Singleton on Fairfax, ignorant journo’s & more

In today's 'Australian Financial Review', John Singleton (major shareholder in the Macquarie Radio Network) has denied he was going to have another shot at buying Fairfax Radio's assets…

"I haven't nor have any of my directors had any discussions whatsoever. That's hand on heart, absolutely guaranteed. I've put it out of my mind. I've moved on. I've wasted too much time on it."

Mr. Singleton also had a couple of sprays. One was at journo's for their "ignorance" about 2GB's ratings strength…

"When you win 66 surveys in a row and you've got 75% more audience share than 2DayFM, you have to ask what the fuck is going on in the coverage. No one writing about media knows anything about media. It's absolute ignorance"

He then took a shot at "junior" media buyers, claiming they make decisions based on their own media habits…

"That's been the problem with media buyers for 15 years. You get the least talented people who choose the media and their average age is 20. They think everyone listens to Triple J, everyone tweets and everyone blogs and they've never heard of news radio and don't listen to AM radio. AM is 60 per cent of the total [radio] market."

On the advertising market, Mr. Singleton said it was looking tough after the Olympics, with forward bookings at Macquarie the lowest he'd seen.

"We are still going to have a record year for [advertising] billings and profit but everyone is thinking short term."

"it reminds me of the last big advertising downturn in 1991. Now is worse. It's worse because the economy is worse and you've got all the media now that weren't around then. It means everyone at the top of the market will thrive and everyone else will be fucked."

You can read the full article here (afr subscription required)