One Plus One Equals Three

• 11 months after Mediaworks announced the television arm was up for sale, internationally owned Discovery Inc. has agreed to buy Mediaworks ‘free to air’ TV business. Apart from owning Three, along with its streaming service ThreeNow, Discovery Inc. will also own production and transmission of its news and current affairs service, Newshub, its echo stations (+1’s) and The Edge and The Breeze TV.

• With news organisations facing growing revenue losses to social media advertising, Australia has proposed a law that would force Facebook and Google to give Australian news organisations a cut of its advertising revenues. Facebook has retaliated by saying it would block Australians from sharing local and international news.
• In a world full of fake news and misinformation, rumours can spread like wildfire. Many COVID-19 related rumours have been circulating lately and Chief Censor David Shanks says New Zealand has the chance to be a world leader in fighting COVID-19 misinformation and
  conspiracy theories.

• The magazine gap that Bauer Media left after its recent closure in New Zealand is about to be filled. Former Woman’s Day editor and School Road Publishing’s new Group Publisher Sido Kitchin is launching four new magazines that are “about New Zealand women, for New Zealand women, by New Zealand women.”
• Another success story stemming from Bauer Media’s closure is lifestyle website Capsule. Offering ‘smart reads and relatable rants’, the editors of Capsule have partnered with news site Stuff to bring readers a daily dose of lifestyle content.

• Sending mail by post has significantly decreased, but because mail-in ballots are to be used for the US election, President Donald Trump has put the postal service back in the spotlight. He has been accused of trying to “starve the Postal Service of the resources it needs” due to his belief that mail-in ballots will lead to voter fraud.
• The annual Global Communications Report conducted by the USC Center for Public Relations has found that Public Relations experts and social activists believe that CEOs have great ability to influence social change. Experts have seen that CEOs have more ability to influence social change than politicians, journalists and religious leaders.

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