Who owns the material we read?

Discussion in 'Property Information Resources & Tools' started by Barny, 19th Oct, 2015.

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  1. Barny

    Barny Well-Known Member

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    I've been schooled recently on certain material and who actually owns them. The people that own them can have and most likely do have an agenda to maximise their profits by publishing what they want, which can heavily influence data.
    I've always read all I can and decided to take what I chose as important to me at the time from all materials to help with investing in property over the years.

    Can I get some help from people so I have a better understanding of who owns what we actually read please.

    So starting with REA GROUP LTD.
    REA Group Ltd and its subsidiary companies, known as the REA Group, make up a global online real estate advertising company headquartered in Melbourne, Australia. The REA Group is public company listed on the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX: REA), and had A$108 million in FY07 revenue.[2] REA Group is majority owned by News Corp Australia, a subsidiary of News Corp.

    The Group grew from realestate.com.au, Australia's largest property website with 4.4 million unique browsers each month.[3] However, the strategy has been to aggressively expand the group internationally through acquisition.[4] The Company now operates property websites in 10 countries that are used by more than 19,000 agents and have approximately 8.8m unique visitors per month.[5]

    Fairfax media...
    Fairfax Media Limited [ASX:FXJ] is one of the largest media companies in Australia and New Zealand, with investment in newspaper, magazines, radio and internet.

    Fairfax has a portfolio of leading digital products, including the online News sites smh.com.au in Australia and stuff.co.nz in New Zealand. The group also has leading classified and transaction websites.

    The Fairfax divisions cover:

    Fairfax has a 54.5% interest in Macquarie Radio Network [ASX:MRN], following the merger of Fairfax’s radio business with Macquarie’s in 2015, with the leading News, Talk and Sport stations in Sydney and Melbourne.

    Smart investment property? Sterling publishing...who owns them?
     
    Last edited: 19th Oct, 2015
  2. thatbum

    thatbum Well-Known Member

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    Sorry, were you asking a question about the material or....?
     
  3. inertia

    inertia Well-Known Member

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    You managed to copy info about REA and Fairfax from Wikipedia, but couldn't find Sterling Publishing?
    Here's a link (and attribution):

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sterling_Publishing

    Cheers,
    Inertia

    (edited: whoops, that'll learn me for cutting and pasting)
     
  4. Scott No Mates

    Scott No Mates Well-Known Member

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    ...and you're shocked! Why?
     
  5. Simon Hampel

    Simon Hampel Founder Staff Member

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    I think this is actually quite important - understanding who owns and controls the websites where we get our information from.

    This is why (in my opinion), independent websites like PropertyChat are important to give a voice to the small guys - to facilitate discussion without an over-riding agenda and provide services for property investors from an organisation which is not involved in the buying or selling of real estate or in the provision of consulting services or advice or financial products to investors.
     
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  6. Samten

    Samten Well-Known Member

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    Couldn't agree more...keep up the good work @Simon Hampel
     
  7. Perthguy

    Perthguy Well-Known Member

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    I don't think it is a matter of being shocked. I think it is more a matter of understanding the agenda behind a particular article or website. It's important to know who is writing the material you are reading because people tend to act in their own best interests.
     
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  8. Scott No Mates

    Scott No Mates Well-Known Member

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    How often do you see advertorials eg the stuff on current affairs shows dressed up as news?
     
  9. Barny

    Barny Well-Known Member

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    Yes asking who owns the material we all read. Every magazine, (eg api) every news paper, every tv show from the block to accurunt affair, that we as property investers use as data to make our decisions prior to purchasing.
    I personally would like to know who might be influencing our ideas behind the screen that we aren't aware of.
    Even property chat itself, should be included. This I believe can give us more understanding and to help us all.
    Would you all help me please with the data.
     
  10. inertia

    inertia Well-Known Member

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    Help you what? Compile a list of every potential source of information to the root of its funding?
    Seriously? That is a near infinite amount of data (I was going to say information, but that implies some organisation and usefulness), and it still wouldn't tell the whole story.

    Surely the relevance will depend on what you are getting out of the content - ie the more specific in nature the "advice", the more you might like to look a little deeper and find the source and motivation for the article.

    Cheers,
    Inertia.
     
  11. Barny

    Barny Well-Known Member

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  12. keithj

    keithj Well-Known Member

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    The easiest way for you to stop being influenced is to stop reading the newspapers or watching TV.

    There are only 2 reasons to glance at them -
    • to see what is likely to be influencing the masses in the very short term
    • as a pointer to new data releases - eg RBA speech, ABS economic releases. Then go directly to the source - RBA.gov.au or ABS.gov.au.
    Although it can be amusing to compare the headlines with the actual data - this is a recent example.

    Far better direct sources are listed in this thread
     
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  13. Barny

    Barny Well-Known Member

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    How bout the major information we all currently use. You don't have too, this is for people that are interested in knowing. I'll continue to see what I can link.
     
  14. thatbum

    thatbum Well-Known Member

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    Personally I don't find it hard to ignore most of biased or unreliable data out there. There's plenty of access to primary and direct sources and also opportunities to do your own research these days.

    I wouldn't be wasting my time going on random hunt for who owns who - use the time to do your own property research instead.
     
  15. Simon Hampel

    Simon Hampel Founder Staff Member

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    Yup, I would generally prefer people to post using their own names (or business names if a business member) for greater transparency - but I do acknowledge that's not always desirable and many people simply wouldn't contribute if forced to post without using a pseudonym.

    I think it's worth trying to understand as much about the people whose posts you listen to as possible. Everyone has their biases and understanding their story helps you understand why someone thinks the way they do.

    I would also prefer anyone working in the industry and posting to be a Business Member so that their affiliation is clearly defined - but again, that's not always going to be possible, especially in the case of people who are simply employees and can't justify the expense.

    That being said - having a bias doesn't automatically invalidate the opinions being put forward by members - you have to make your own judgements as to how much weight to give to the opinions of members based on what their agenda is (if any).

    In most cases, I think people are genuinely adding value and it is pretty rare for someone to be abusing the trust of others.
     
  16. Simon Hampel

    Simon Hampel Founder Staff Member

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    If you specifically want data about who owns PropertyChat - that's easy, one of my trusts is the shareholder of the company Property Chat Pty Ltd which runs this website.

    So my wife and I (and our kids) are the ultimate beneficial owners of the business - since we are the beneficiaries of the trust.

    Nobody else has a financial interest in the company.
     
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  17. Barny

    Barny Well-Known Member

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    Thanks Simon, I only used it as an example to demonstrate the point.
     
  18. Barny

    Barny Well-Known Member

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    This is exactly why I posted this title. Cheers
     
  19. mja

    mja Well-Known Member

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    Hey Sim,

    Hypothetical - if Fairfax came knocking and wanted to buy PC off you for some ludicrous sum, would you sell?
     
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  20. Barny

    Barny Well-Known Member

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    Do you think that this website would continue to function?