Business of Media
Rupert Murdoch makes surprise Australian homecoming
A little over a year ago, Rupert Murdoch “retired”. He then got married (for the fifth time), before his media empire boosted Donald Trump into the White House for the second time. At 93, the man is positively undimmed, writes the AFR’s Mark Di Stefano.
Capping it off, he’s flown into Australia for his first visit in many years. A summer holiday is a wonderful way to show off his former homeland to new spouse Elena Zhukova.
He was expected at eldest son Lachlan Murdoch’s Christmas party on Thursday night. Lachlan’s end-of-year bash hosted alongside wife Sarah Murdoch is the marquee ticket for any upwardly mobile News Corp lieutenant or presenter.
Those around the company have to currently stay fluid with diary plans. Last year, it was cancelled. This year, Rupert’s in the house.
Entertainment
Television’s hardy perennials: Why we dig gardening shows
Next year, having passed the 1500-episode mark last month, Gardening Australia will rack up 35 years on air on the ABC. In fact, you could even argue it’s longer than that, given that GA was, when it premiered in 1990, an extended version of the show Landscape, which grew out of the show It’s Growing, which debuted in 1969. But whichever start date you want to choose, that is, in the best possible way, a whole lot of compost, writes the SMH’s Ben Pobjie.
If you’re a TV show, getting a second season is cause for rejoicing. Reaching 10 years means you’re a venerable elder statesman of the TV landscape. To get to 35 is beyond the bounds of reasonable expectation, and in most cases would get people chattering about stagnation and the need to get you off the air and stop living in the past. There is no such clamour around Gardening Australia: as remarkable as its longevity is its ability to continue inhabiting a very special place in generations of devotees’ hearts, and far from being seen as a relic, it’s an absolute institution in Australian life: even people who don’t watch it are glad to know it’s there.
These movies have got Aussies back to the cinema. But what comes next?
While you were watching TV, bingeing on a streaming service, or heading to Christmas parties in the past week, almost 2 million Australians were going to the cinema, reports SMH’s Garry Maddox.
The continuing popularity of the historical epic Gladiator II in its third week and musical Wicked in its second, plus a stronger-than-expected opening for the animated Moana 2, combined to push box office to $30.65 million for the Thursday-to-Wednesday cinema week.
That made it the year’s biggest week at the movies, with an estimated 1.8 to 1.9 million tickets sold.
Box office last Saturday was a stunning $9.2 million – almost 50 per cent higher than the $6.2 million last Boxing Day, which has been traditionally the biggest day of the movie-going year.
Newsbrands
UK journalists strike over planned sale of ‘Observer’
Journalists at The Guardian and The Observer newspapers in Britain began a 48-hour strike this week over plans to sell the Observer, the country’s oldest-running Sunday publication, to a digital media start-up, reports the AFR’s Eshe Nelson.
Workers picketed outside their newsroom in London to protest the proposed sale to Tortoise Media, arguing it had been “rushed through” without the support of the staff.
It is the first strike in more than 50 years for Guardian News & Media, which publishes both papers. The Observer has run in print since 1791. The plans to sell it came to light in September and were a surprise to journalists, who are now calling for the company to pause sale negotiations and consider alternatives.
Radio
Kyle and Jackie O struggles put KIIS FM owner in tailspin
KIIS FM-owner ARN Media is cutting $20 million in costs and shuffling its ranks as it tries to free up cash after signing Kyle Sandilands and Jackie ‘O’ Henderson to a landmark $200 million contract, reports the SMH’s Calum Jaspan.
Between 30 and 50 staff from the content, sales and marketing divisions are being made redundant in a staged process, between now and February, as ARN contends with unsuccessful takeover of rival Southern Cross Austereo, a weak ad market and the costly Kyle and Jackie ‘O’ contract, four sources with knowledge of the matter, speaking on condition of anonymity, told this masthead.
ARN’s moves also include shifting some executives into consultancy roles, the sources said. They said this included ARN’s chief content officer, Duncan Campbell, who will now solely focus on the Kyle and Jackie O Show.
“There have been no changes to ARN’s executive leadership team, and no members have been made redundant. Any claims suggesting otherwise are incorrect,” an ARN spokesperson said.
Sport
Eddie McGuire makes unthinkable move as media mogul’s secret revealed
If viewers ever thought Eddie McGuire’s days as a media mogul were slipping, they’re now getting a reality check, news.com.au reports.
The former Collingwood Football Club president was on Thursday night revealed to be the man behind two new shows for the network that has always been his biggest rial — Seven.
As reported by News Corp, McGuire’s JAM TV operation has struck a deal with Seven bosses to produce two new AFL talk shows.
According to the report, McGuire’s team will produce Sunday Footy Feast, which will air following Channel 9’s dominant Sunday Footy Show, which traditionally wraps up at 12pm (AEDT).
Retail
Australian fast-food billionaire Jack Cowin dishes up his strategy for success
Despite the recent upheaval with Covid, the fundamentals haven’t changed in the fast-food industry in the past 50 years, says Jack Cowin, the billionaire founder and executive chairman of Competitive Foods Australia, the privately held group behind some of the country’s biggest fast-food chains,” Forbes’ Jennifer Wells, reports.
“Food has got to be hot, drinks have got to be cold and the service has got to be with a smile,” adds Cowin, one of Australia’s richest men with an estimated net worth of $3.2 billion, speaking on the sidelines of the Forbes Global CEO Conference in Bangkok in November.
“Largely our strategy has been, how do you build, how do you reinvest into what you got,” he emphasises, which has seen Competitive Foods plowing A$75 million back into Hungry Jack’s each year. “Why we have been successful is because we have had 50 odd years of reinvesting back into the business.”