Fairfax has flatly denied News Corp’s claim that its property portal, Domain, is buying ad space on porn sites, and described its Rupert Murdoch-owned rival’s news as “bile”.
The Australian’s Darren Davidson published a story this morning suggesting that Domain is buying advertising space on pornographic and illegal download websites “to inflate its audience figures and push through big ad rate increases”.
However, a statement issued today by Domain denied Davidson’s claim.
“The screenshots Mr Davidson provided to us late yesterday appear to be links from a porn site to Commercial Real Estate, our commercial site,” the statement said.
“We did not authorise any advertising, re-targeting or redirections and believe it is a malicious scam/bot.
“Our review this morning, and our technical partners have confirmed, that no advertising from us has been placed on porn or illegal sites.
Fairfax said it has asked News Corp’s lawyers to provide it with any information it has on the matter so the company can fully investigate the matter further.
“We will notify the authorities of our findings and fully co-operate with any enquiries that may be launched in relation to this matter,” Fairfax said.
“We told The Australian it was wrong. We note they printed our quote. But still they had no hesitation in running the yarn.
“News [Corp] has never had any shame about using their media platforms for attacks on competitors. They dress up their bile as news and bore the rest of the industry with their seemingly endless appetite for gutter dwelling.
“We generally ignore it. Not today.”
