When Matt Barrie showed up at the ASX headquarters in November 2013 to ring the ceremonial bell for Freelancer.com's listing ceremony, he rang it with such vigour that he broke the rope.

He was given the rope as a souvenir, and so started the tradition of giving the bell ringer the rope after each ASX debut.

It is getting to be an expensive tradition for the ASX with 108 companies listing so far this year, already exceeding last year's tally of 107.

That's a lot of rope to hand to inexperienced public companies.

Given that a couple of ASX-listers subsequently fashioned the rope into a noose – Sino Australia Oil and Gas, Elmore Resources come to mind – the ASX might want to include some sort of instruction manual in future.

The ASX might also want to consider a contra deal with its privately owned bell rope supplier, Melbourne-based Just Bells Australia, and offer it a listing too.

It supplies the seven-inch Lanyard rope at $29 a pop.

Just Bells website describes it as "hand-tied in cotton with traditional knots" and gives it a five-star rating.

Rope a dope 

One company that will have to delay its big date with the bell rope is the latest venture of pubs and pokies billionaire Bruce Mathieson.

SWW Energy, which is acting as the corporate shell for a backdoor listing of shareholder engagement app GRT App, told the ASX on Thursday that ASIC had issued an interim stop order in respect of the prospectus it lodged earlier this month.

"ASIC has raised some concerns in relation to disclosure in the prospectus, which the company will seek to address as soon as practicable," it said without providing further detail.

Mathieson will emerge as the new company's biggest shareholder with a 17.3 per cent stake if the backdoor listing goes ahead. 

MasterChief 

Should we read anything into the fact that Ten Network's regional affiliate, Southern Cross Media, has appointed a former Ten Network boss, Grant Blackley, as its new chief executive?

Or, is it just a sign of how many former Ten chiefs haunt the media landscape in the wake of the billionaire club's reign of terror at the network?

At least Blackley will be well acquainted with Southern Cross, and the strategy at Ten being employed by the latest Ten boss Hamish McLennan.

It is pretty much the same strategy that Blackley was employing at Ten before he was run out of town by Lachlan Murdoch and James Packer, who then tried to skewer the network's focus back towards extreme youth and reality disaster TV like Being Lara Bingle.

Didn't that go well.

At least it means Murdoch and Packer would have someone at hand to slot in at Ten if rumours are true that McLennan might jump ship to replace Julian Clarke as News Corp's local boss.

But given that the curtain is about to lift on the next round of media consolidation, the real question is whether Blackley has prepared for an uncertain future.

With this in mind, the most pertinent paragraph in the the ASX release announcing Blackley's appointment, may be the second last.

"Redundancy: If his employment is terminated by the company by reason of the circumstances of the company changing such that his position as chief executive officer and managing director is no longer required ... he is entitled to a payment equivalent to 12 months' total fixed pay. "

That would deliver our new Southern Cross boss just over $1 million for what could be a short-lived gig. 

News Corpse

Speaking of News Corp.

After desperately waiting so long for a Fairfax masthead to drop off its print perch, Rupert Murdoch's local shop has announced the death of its loss-making train station freebie mX.

The company did not say when its loss-making airplane freebie, The Australian, will follow suit.

Got a tip? ckruger@fairfaxmedia.com.au