Daily Telegraph: Money talks

SBS Phil Micallef ran an interview with Daily Telegraph "newspaper" journo Phil Rothfield..one of the journo's keen to run strangely anti-football and anti-Socceroo stories in recent days.

http://www.theworldgame.com.au/australia/news-ltd-bias-what-bias-196111
Here's part of the interview, and the power of football advertisers as the Telegraph loses $60,000 in one day!

The Sydney Morning Herald throws a lot of space at rugby union because they get a lot of money from rugby advertising, we give rugby league plenty of space because we get a lot of money from rugby league advertising. If we get the same level of support during the World Cup we'll do the same with soccer

PM:But you cannot deny that the perception exists that News Ltd is anti-football. You guys have an image problem.

PR Telly:

"We probably do have a problem with our image among soccer fans. But how can we not highlight the unattractive brand of football the Socceroos are playing, for example."

So can we expect a decent coverage of the World Cup next year?

"Our coverage will be bigger and better than last time. Obviously the space we will throw at it will be determined by advertising support. Nobody supported the A-League when it started as we did. We had an eight-page liftout and had the full backing of the FFA.

The Sydney Morning Herald throws a lot of space at rugby union because they get a lot of money from rugby advertising, we give rugby league plenty of space because we get a lot of money from rugby league advertising. If we get the same level of support during the World Cup we'll do the same with soccer.

It's a magnificent event, probably equal to the Olympic Games. We'll do special editions and our website updating stories 24/7.''

And great to see in an industry that clearly prints in sport, exactly what he advertisers demand....The Telegraph lost $60,000 when Tim Cahill's sponsor Sanitarium refused to place a full page ad with the Sydney rag...instead opting for the SMH.

Fromt the Australian:

Sanitarium ran a series of full-page advertisements in the major metropolitan papers around Australia featuring Cahill with the slogan across the bottom "Course he had his Weet-Bix". The advertisements ran in News Limited papers in Melbourne and Queensland but not in NSW where the business went to Fairfax.

Football and the power of the stars is clearly starting to make waves. Let's play them at their own stupid game. Can't be that hard with all our mainstream sponsors these days.

As for Tim Cahill. Well me feels he's likely to come a cropper of his own making in the coming years. He's not the most articulate, he's not the World's greatest player and may well trip up on his own race for notoriety. Look after yourself Tim, they're out to get you....and I reckon they will.

Time to have a chat with Harry Kewell, or Mark Viduka. They seem to avoid the camera and the trips that come with it.