What has been under consideration is the creation of a merged entity where Fairfax shareholders would control about 68% and Seven West Media the remainder.

Fairfax boss Greg Hywood is understood to be in line to run the new entity, which some believe could create synergistic benefits worth somewhere between $60m and $100m.

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In an exclusive interview with The Australian’s Darren Davidson, the Seven West Media chairman urged the government to seize the opportunity of a competition regulator inquiry into the digital media market as a way to tackle the enormous concentration of power amassed by the tech titans in Australia.

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Laing is a highly regarded executive who left Nine last year after negotiating deals for the broadcaster including its NRL broadcast rights agreement. At Foxtel, she has been working with chief executive Patrick Delany since last month.

She shifted into the role after working with Telstra for five months as a consultant on the Foxtel merger. Foxtel is 65% owned by News Corp, publisher of The Australian. Telstra holds the balance.

Smith joins Foxtel after playing a key role in cable and satellite broadcaster Sky Deutschland’s turnaround.

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It’s been a long road for a business started above a Subway sandwich shop on Sydney’s Oxford Street with no money, no product and no customers.

The National Broadband Network and the introduction of bundling with telco partners, which makes up about 80% of sales, which now include Optus, iiNet, Dodo and iPrimus, was a pivotal moment for Fetch.

Fetch is now exploring launching in New Zealand and has been approached by regional telco players about using its set-top box.

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Neil Shoebridge with APN Outdoor’s GM marketing Charlotte Valente and CEO James Warburton

Effective late May, Shoebridge Media Group will operate as APN Outdoor’s in-house communications unit three days a week, reporting to general manager marketing, Charlotte Valente.

Shoebridge has been the director of corporate and public communications at Network Ten and part of the company’s leadership team since February 2012.

He is also a former editor and managing editor of BRW magazine, a former marketing and media editor of The Australian Financial Review, a member of the Australian Marketing Institute and the author of two marketing books.

APN Outdoor general manager marketing Charlotte Valente said: “We are thrilled to have Shoebridge Media Group join APN Outdoor. Neil’s extensive experience and proven track record are what is required to drive our business strategy and ambitions.

“Neil’s credentials will ensure APN Outdoor capitalises on every opportunity to cement our thought-leadership credentials, a key pillar in our strategy.”

James Warburton, chief executive officer and managing director of APN Outdoor, added: “It will be great to be working with Neil again. A focus for our business is to have a greater voice in the media industry. Neil will bring a huge level of knowledge and respect to our communications strategy and activities.”

Emily Sak

The new role forms part of the expansion plan to keep up with the accelerated growth that has seen the Shopper Media Group portfolio surpass more than 220 shopping centres Australia-wide.

Shopper Media Group marketing & insights director Victoria Primrose said the appointment reaffirms the company’s commitment to data centricity: “We have invested in market-leading digital analytic capabilities already and this new role will help us further our capability – allowing us to continuously deliver new, enhanced data products and services to the market.”

Sak joins Shopper Media Group after more than a decade at Pacific Magazines focusing on media and FMCG consumer insights and strategy.

Shopper Media Group CEO Ben Walker said: “Emily is incredibly well-respected within the industry and her innovative style and experience in delivering enhanced business outcomes will ensure we offer our customers world-class insights on their customers, to help them drive growth.”

APN Outdoor chief executive officer and managing director James Warburton said: “These contracts represent an important part of our advertising offering. The far-reaching impact they provide delivers a compelling proposition and cements our commitment to the development of our transit and billboard product offering.

“We are thrilled to be continuing our relationship with all partners and look forward to driving innovation in all that we do, delivering greater cut-through and effectiveness for advertisers.”

Warburton said the contracts are all substantial retentions for APN Outdoor.

Transport for Brisbane covers the advertising rights for more than 4,000 panels across nearly 1,200 vehicles in metropolitan Brisbane and is a contract APN Outdoor has held for more than 30 years. The contract operator, Brisbane City Council, is the largest council area in Australia, with its transit fleet reaching 85% of Brisbane’s residents each week.

Transdev, APN Outdoor’s largest and most important bus contracts in Melbourne, comprises approximately 500 buses, 1,800 panels and includes important CBD routes.

The Adelaide & Parafield Airports renewal covers the rights for nine large-format roadside billboards on airport land.

With the successful extensions of these contracts now complete and a single-digit renewal profile over the next two years, Warburton said the focus of APN Outdoor would now shift to acquisition and an ongoing commitment to innovation.

“We are in a very strong position,” he said.

“As a business we can now focus on acquiring new key contracts and further developing the offering we provide to our clients.”

I’ve just returned from London, getting inside the Financial Times newsroom and business model, which has driven print and digital paid audience from 740,000 in 2015 to nearly 930,000 today. The digital growth is consistent with The Australian Financial Review’s experience of a 40% increase in digital retail subscriptions over the same period. For the FT, two-thirds of revenue now comes from content, as opposed to advertising, says chief executive John Ridding. Digital subscribers make up 80% of the FT’s paid audience. Yet the decline in print circulation has slowed and the pink FT newspaper remains in the black.

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The way I read it has changed from print to a computer and now to a smartphone. What has remained constant is my need to be kept informed, whether on breaking business developments or the latest cricket results. Technology is the news industry’s strongest tool in satisfying the basic human need for good reporting.

We at Google are not content makers, we do not employ people to work as journalists, and we have no intention of becoming a news publisher. But we share an important common vision with the Australian news industry, which is to ensure that people have access to quality news and information. This is at the heart of our partnerships with publishers such as Fairfax Media.

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Tom Armstrong

The strategic appointment follows the continued success of robust coverage expansion efforts in the region, which have focused on global issues that deeply affect readers there, including climate change, migration, gender and international politics and economics.

The WeThinkMedia relationship will be overseen by Singapore-based Tom Armstrong (pictured), vice president, advertising for The New York Times, Asia Pacific. Armstrong is a former chief revenue officer at Fairfax Media.

WeThinkMedia will be responsible for all advertising in the region, including print, digital, branded content, programmatic and events.

On the appointment, Armstrong said, “Australia is an exciting opportunity for The New York Times. Since we began expanding our coverage of the region, our audience has grown rapidly. Readership is up more than 30% and our subscriber base has more than doubled over the past year. As we continue to grow, it is important to have our advertising business represented by an agency with the local expertise and thorough understanding of both the market and key advertisers. We are thrilled to work with WeThinkMedia as an integral part of our overall expansion in the region.”

Peter Wiltshire, founder and director, WeThinkMedia, said, “The New York Times reader is part of an uniquely engaged, globally conscious audience that strongly values high-quality journalism. We are at the charge of an incredible opportunity for local Australian advertisers to reach this substantial breadth of dedicated and internationally focused readers. Our industrious team is already in the market presenting opportunities and discussing custom strategies for individual client needs.”

Fifi, Byron and Fev on air recently at Fox FM

As Fevola prepared for his wedding this week, he told his Instagram followers: “So excited to be waking up with Melbourne till the end of 2020”.

The hit Fox FM breakfast show broadcast from the W Hotel in Bali this morning, where the local time was 4am for the start of the show. “We haven’t thought this through properly,” said Fifi Box as Byron Cooke introduced his colleagues.

Ahead of the wedding, Fev had his buck’s party in Bali last night. Daryl Braithwaite and Shannon Noll both performed and the guests included Fifi and Fev’s bride Alex Fevola.

After working through the radio break last week, the Fox FM trio will take the rest of this week off.

Roberts, who remarkably has led four Perth FM stations to No. 1 since lobbing at the pioneering 96fm in 1980, says he is looking for a new challenge outside radio when he finishes up at the end of June after 16 years at the helm of 93.7, reports Sean Smith.

“Everybody says ‘you must have something planned’. Well, I don’t actually,” he says.

“I’m looking for things that are challenging and fresh, something to keep my mind ticking over.

“I’m not up for retiring, I’m not the sort of person who sits around doing nothing, or playing golf, or gardening. So we’ll see what comes up.”

Roberts almost made the jump from radio when fielding various offers after leaving Austereo in 2002, only to be pulled back in by the irresistible challenge of launching Nova’s new FM station in Perth.

“The opportunity was too good not to be involved, and it’s been a fabulous run.”

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The current breakfast host Gareth McCray told his listeners this morning that from next Monday two new hosts will be in charge of 2CH breakfast.

That team will be current 2CH afternoon announcer Trevor Sinclair and well-known ABC and SBS news presenter Indira Naidoo from Monday April 30.

In the first survey of 2018, 2CH breakfast had a share of 2.7%, which was under the station’s 10+ share of 3.7%.

The little-known boy from Blackwood, South Australia, has hurdled a field of higher profile Sydney newsmen and is currently Nine bosses’ preferred choice to replace Karl Stefanovic at Today – which could be sooner than Nine boss CEO Hugh Marks had originally planned given Stefanovic’s apparent disaffection for the program he hosts and the ugly public disclosure of a private conversation he and younger brother Peter had in an Uber vehicle earlier this year.

In Ragless, executives have spotted someone who is utterly himself – and “not just a Stefanovic clone”, as one Nine insider put it last week.

He would also be “excellent value for money” – something Stefanovic hasn’t been for years.

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The Advertiser’s Adelaide Confidential subsequently reported:

Channel 9 Adelaide newsreader Brenton Ragless is flattered by speculation he could replace Karl Stefanovic as Today show host, insiders say, but he is committed to SA.

Local Nine insiders said Ragless, who was out of range in the Flinders Ranges on Sunday, isn’t going anywhere yet.

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While its historic facade has been preserved along with its marbled original entrance foyer, the rest of the controversial Fitzroy St property has had more of a complete remake rather than a renovation.

The former rooming house, which for years was a cesspit of crime, poverty and misfortune until purchased by The Block, has been a hive activity for the past three months with TV contestants and more than 100 expert tradies transforming the property into luxury apartments.

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Wide World of Sports host James Bracey will host the show from the ground after Thursday Night Football, while Parramatta legend Peter Sterling will fill in as host of the Sunday Footy Show.

Both changes will be in place from mid-May until Molan returns from maternity leave later in the year.

Molan says she’s excited about the next few weeks as she prepares to become a mum, “Sean and I are so excited to meet our baby. We can’t wait!

“We just hope Bub is polite enough to come before or at least in between State of Origin matches!”

Bracey, who anchors the Wide World of Sports coverage of the NRL as well as Sports Sunday and 100% Footy, will take over The Footy Show on Thursday nights.

“Erin does such a fantastic job in her role as host, and I hope I can be a good bench player until she’s ready to return,” Bracey said.

Bracey said it was an honour to be selected to host the long-running program.

“The Footy Show has a rich history of success over its quarter of a century on the air.

“Erin does such a fantastic job in her role as host, and I hope I can add something off the bench until she’s fit and ready to return.”

In what promises to be the most-watched game in AFL history, the Power’s clash with the Suns on May 19 in Shanghai will be played in front of an expected capacity of 12,500 at Jiangwan Stadium, renamed Adelaide Arena for AFL games.

But it’s the potential television exposure that has the most upside for the code. The match will be shown live on commercial channels in China with a reach of 160 million. The number crunchers have advised that will equate to nine million Chinese viewers. With another potential million viewers in Australia, that is a lot of eyes on a new export market, which is less than two years in the making.

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Sources said Cricket Australia has had meetings with teams from Southern Cross, which broadcast Test matches for the last two years on its Triple M network, and Crocmedia, which did not hold rights in the last agreement but is believed to be keen to add it to its Sports Entertainment Network.

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