about their online traffic growth, but the figures have some local residents scratching their heads. For example, in Orange, serviced by Fairfax’s Central West Daily, an online article published recently claimed it recorded 2.6 million page views in June, off 97,797 unique browsers. Orange has a population of around 40,000, (38,000 at the 2011 census, of which 25,000 were over 18), so to get to the 2.6 million figure, every man, woman and child would have had to visit 65 pages in June. The adult population on their own would have had to visit 104 pages.

“No wonder people don’t trust the media,” a sceptical resident told Crikey. Speaking for ourselves, it’s not hard to imagine 100,000 people visiting the Central Coast Daily in June, given a bit of clever SEO. But we highly doubt all, or, indeed, most, would be local residents.

Canberra feels the chill. We sympathise with Treasurer Joe Hockey after seeing this picture of his frozen-over car this morning (and being from Sydney, he would be most unused to this scene). Canberrans should expect more frost this week — minus three temperatures are on the way. Website Lifehacker recommends spraying a mix of vinegar and water on cars of an evening to prevent frost; Joe, give this a try.

Paying in blood, not money. It’s just under a year until the government’s GP co-payment is set to start (that’s if it gets through the Senate), but a large chain of pathology outlets in Queensland has taken to branding its centres and cars with messages assuring patients they don’t have to cough up $7 to have their bloods taken. What impact is the confusion over this policy having on patients who need reassurance by signs like these?

RMIT’s VC of the future. Melbourne’s RMIT university announced its new vice-chancellor on Thursday, signalling a fresh direction for universities in Australia. Martin Bean will take over the role from Margaret Gardner, who takes the helm at Monash University. Unlike many in the upper echelons of academia, Bean’s highest educational qualification is a bachelor’s degree in adult education from the University of Technology, Sydney. Bean brings a new business and online focus, with experience at Microsoft and as the vice-chancellor of the Open University in the UK, which has a history of online innovation in the sector. We’ll watch with interest as Bean takes over, as many Australian universities have focused more on bricks and mortar education than on online.

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