The donation of £1m to a charity of the Dowler family's choice and compensation of a reported £2m for the family's distress is being linked by MPs to News Corp's fight to hold on the BSkyB broadcasting goldmine.

Simon Hughes, the Lib Dem deputy leader, has written to the broadcasting regulator Ofcom calling on it to intervene over the question of whether James Murdoch, the BSkyB chairman, is fit to hold the licence.

"Given the very serious accusations levelled at James Murdoch, the chairman of BSkyB, and the accusations levelled against News International, which he also chairs, I would like you to make a judgment as to whether BSkyB can still be considered to be fit and proper to hold a broadcasting licence as long as James Murdoch continues to act as chairman of the company," said Hughes.

Ofcom are continuing to review the allegations, and since Hughes made the formal complaint in July, News International has tried to clean up its act. News International chief Rebekah Brooks resigned despite appeals by Rupert Murdoch to stay and - let's not forget - is said to have received a pay-off of £3 million. Some MPs believe Rupert decided that the Dowlers' settlement would have to match that if he was to avoid further public fury.

James Murdoch has also been invited back by the Commons culture committee to clear up whether he misled the MPs over his earlier claims that he had no knowledge of an internal memo at News International suggesting phone hacking was more widespread. Murdoch Jnr's denial of knowledge has been contradicted by Colin Myler, former editor of the now defunct News of the World and lawyer Tom Krone.

NotW and News International executives swept up in the police inquiry are due to return within the next two weeks to police stations to answer their bail, and we may then start hearing whether criminal charges are to be laid against them, with the threat of prison terms.

MPs don't doubt that the huge level of the Dowler settlement reflects Rupert Murdoch's regret at the distress caused by his reporters hacking into Millie Dowler's voicemail. But as usual with this saga, there is a back story that the MPs are determined to uncover.

The Mole on the Murdoch payout: is BSkyB deal the hidden agenda?

meanwhile ......

from Crikey .....

Project Darwin: leaked document reveals News Ltd transformation

Crikey senior journalist Andrew Crook writes:

GREG BAXTER, JOHN HARTIGAN, LEAKED DOCUMENT, NEWS AUSTRALIA, NEWS LIMITED, PROJECT DARWIN

News Limited will change its name in an attempt to cure its perception as an "arrogant newspaper company" that is "difficult to deal with".

In a secret 41-page advertising pitch brief obtained by Crikey, the Australian arm of Rupert Murdoch's global empire -- to be rebranded "News Australia" -- reveals its plans for a local resurrection under the code name "Project Darwin".

Crikey understands the PowerPoint presentation by News marketing director Michael Nearhos, dated September 15, was sent to several people in at least three advertising agencies. It states News' public image needs rehabilitation because its "culture and values" have never been properly aired. The News Limited brand was "largely invisible" to consumers and customers.

The wide-ranging treasure trove also reveals News will launch an "Australian digital pass" across all its mastheads beginning in November when The Australian and portions of the tabloids start to be locked down. One log-in would provide access to all of News' Australian sites with the possibility of an overarching paid content aggregator. Previously, the company had provided no detail on its paywall strategy

The News Australia project will be implemented by its "key spokesperson and advocate", News CEO John Hartigan. Head spin doctor Greg Baxter will handle "comms", with fellow executives Ed Smith and Tony Kendall also listed as linchpins. Hartigan will embark on a capital city roadshow in November to talk "strategy and change" with staff before the official public announcement.

While News Limited's "contentious" corporate logo will be retained, Nearhos says that "we need to look at ways to refresh and contemporise this device". He suggests creatives consider "dimensionalising" the company's image.

The elaborate strategy comes just weeks after News announced a hiring freeze as part of a plan to cut costs by 20% over the next three years.

The jargon-loaded presentation features phrases such as "sizzle reel", the "connectivity of niche" and "visual language for employee engagement initiatives", and bemoans News' subsidiary status compared to internal mastheads and global brands Nike, General Electric and IBM.

News execs were asked to position the firm within the "Pearson Archetypal system", a branding exercise that assigns an organisation a personality "type". While News itself doesn't fall into a specific type, the document notes that the "Creator" (Martha Stewart, Crayola) and "Explorer" (Amelia Earhart, Starbucks) archetypes "have appeal".

According to the implementation timeline, the vast majority of the key documents flagging the transition were created after the News of the World phone-hacking scandal went nuclear in July. At the time, Hartigan was extremely keen to distance News' local arm from the revelations, claiming that the abhorrent practices in the UK would never be repeated here. Hartigan also announced a review of News' editorial spending conducted by former Victorian judges Frank Vincent and Bernard Teague.

The document features the fruits of an interview with Hartigan and 11 senior executives conducted by communications experts Edelman. The executives appear concerned that News' self-identified audience of "Middle Australia" fails to align with "prestige" trade audiences. Under a heading "We're middle Australia", they leave no doubt that they perceive News to be popular with the masses.

"We reflect and fight for the values of Middle Australia ... as a result we can deliver this audience to our advertisers," the executives reckon. The "community" is championed: "we advocate for the fair go and we challenge, question, and probe on behalf of the community. We actively seek to hold authority to account on behalf of the community, as we have from our earliest days."

But the news isn't all good for News, with the actions of some employees and divisions chafing with the company's "espoused values".

"Research revealed some misalignment with espoused and enacted values. It also suggested that any existing value statements were often disconnected from the company or brands and were not well communicated," the document states.

A list of "hot topics" for implementation include accountability, standing up for consumers, accuracy, owning up to mistakes, and environmental, sustainability issues.

Internally, the News Limited sales structure is depicted as a siloed schemozzle, with "national brands activity ... unstructured and managed ad-hoc by mastheads and online brand teams". A solution is provided by the hiring of a "national brand manager". Other media companies including Seven, Nine and Fairfax have centralised sales teams that News sadly lacks. As a result "News is seen as slow and difficult to deal with".

News also includes a full and frank "threat assessment" of the strengths and weaknesses of its rivals. Seven is sledged for not having a national newspaper offer while one of Nine's strengths is apparently "David Gyngell". News says Fairfax has "instability in its exec teams" and was "slow with iPad apps".

But its self-assessment is just as swingeing. While News is a "global media company" with "intelligence and insights", it has "no consistent trade position" and "continue[s] to have poor implementation of big ideas".

Several negative corporate perceptions persist -- News is "still in silos", is "arrogant and difficult to deal with" and newspapers "are the least innovative out of all the media platforms".

The company may have "mass audiences" but there was "too much wastage in newspapers." News, some industry players thought, was "yet to unleash the power of its combined platform strength". Sadly, Hartigan's baby was considered "the last of the major players to get integration right".

but, of course, some things never change .....

Bolt exaggerates paymaster's anti-pokies campaign -- again

Stephen Mayne writes:

ANDREW BOLT, ANDREW WILKIE, AUSTRALIAN PRESS COUNCIL, JAMES PACKER, JOHN SINGLETON, POKIES REGULATION

Andrew Bolt has done it again. Despite Crikey alerting the world of his failure to disclose an association with the pokies lobby after this hysterical September 3 column, News Ltd's biggest columnist has repeated the effort in today's paper.

Bolt reckons pokies reform alone is somehow going to cause a swag of extra Labor seats to be lost in 2013, such that 25 MPs are threatening a caucus result. He even talks up the prospect of the mighty AFL machine really cranking up the anti-reform push given most of them are, like the NRL clubs, also addicted to fleecing problems gamblers to overpay their players.

Two of Bolt's employers -- pub owner John Singleton at radio station MTR and casino mogul James Packer at Network Ten -- will be delighted again to see the effectiveness of their campaign against pokies reform being grossly exaggerated right across the News Ltd network.

The tragedy of Bolt's fawning acquiescence to a powerful sin industry is that today he admitted to supporting action on gambling addiction when he wrote the following:

"There are plenty of people like me who loathe those wallet-hoovering machines, and want more done to persuade the poor and stupid to quit before they blow the family savings."

This is the problem with News Ltd's obsessive hatred of the Gillard government. Here is a unique opportunity to deliver an important social reform and the most powerful media player has failed to get behind it -- solely because it is trying to install John Hartigan's mate Tony Abbott as prime minister.

Whilst The Australian did editorialise in favour of Andrew Wilkie's proposed reforms a few months back, News Ltd has completely failed to get stuck into the Coalition for failing to support measures that will end Australia's status as the world's biggest gambling nation.

It's the same with climate change. If Chris Mitchell is sincere in saying The Australian supports a market-based mechanism to tackle carbon emissions then where has been the campaign of ridicule against Abbott's pathetic direct action policy?

Mitchell's former deputy turned editor of The Daily Telegraph, Paul Whittaker, disgraced himself in the pokies debate last week when he commissioned Andrew Clennel to produce an extraordinarily biased beat-up against the reforms. Media Watch duly gave it a serve and even The Australian's Mike Steketee felt the need to come out and defend pokies reform in his column last Friday.

Bernard Keane first reported the Essential Research poll showing strong support for pokies reform and this is how Steketee described the effectiveness of the "licence to punt" campaign devised by Bolt's MTR paymaster John Singleton:

"An Essential Research poll this week found 67 per cent support and 25 per cent opposition to requiring poker machine players to commit before they start playing to losing no more than a set amount in a 24-hour period.

"According to the Essential poll, the only effect to date of the strident campaign the clubs have been running has been to increase opposition to the changes by four percentage points since April, while also raising support by two points."

Given all this, how can Bolt's three bosses at the Herald Sun -- Peter Blunden, Phil Gardner and Simon Pristel -- sit back and happily publish Bolt's inaccurate rubbish again this morning with no disclosure of his Singleton association? This is what appears in News Ltd's Professional Conduct Policy:

"20.4: Contributors must comply with provisions relating to conflicts and must declare any real or potential conflict of interest arising from material submitted for publication and supervisors must do their utmost to ensure no conflict exists. Any association which may have a bearing, or appear to have a bearing, on a contributor's view, must be identified with the published material."

After Bolt's first transgression, I sent a detailed email of complaint to a variety of News Ltd heavyweights, which concluded with the following:

"In my opinion, Bolt breached News Ltd's Professional Conduct Policy by grossly exaggerating the impact of his radio paymaster's advertising campaign. His superiors should immediately intervene and add a disclosure to the bottom of the online version of Bolt's Saturday column. Bolt should also voluntarily disclose this pokies campaign connection in his Wednesday Herald Sun column.

"I trust this request can be satisfied and there will be no need to pursue this issue through other channels such as the Australian Press Council."

Unless News Ltd adds a disclosure online under Bolt's column in the coming days, the only option left will be to lodge a formal complaint with the Press Council and also raise it with two News Corp directors, Sir Rod Eddington and Peter Barnes, when we catch up for lunch in Melbourne next Thursday to discuss various governance issues at News Corp.