Business of Media
Leading businesswoman tragically killed in farm accident near Daylesford
Leading marketing executive Lisa Ronson has been remembered as “the light in every life she touched” after her tragic death in a farm accident near Daylesford on Saturday night, reports News Corp’s Rebecca Borg.
The high-profile businesswoman lost control of an all-terrain vehicle at her beloved property on Daylesford-Clunes Rd in Ullina about 7pm.
Ronson’s family told the Herald Sun the 52-year-old had been stolen “from us far too soon”.
Her husband Chris Taylor paid tribute to “the love of my life, my inspiration and greatest supporter”.
“I am lost without her,” he said. Taylor said his wife – who was the chief marketing officer at Medibank – was the “light in every life she touched”.
Ronson joined Medibank after leaving her role as chief executive of marketing at Coles in May 2023, following a successful four-year stint where she won numerous awards including Australia’s most prolific marketer and the Best of the Best Marketer of the Year in 2021.
‘Vested interests’ frustrate gambling ad reforms
Prominent anti-gambling advocate Tim Costello has slammed the government’s failure to enact a long-mooted ban on wagering advertising, saying it had caved in to vested interests and broken a commitment to get it passed before Christmas, reports The AFR’s Max Mason.
Communications Minister Michelle Rowland is facing growing frustration, including from within her own party, over the delay in introducing legislation to restrict gambling advertising 18 months after an inquiry led by the late Labor MP Peta Murphy recommended a total ban.
The Albanese government may still restrict gambling advertising but does not plan to introduce legislation this week, according to Rowland’s office.
Monday kicks off the last parliamentary sitting week of the year, which may also be the last before an election if an early vote is called.
Southern Cross Media to face the music at AGM over spurned offers
Southern Cross Media will hold its AGM on Monday, and we imagine that chairman Heith Mackay-Cruise will face an uncomfortable grilling over, well, just about everything going wrong with the management of the business, report The Australian’s Yoni Bashan and Nick Evans.
We hear he’ll just scrape over the line during a re-election ballot, but Adore Beauty chair Marina Go, appointed to the board last month, and notably without any broadcast experience, is unlikely to survive. She is quite certain to be dumped, and there’s certainly a view that Mackay-Cruise should be following her out.
Just take a look at the joint. The SCA board has received five transaction proposals over the past 12 months and shrugged off each of them as the share price kept tumbling – from highs of $1.05 in November last year to Friday’s pitiful close of 54.5c.
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See also: Southern Cross hit with first strike, with chairman under pressure
Big tech’s warning on rushing teen ban on social media
The Albanese government is facing growing backlash for attempting to ram through its ban on social media for people under 16 before the end of the week without proper consultation, reports The AFR’s Max Mason.
The government’s proposed ban allowed the industry just a day to make fresh submissions on a bill introduced to parliament last Thursday. The Senate will hold a three-hour public inquiry on Monday before reporting on Tuesday.
The legislation is expected to pass this week with the support of the Coalition, who announced a similar policy in June.
Arrest of Alan Jones: Friend and former producer speak out
For decades, power protected Alan Jones. Now he’s facing his own reckoning
Back when he lived in Newtown, Alan Jones had a wall covered in photographs of himself with the Pick and Stick crew. There were football players, political allies, celebrities and billionaires; the “Moses of the airwaves” had cultivated a powerful fellowship over his first 20-odd years on air, and still had half his radio career to run. Yet even then, some in his orbit had misgivings about getting too close to Jones. “The last place you wanted to end up was on his wall,” said one, reports Nine Publishing’s Jordan Baker.
Being close to Jones was, as one former staffer put it, “an exhausting thing”. It was like being smiled upon by a capricious emperor. The anointed ones, who ranged from sports stars to musicians to prime ministers and premiers, were graced with favours and largesse. But they had to pay homage or risk it all. Jones’ warning that a failure to respond to a request would “be the end of our friendship”, was ominous indeed.
For decades, power protected Jones. He bullied his staff, bulldozed elected officials, and was perceived to favour handsome young men. Few were game to challenge him. Those who did paid the price. Jones was a man “drunk on power”, said one former staffer, and “did not know when to stop”. But his grip loosened as society changed and Jones refused to change with it, as advertisers became reluctant to align themselves with his increasingly fringe views, and as movements such as #MeToo put the anatomy of power under the microscope.
Producer claims Alan Jones tried to touch his genitals and kiss him, but defends broadcaster
Prominent broadcaster and podcaster Josh Szeps has defended radio star Alan Jones despite revealing that the 83-year-old made repeated physical advances towards him as a young producer on his radio show, including trying to kiss him and touch his genitals, reports Nine Publishing’s Riley Walter.
In an episode of his Uncomfortable Conversations podcast, Szeps told listeners that Jones – who on Monday was arrested and charged with 26 offences against nine alleged victims after a top-secret police investigation – tried to “put his hand on my dick”, kiss him and rub his chest on several occasions while he worked as a junior producer on his radio show.
“It was clear that he had a crush on me, and he hit on me many times, and in that context, hitting on me meant making a physical move, not a verbal one. He tried to put his hand on my dick, he tried to kiss me, he tried to rub my chest, and I would just slap him off, and we would laugh, and we’d move on,” Szeps said.
The unmistakable whiff of mob justice after Alan Jones’s arrest
Some of those best placed to uphold the presumption of innocence are the same ones who ignored it, after Alan Jones was arrested and charged with more than two dozen alleged offences against nine men over two decades. His youngest alleged victim was 17, writes The Australian’s Janet Albrechtsen.
The presumption of innocence was undermined when NSW Assistant Police Commissioner Michael Fitzgerald fronted the media and described the complainants as victims. He commended the “victims” for their “bravery in coming forward”.
“The victims have our full support. This is what they have been asking for,” he said. “These are serious charges.”
Equally serious is the presumption of innocence. There is no “victim”. Not yet. There is a complainant.
I would launch this strident defence of the presumption of innocence even if Jones were my foe. That Jones is a friend of mine is neither here nor there.
A good portion of the media take the presumption of innocence seriously. But when, in the first press conference after Jones’s arrest, a senior policeman calls a complainant a “victim”, the media will report that.
When police tip off the media about the arrest of a man with as high a profile as Jones, the media will film that.
Still, there are plenty in the media also laying down impressions that here’s a man who has rightly met his comeuppance.
News Brands
The Australian’s readership hits fresh highs, Herald Sun still #1 with readers
The Australian has recorded the highest audience growth of any major metropolitan print title over the past year, with its average weekday readership surging by more than 10 per cent, according to figures released by research company Roy Morgan on Monday, reports The Australian’s James Madden.
The national masthead attracted 38,000 extra readers over the past 12 months, more than any newspaper in the country. The Weekend Australian also remains the most-read Saturday masthead in the nation, lifting its audience by 1.1 per cent year on year and boasting more than 3.6 times more readers than the Nine-owned business tabloid The Australian Financial Review on weekends.
Across print and digital, The Australian is read by more than four million consumers each month, with its cross-platform audience 16 per cent higher than that of the AFR, its main commercial rival.
Of News Corp’s state-based titles, the Herald Sun’s weekday edition drew an additional 19,000 readers (up 3.3 per cent year on year), the Courier-Mail’s cross-platform metro audience (print and digital) jumped by 12.1 per cent over the past 12 months, The Advertiser climbed by 4.7 per cent and Sydney’s Daily Telegraph increased by 2.5 per cent.
The weekday edition of the Herald Sun remains the most-read Monday-to-Friday masthead in Australia, while Sydney’s Sunday Telegraph is the highest-selling title on weekends, with an average weekly readership of 804,000.
The Sydney Morning Herald retains crown as nation’s most-read masthead
The Sydney Morning Herald continues to hold its long-running title as Australia’s most-read masthead, attracting a cross-platform readership of more than 7 million, fresh Roy Morgan figures have revealed, reports Nine Publishing.
The numbers were driven by the Walkley Award-winning investigative series Building Bad, the masthead’s Olympics and Paralympics coverage and news of two assassination attempts on Donald Trump, which have also pushed subscriber figures higher.
At 7.05 million readers in the 12 months to September, this means about one in three Australians choose to read the Herald, putting it ahead of competitor The Daily Telegraph, which had 4 million.
The Herald’s Monday to Friday print edition notched average reader numbers of 386,000, while the Saturday paper recorded 472,000 readers.
Victoria’s The Age has a national readership of 4.55 million, ahead of competitor the Herald Sun by 450,000.
Radio
Brisbane turmoil: 4BC tensions at boiling point, Kyle and Jackie coming soon on 97.3?
Tensions are reportedly high at Brisbane’s 4BC as breakfast host Peter Fegan has an issue with the station’s decision to enlist Shane Doherty as a summer fill-in presenter, reports News Corp’s Georgia Clelland.
Doherty, a former senior media adviser to the Palaszczuk government, will temporarily replace drive host Gary Hardgrave while both he and Fegan are on leave.
Sources close to the station reveal Fegan and Doherty share a frosty history.
Both Fegan and Hardgrave have been vocal critics of Palaszczuk.
The move to bring Doherty on board is understood to have been driven by execs in Sydney, bypassing local reservations.
Meanwhile, future of Brisbane breakfast radio is under scrutiny, with speculation swirling that Sydney’s Kyle and Jackie O Show could replace Robin and Kip on KIIS97.3 in 2025.
Despite strong denials from the Australian Radio Network (ARN), industry insiders remain unconvinced, citing recent structural changes at the station as potential indicators. The redundancy of Robin and Kip’s executive producer, Ruth De Glas, this week has fuelled rumours of an impending shake-up.
Nova’s Jase and Lauren thank listeners for ‘sticking with us’ on anniversary of ugly KIIS axing
Jase Hawkins, Lauren Phillips and Clint Stanaway of Nova Melbourne’s breakfast show marked an unusual anniversary on Friday, with November 22 being the date last year that they were told they were being axed from the breakfast shift at KIIS FM to make way for Kyle Sandilands and Jackie Henderson, reports News Corp’s Fiona Byrne.
Twelve months on, the number 1 FM breakfast show in Melbourne is the Nova trio while Sandilands and his posse are dwelling in seventh position in the overall breakfast market.
“We just want to thank everyone for listening to our show. It was one year ago today that we were told no one wanted to listen to us on the radio,” Phillips said on their show on Friday.
“We got shafted a year ago to the day,” Hawkins added.
Comeback queen Brigitte Duclos emerges as ABC radio’s afternoon host
Brigitte Duclos is radio’s comeback queen, reports News Corp’s Fiona Byrne.
After a stellar career as part of some of Melbourne radio’s most iconic on air teams in 90s and mid noughties, Duclos thought her radio days were over when the axe fell on her role as host of Gold FM’s breakfast show in late 2015.
But after forging a new career as a counsellor, Duclos is returning to the airwaves in 2025 as the host of ABC Melbourne’s afternoon show.
Duclos started her media career in the sports department at Channel 10 in 1986 before moving into general news. In 1992 she also started reading news on Richard Stubbs’ Triple M breakfast show.
“Eventually I gave up the TV because I thought this radio is so much better for me,” Duclos said.
After four years on Stubbs’ show she joined Triple M’s The Grill Team with Eddie McGuire and Dermott Brereton. Next came The Cage on Triple M with Peter Berner, James Brayshaw, Matt Parkinson and Mike Fitzpatrick before Duclos moved to MIX FM (now KIIS) in 2008 to host breakfast with Tom Gleeson and George McEnroe.
Television
Weekend Sunrise host Matt Doran pulls the pin
Matt Doran, the co-host of Seven’s Weekend Sunrise, is quitting the network, reports The Australian’s James Madden.
The 41-year-old made the announcement during Sunday’s show, telling viewers that after five years on the program, he would be finishing up at the end of the year.
“It’s something I’ve agonised over because it’s honest to say this is one of the best jobs on earth, but we think it’s right – and at the right time – for our little family,” Doran told viewers.
Three years ago, Doran made headlines across the globe when he delivered an on-air apology to British singer Adele after he flew to the UK to interview her about her new album without having listened to it – a mistake that left him Rolling In The Deep shit with his bosses at Seven.
Samantha Armytage to host Today while Karl Stefanovic and Sarah Abo are on leave
Samantha Armytage is set to “Wake up with Today” next month, when she sits in the hot seat as host of the program, reports News Corp’s Briana Domjen.
Sunday Confidential can reveal Nine bosses have asked Armytage to “fill in” for a week and a half over the summer period, while regular hosts Karl Stefanovic and Sarah Abo are on leave.
She will be co-hosting the show with Weekend Today host Clint Stanaway.
Armytage wouldn’t return Confidential’s calls on Saturday, and a Nine spokesperson said the network would confirm its summer program soon.
It is believed Nine has made the move in a bid to get the Nine audience acquainted with Armytage, who worked with rival network Seven for 21 years but recently jumped ship to host their new reality dating program.
Whether it is a “trial” for a more permanent position is yet to be seen.
Sports Media
Channel 7 discuss hosting a rugby league show in 2025
The Seven Network may be about to dip their toe back in the rugby league waters, report News Corp’s Brent Read and Michael Carayannis.
The network has held internal talks over starting their own rugby league show next year in a potential pointer to entering the fight for the game’s broadcast rights in coming months.
Seven were last involved with rugby league seven years ago when they won the rights to televise the 2017 World Cup.
However, they have hitched their wagon to AFL in recent years and Nine has been the commercial broadcaster of choice for rugby league.
Hazlewood tops list of Aussies sold at IPL auction, No sale for David Warner
Josh Hazlewood has been sold for nearly $2.3m while Jake Fraser-McGurk’s price has gone through the roof, reports cricket.com.au’s Max Hatzoglou.
A total of 37 Australians will go under the hammer across two days of the Indian Premier League Auction beginning on Sunday night.
Mitchell Starc was one of the first few players to sell with the left-arm quick going to the Delhi Capitals for 11.75 crore ($2.14 million), less than half of the 24.75 crore he went for last year to break the record for the most expensive player in IPL history.
Marcus Stoinis was sold to Ricky Ponting’s Punjab Kings for 11 crore ($2 million) while rising star Jake Fraser-McGurk was sold to the Capitals for 9 crore ($1.64 million) after the franchise which he starred for last year matched the bid of the Kings.
Glenn Maxwell was sold to the Kings for 4.2 crore ($765,000) and Mitchell Marsh was picked up by the Lucknow Super Giants for 3.4 crore (620,000).
Josh Hazlewood was the last of the first five Aussies to be sold at the auction with the fast bowler heading to the Royal Challengers Bengaluru for 12.5 crore ($2.29 million), the highest price of an Aussie at the auction so far.
David Warner went unsold in the auction.