Hello and welcome to another MLEX podcast. I'm Laurel Henning, senior correspondent at Mlex,

coming to you from our offices in Sydney, Australia. Today we're going to be discussing

the media landscape in Australia. And much like a book within a book, there is nothing media

outlets enjoy more than reporting on business deals involving media companies. And that's why

last month's announcement of a merger between two of Australia's largest media companies,

Nine Entertainment and Fairfax Media, prompted wall-to-wall coverage.

We're not immune to intricate regulatory discussion here at Emlex, and given the size of the Fairfax

Nine deal, there are some interesting questions over how regulators will conduct their review.

And what's more?

The deal, which promises to set a precedent and completely alter the industry here,

comes at a time when the future of the media sector faces close scrutiny from the country's competition authority and its inquiry into the impact of digital platforms

like Facebook and Google on Australian media. We've got a lot to discuss.

And joining me today on the podcast is Emlex's Australasian managing editor James Panicki,

who has been diligently covering this merger since it was announced and joins me now from our

Melbourne offices. Welcome, James. Hello, Laurel. Diligently might be a slight misrepresentation,

but yes, here I am. Good to speak with you. So before we get started on the regulatory side of things,

let's try to set the scene for MLX listeners who may not be familiar with these companies. What do we

need to know? Okay, now both 9 and Fairfax are listed companies on the Australian Securities Exchange.

Fairfax was founded in 1841 by a British immigrant journalist.

His name was John Fairfax.

The company was called John Fairfax for a long period of time.

This company owns nationally prominent and slightly high-brow newspapers,

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