Business of Media
Twitter Australia’s head of PR and comms Nathan Burman departs
Nathan Burman, Twitter Australia’s head of communications and PR, has departed the company after five years, reports The Australian’s Zoe Samios.
Burman, who is currently on paternity leave, will not return to the business, he confirmed to The Australian.
It is not clear where Burman is headed, but Twitter Australia will commence a search for his replacement.
After the report was published, Burman commented:
“I’ve had an incredible 5+ years at Twitter, truly my dream job! Too many to thank but thanks and cheers to everyone I’ve been lucky enough to work with. Old mate Stewart Russell is smashing it and remains your go to for all communications for Twitter Australia.”
News Brands
LA-based Aussie entertainment reporter nominated for journalism award
The entertainment editor-at-large for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, Michael Idato, has been nominated in the Journalist of the Year (Print circulation 50,000+ category) at the Los Angeles Press Club annual Southern California Journalism Awards.
He is nominated alongside journalists from The Hollywood Reporter, LA Weekly and Playboy magazine.
Idato also received nominations in two other categories for cover stories in the Green Guide and Guide on the way House of Cards changed television and in Spectrum with Jane Fonda talking about how life begins at 80.
The winners will be announced Sunday, June 30.
Idato won’t be able to attend the awards event due to an annual trip back to Australia to attend the TV Week Logie Awards.
Another executive producer leaves job at Seven’s Sunday Night
Hamish Thomson has left his job at Channel 7 as executive producer of current affairs show Sunday Night after being accused of telling an employee she was in need of a “good f**k”, reports News Corp’s Sydney Confidential.
An email was sent to staff on Wednesday evening notifying them of the decision and saying that Thomson was leaving the company.
“After three challenging and successful years Hamish is leaving to explore other opportunities,” the email read.
The move comes after Thomson was accused of telling senior television producer Lisa Ryan that she was in need of a “good f**k”. Thomson has denied the claim.
Confidential earlier this week revealed Ryan, who was a senior producer on the Sunday Night program for a decade, reached an agreement with Seven last Friday.
Thomson has been executive producer of Seven’s flagship current affairs program since 2014 and was suspended by the network following the performance review meeting pending an external investigation by HR consultants.
Radio
Listeners back Chris Smith as 2GB management devises cost cutting
A planned change to 2GB’s line up is set to affect three major cities with cost cutting measures behind management’s unpopular decision, report News Corp’s Matthew Benns and Clarissa Bye.
The Daily Telegraph revealed yesterday that afternoon talkback host Chris Smith is set to be moved into the night-time timeslot in a straight swap with presenter Steve Price who will take over the reigns from 12-3pm.
The change will affect three stations, 2GB Sydney, 3AW Melbourne and 4BC Brisbane, all run by Nine-owned parent company Macquarie Media.
The “networked” afternoon program is currently heard in both Sydney and Brisbane but with Price moving into the hot seat, management is expected to begin beaming the slot into Melbourne so bosses can dump 3AW host Denis Walter in the process.
Macquarie Media CEO Adam Lang declined to comment on the shift-swap rumours.
The former Austero boss also dismissed as speculation the change to Melbourne’s afternoon show. “Nothing has even been said about Denis Walter, that’s just speculation so I have no further comment.”
Television
TV Week Logies Q&A: Nine executive producer on Sunday’s show
TV Week Logie Awards executive producer Brent Williams gives TV Tonight an insight into the planning, manpower behind the scenes.
Everyone had a great time on the Gold Coast last year. Now that you have one under the belt in the new home, what changes are you looking at for this year?
BW: The Gold Coast turned on a great party last year. With a new venue and new event partners it was a pretty intense build up to last year’s Logies but it all went off without a hitch. I think everyone involved will be better for the run and we have managed to iron out a few little kinks for this year so hopefully it will be another great night for everyone attending and watching at home. One of the things we introduced last year was comedy legend Tony Martin doing the live voice overs in the room. I’m very pleased to say Tony will be returning as the voice of the Logies again this year.
Dave Hughes will be sorely missed as the opening act. Having set the bar high, how do you approach a replacement? Any hints on whom?
BW: Dave has been phenomenal on the Logies for a long time. Not just since he’s been opening but for many years before that. He genuinely loves the event and works so incredibly hard on his opening monologues. He will be missed this year but as they say, it gives someone else the opportunity and there has been no shortage of willing candidates, all of whom would do an outstanding job! You’ll notice I avoided the question about ‘any hints on whom?’
TV Week Logies Hall of Fame to induct more than one from 2020?
A rethink of the TV Week Logie Hall of Fame could be on the cards for 2020, to allow for more than one inductee, reports TV Tonight.
With the awards now in their 61st year, TV Week is increasingly faced with the challenge of inducting one TV name from a long list of candidates including a posthumous award for those who have passed in the last 12 months (a rule currently prevents later induction). That has seen Peter Harvey and Brian Naylor inducted at events following their passing.
Amongst those lost since the last ceremony, Bill Collins, Mike Willesee and Sam Chisholm, each is already a Hall of Famer, but as TV grows older so too will the list of worthy contenders.
TV Tonight, which previously mounted a campaign for more women in the Hall of Fame asked TV Week editor Thomas Woodgate if it was time to consider one man, one woman and one show as annual inductees?
“You raise a very good point,” he replied.
“We are going to find it difficult to really keep up with people who should be included in there. Every year after they finish we sit down and look at what we can do better next year. This year we added an Outstanding Reality Program category.”
How Russell Crowe channelled Roger Ailes in The Loudest Voice
Russell Crowe wants you to know that his process of preparing for a role is not interesting. At all, reports The New York Times.
Everyone always asks him about it. (Don’t ask him about it.)
But let’s suppose you did. Was it not difficult getting inside the head of Roger Ailes, a man who, as the mastermind behind Fox News, was just as reviled as revered? A man accused of legitimizing racist conspiracy theories and sexually harassing multiple women?
“The one thing that I learned about Roger from talking to people that loved him — and lots of people loved him — is how charming he was, how personable he was, how loyal he was,” Crowe said.
Not everyone involved in The Loudest Voice was quite as charitable about Ailes, who two years after his death is as polarizing as ever. Not the showrunner. Not the writer whose reporting inspired the show. So when the series debuts on Sunday, the on-screen image of Ailes will be the product of years of grappling, arguing, writing and rewriting; of death threats and smears and anonymous sources; of clashing interpretations of shadowy truths.
Building seven episodes around a protagonist so divisive was tricky. Finding the right tone and presentation took plenty of negotiation, said Alex Metcalf, the showrunner.
“We honestly fought about it,” he said, referring to his discussions with Crowe. “He’s a guy with a strong point of view, but if you have a diverse opinion that makes sense, he hears it.”
The Loudest Voice will be screened on Stan in Australia.
Sports Media
Israel Folau: I want Rugby Australia to apologise for sacking me
Embattled rugby union player Israel Folau is hopeful of receiving an apology from Rugby Australia officials today when both sides go to the first Fair Work Commission over his sacking for posting a homophobic passage from the Bible on Instagram, reports The Australian’s Elias Vistonay.
Appearing on Sky News’s Jones & Co last night, in what was his first TV interview since being sacked, Folau also opened up on the “unexpected” toll that recent sponsor threats had had on his wife, Maria, a top netball player.
“I’m hopeful for an apology from them and an admission that they were wrong,” Folau said. “That will be something that I’d like to get.”
Asked if he was hoping for a legal result that allowed him to play rugby again, Folau said: “I’m extremely proud to have represented my country. It’s truly an honour. But … tomorrow is the first step in terms of legal stuff.”