As well as the proceeds of her book (some of which was seized by authorities under proceeds of crime legislation), Corby and her family have sold various parts of their stories over the years, including magazine and television interviews. The family of Australia’s favourite drug-runner Schapelle Corby has raked it in since Corby’s arrest in Bali in 2004. ACA shared a 2004 exclusive with Woman’s Day, paying Chamberlain between $75,000 and $150,000 for a story about allegations Azaria was buried in a Melbourne backyard. Twenty years on, in 2000 she again spoke to Nine ( 60 Minutes) for another reported $250,000, and she went back to the same network’s A Current Affair in 2012 after the most recent coronial findings into Azaria’s death. Rather than paying the children’s mother Sally Faulkner directly, the program had paid $69,000 and promised a total of $115,000 to the agency planning to bring her children back to Australia.Īfter Lindy Chamberlain was acquitted of her baby Azaria’s 1980 murder at Uluru, she was reportedly paid $250,000 by Nine for the rights to her story. The former PM and his now-wife told the story of their affair to Woman’s Day in a memorable interview and photoshoot (in their bathrobes) for a reported $200,000 in 1995.Įven before the millions of dollars Nine spent on legal fees when its 60 Minutes team was arrested in Lebanon while covering (and conspiring in) a botched child-snatching, the current affairs program was forking out. One of the biggest payouts for an interview, the Beaconsfield mining disaster survivors Todd Russell and Brant Webb were paid $2.6 million by Seven for a two-hour special interview called The Great Escape. He was also made a commentator for Seven’s coverage of the 1998 Winter Olympics.

Seven won the television rights to tell his story, for a rumoured $250,000, and the Australian Women’s Weekly mopped up the rights for a print interview. The sole survivor of the Thredbo disaster in 1997, Stuart Diver’s story was highly sought-after by the networks.

Chequebook journalism