Tuesday August 7, 2018
The New Daily taking on news media giants in Australia
Kruti Joshi
“There are really only about three news providers in this country: Fairfax, Murdoch and foreign,” he told Mediaweek.
“People are concerned that there are already too few voices and the Fairfax takeover is going to lead to even fewer voices.”
Under such an environment, Guthrie’s Industry Super Fund-owned news website is like “a breath of fresh air”, he said.
“There’s no doubt that some of the bigger proprietors are looking at us and thinking that we are taking a slice of their cake. That’s the business.
“The problem is that very few like us have launched.”
In his career, Guthrie has served as the editor-in-chief of Melbourne’s Herald Sun, The Age, Who magazine, The Weekend Australian Magazine and The Sunday Age. He was also responsible for the launch of The Age website in 1996. That “is when a lot of people say the internet took hold of the news business in Australia”, Guthrie said. “One of the things that was said then was that the internet would lead to an explosion of new outlets. However, it hasn’t in Australia in terms of news. If it has, it has been from overseas. Too few Australian proprietors have been prepared to have a go.
“As someone who is concerned about the state of journalism in Australia, I am proud of what The New Daily has achieved when no one else has had a crack.”
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This is an excerpt from the full article, which appears on Mediaweek Premium. Read the full article here or subscribe to Mediaweek Premium here.
Nielsen news brands July 2018 rankings: The Guardian adds over 1m
While news.com.au again tops the rankings, Nine has moved up to number two with the ABC dropping back to third place.
The ABC was the only news publisher in the top 10 not to see its audience numbers climb during July.
The biggest growth was at The Guardian where the audience of 2.98m in June grew to 4.14m in July.
New to the top 10 this month is The West Australian, which had an audience of 2.16m for the month.
news.com.au was the top news entity in terms of highest unique audience (9.3 million), followed by nine.com.au (8.8 million) and then ABC News websites (8.4 million). Fourth place was Daily Mail (5.1 million).
Next in the Nielsen online news rankings was The Guardian (4.1 million), followed by The Daily Telegraph (2.8 million) in sixth position.
In seventh position was Herald Sun (2.6 million), followed by The Australian with a unique audience of 2.2 million. In ninth place was The West Australian (2.2 million) followed by APN Australian Regional Media News Network (2.0 million).
Damien’s final salute: New alliance rocks Survivor’s Champions
Following the nail-biting elimination of Russell Hantz, the Champions team arrived at the reward challenge ready to rumble. In a soccer-style game of shoot-outs, the Champions proved too good for the Contenders and walked away with a highly coveted fishing set.
The mammoth Immunity challenge saw teams manoeuvre a giant wheel around a course. As two players on top of the wheel fished for baskets, another two assembled a mega puzzle.
The Champions set the pace early in the challenge, but some poor basket handling and a puzzle fumble from poker player Jackie saw the Contenders surge ahead to their second straight Immunity win.
Knowing her puzzle palaver had put a target on her back, Jackie turned on the water-works in a bid to plea for her spot on the tribe.
Jackie said: “I’m a poker player. I have no problems with deceiving people.”
Moana Hope
Football greats Mat, Moana and fitness specialist Steve called Jackie’s bluff, but that didn’t stop her from scrambling to convince the team that Damien was the weakest link and that he must go if the team is to stand a chance at winning challenges.
At Tribal Council, Steve urged his tribe mates, before they headed to vote, to think for themselves and not follow the herd. As they all filed in to vote, Moana’s visit to the urn was bittersweet as she was able to pocket the hidden immunity idol.
For Damien, however, this trip to Tribal Council would be his last with six votes enough to snuff his torch.
• Australian Survivor elimination #3: Damien, 36, NSW
Box Office: Mission: Impossible lifts weekend, accounts for nearly 50% of tickets
By James Manning
However, the combo of Cruise and the Mission: Impossible franchise has helped box office climb 6% over the weekend.
The top 20 movies managed to earn $13.20m, slightly better than last weekend.
There were two new releases in the top five. The big earners Mamma Mia 2 and Ant-Man And The Wasp (which have earned $35m between them) are still performing in the top five.
#1 Mission: Impossible – Fallout $6.21m
The Mission: Impossible franchise seems like it has been going forever. This is the sixth movie in the series and it proves star Tom Cruise can still be a potent box office force. Fallout opened on 616 screens with a screen average of $10,089.
#2 Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again $2.48m
After two weeks on top, Mamma Mia 2 slipped one place yet still managed close to another $2.5m, pushing its total after three weekends to $16.58m. Screens showing the musical were down 134 to 397.
#3 The Equalizer 2 $854,000
Ticket sales dropped 54% on its third weekend with total gross to-date of $7.18m.
#4 Ant-Man And The Wasp $579,000
After five weekends the Marvel movie hangs on in the top five with a total to-date of $18.78m.
#5 The Wife $531,000
The Glenn Close drama opened on 158 screens with a screen average of $3,363.
TV Demand chart takeover: Orange (really) Is The New Black
The prison drama ranks #1 on the Digital Originals charts and the Overall TV charts in Australia and New Zealand. The series has been out of the top 10 Digital Originals for just a handful of the 31 weeks so far this year.
Marvel’s Luke Cage re-entered the Australian Digital Originals chart in Australia, while 13 Reasons Why was back in the New Zealand top 10.
New to the Overall TV chart in Australia this week were MasterChef Australia, Outlander and The Originals, which just wrapped its fifth season.
MasterChef also entered the New Zealand chart as did Castle Rock, The Originals and Outlander.
TV Ratings Analysis: August
By James Manning
Seven
Home And Away was just over 700,000 after a week 31 average of 667,000.
Dance Boss launched with a disappointing 599,000. The show got really hammered in Melbourne where the audience was just 121,000 ranking it fourth in the slot and not too far ahead of SBS’s Windsor Castle special. It was a little better in Sydney where it outperformed Survivor. It will need some special care to lift these numbers.
The channel then devoted much of primetime to Gordon Ramsay with 24 Hours To Hell And Back (329,000) and Kitchen Nightmares (229,000).
On 7mate, Talking Footy did 125,000 with 70,000 in Melbourne. AFL boss Gillon McLachlan was talking about calls for a send-off rule after the Andrew Gaff punch on Sunday in Perth.
Nine
A second successive night in top spot was driven by another good crowd for The Block and the return of Doctor Doctor.
Both Nine News and A Current Affair also did their usual heavy lifting for the first 90 minutes of primetime. ACA was on 854,000 after a week 31 average of 755,000.
The Block EP Julian Cress gave episode two a wrap in our interview last week and he was right. The look on host Scotty Cam’s face said it all when the first two people given a choice of the apartment to renovate overlooked the penthouse spaces. We won’t know just how big a mistake The Blockheads might have made until auction day. The second episode continued the strong figures for the Sunday series return.
The Block: Season 14, Week 1
Sunday 1.16m
Monday 1.13m
Doctor Doctor then returned to the schedule with season three launching on 726,000. That is a good result after the first episodes of seasons one and two both launched close to 750,000.
100% Footy didn’t start in its northern markets until close to 11pm with just 53,000 – 34,000 in Sydney and 20,000 in Brisbane.
Footy Classified meanwhile did 190,000 with 134,000 in Melbourne on a night where there was renewed interest in the ramifications of the on-field violence from the Perth v Fremantle Sunday game.
Ten
Pointless started its week on 288,000 after an average last week of 283,000.
The Project did 550,000 after 7pm with a special report from Bathurst farmer Grant Denyer about the effect drought is having on farmers in the region.
Survivor saw elimination three on episode three with a disappointing 592,000 watching after audiences of 716,000 and 615,000 for the two episodes on Wednesday and Thursday last week.
Have You Been Paying Attention? managed to lift the audience to 661,000, but that was nearly 200,000 short of last week’s numbers after a MasterChef lead-in.
ABC
7.30 started with a report on the drought, which led into a Leigh Sales–Malcolm Turnbull interview, which is always entertaining. The crowd was 576,00 after an average of 546,000 last week.
Australian Story featured Queensland chef Matt Golinksi with 639,000 watching as the show took back the timeslot from Back Roads.
Four Corners then featured a Facebook investigation, but it attracted one of the show’s smaller audiences this year – 517,000. The numbers were still up on last week’s 400,000+, but well short of the 803,000 from three weeks ago.
Media Watch was then on 465,000 followed by Q&A on 327,000.
SBS
Part two of Inside Windsor Castle did 288,000. It was the second-most-watched show on the channel last week on 257,000.
How To Get Fit Fast then did 155,000 with the audience then climbing to 189,000 for 24 Hours In Emergency.
Week 32 TV: Monday
| MONDAY METRO | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ABC | Seven | Nine | Ten | SBS | |||||
| ABC | 12.8% | 7 | 16.8% | 9 | 23.2% | TEN | 13.2% | SBS One | 4.6% |
| ABC 2 | 2.6% | 7TWO | 3.4% | GO! | 3.3% | ONE | 3.8% | VICELAND | 0.8% |
| ABC ME | 0.5% | 7mate | 4.6% | GEM | 2.8% | ELEVEN | 2.1% | Food Net | 0.8% |
| ABC NEWS | 1.1% | 7flix | 2.0% | 9Life | 1.5% | NITV | 0.0% | ||
| TOTAL | 17.0% | 26.8% | 30.8% | 19.1% | 6.3% | ||||
| MONDAY REGIONAL | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ABC | Seven Affiliates | Nine Affiliates | Ten Affiliates | SBS | |||||
| ABC | 14.0% | 7 | 20.4% | 9 | 21.4% | WIN | 8.2% | SBS One | 4.1% |
| ABC 2 | 3.2% | 7TWO | 3.9% | GO! | 3.7% | ONE | 2.4% | VICELAND | 1.0% |
| ABC ME | 0.7% | 7mate | 5.5% | GEM | 4.5% | ELEVEN | 1.6% | Food Net | 0.6% |
| ABC NEWS | 1.7% | 7flix | 1.6% | 9Life | 1.7% | NITV | 0.1% | ||
| TOTAL | 19.6% | 31.4% | 31.3% | 12.2% | 5.8% | ||||
| MONDAY METRO ALL TV | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FTA | STV | ||||||||
| 86.7% | 13.3% | ||||||||
Monday FTA
- Seven News Seven 1,152,000
- The Block Nine 1,135,000
- Seven News / Today Tonight Seven 1,096,000
- Nine News 6:30 Nine 1,053,000
- Nine News Nine 1,047,000
- A Current Affair Nine 854,000
- ABC News ABC 746,000
- Doctor Doctor Nine 726,000
- Home And Away Seven 710,000
- The Chase Australia Seven 681,000
- Have You Been Paying Attention? Ten 661,000
- Australian Story ABC 639,000
- Dance Boss-Launch Seven 599,000
- Australian Survivor Ten 592,000
- 7.30 ABC 576,000
- Hot Seat Nine 568,000
- The Project 7pm Ten 550,000
- Four Corners ABC 517,000
- Media Watch ABC 465,000
- The Chase Australia-5pm Seven 448,000
Demo Top Fives
16-39 Top 5
- The Block Nine 340,000
- Have You Been Paying Attention? Ten 235,000
- Australian Survivor Ten 210,000
- The Project 7pm Ten 171,000
- Nine News 6:30 Nine 163,000
18-49 Top 5
- The Block Nine 541,000
- Have You Been Paying Attention? Ten 389,000
- Australian Survivor Ten 337,000
- Nine News 6:30 Nine 299,000
- Seven News / Today Tonight Seven 269,000
25-54 Top 5
- The Block Nine 608,000
- Have You Been Paying Attention? Ten 408,000
- Nine News 6:30 Nine 365,000
- Australian Survivor Ten 355,000
- Nine News Nine 339,000
Monday Multichannel
- Peter Rabbit ABCKIDS/COMEDY 210,000
- Octonauts ABCKIDS/COMEDY 191,000
- Floogals ABCKIDS/COMEDY 188,000
- Little Roy-PM ABCKIDS/COMEDY 185,000
- Noddy Toyland Detective-PM ABCKIDS/COMEDY 173,000
- Dot.-AM ABCKIDS/COMEDY 169,000
- Go Jetters-AM ABCKIDS/COMEDY 168,000
- The Big Bang Theory TX2 9GO! 168,000
- Rusty Rivets ABCKIDS/COMEDY 168,000
- Peppa Pig-AM ABCKIDS/COMEDY 166,000
- The Big Bang Theory TX3 9GO! 166,000
- M: Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation-PM 7mate 163,000
- NCIS E2 (R) ONE 161,000
- Peppa Pig-PM ABCKIDS/COMEDY 155,000
- Andy’s Prehistoric Adventures ABCKIDS/COMEDY 151,000
- PJ Masks-AM ABCKIDS/COMEDY 150,000
- Wanda And The Alien-AM ABCKIDS/COMEDY 149,000
- Death In Paradise 9Gem 149,000
- The Big Bang Theory TX1 9GO! 149,000
- Neighbours ELEVEN 149,000
Monday Subscription TV
- Live: AFL 360 FOX FOOTY 117,000
- Live: On The Couch FOX FOOTY 97,000
- Live: NRL 360 FOX LEAGUE 76,000
- The Bolt Report SKY NEWS LIVE 64,000
- Live: Big League Wrap FOX LEAGUE 61,000
- NCIS TVH!TS 54,000
- AFL Tonight FOX FOOTY 51,000
- Outsiders SKY NEWS LIVE 50,000
- Paul Murray Live SKY NEWS LIVE 49,000
- Nella The Princess Knight Nick Jr. 46,000
- NCIS: Los Angeles TVH!TS 43,000
- Family Guy FOX8 43,000
- Credlin SKY NEWS LIVE 41,000
- Nella The Princess Knight Nick Jr. 40,000
- The Simpsons FOX8 40,000
- Blaze And The Monster Machines Nick Jr. 40,000
- Family Guy FOX8 40,000
- Paw Patrol Nick Jr. 39,000
- American Dad! FOX8 39,000
- The Simpsons FOX8 39,000
Shares all people, 6pm-midnight, Overnight (Live and AsLive), Audience numbers FTA metro, Sub TV national
Source: OzTAM and Regional TAM 2018. The Data may not be reproduced, published or communicated (electronically or in hard copy) without the prior written consent of OzTAM
Media News Roundup
Business of Media
Seek profit downgrade spooks investors as share price drops
The $8 billion company said on Monday that it will write down $178 million of the value of its investments in Brazil and Mexico and delivered a shock profit downgrade, which pushed its stock down 8.8% to $20.
The company said net profit after tax in 2018-19 will come in “broadly similar” to the $200 million recorded in 2017-18 – the second year in a row of more or less flat growth.
Reg Grundy’s estranged daughter in court fighting over father’s will
Kim Robin Grundy, now known as Viola La Valette, appeared in the NSW Supreme Court yesterday, seeking access to documents about her father’s mental capacity and the extent of his wealth before his death in 2016.
La Valette is contesting his will and has been fighting his widow Joy Chambers-Grundy, who inherited his estate, believed by his daughter to be worth more than $900 million.
Her barrister Michael Meek SC said Reg Grundy, creator of TV game shows Wheel Of Fortune and The Price Is Right, owned a stack of offshore companies registered in Bermuda, Antigua, the British Virgin Islands and the United States.
La Valette believes she has been left short-changed by her father and is seeking tens of millions of dollars in addition to an existing $250,000 annuity.
She cut off all contact with Grundy 22 years before his death, but the heartbroken dad continued to give her money.
US cable television mogul-turned-philanthropist Gerry Lenfest dies
Lenfest joined the media group Triangle Publications in 1965 after working at a New York law firm. When the company sold its cable television assets, he purchased them with the help of two investors and expanded the assets into the 11th largest cable company in the US.
He and his wife, Marguerite Lenfast, made US$1.2 billion after selling the company, Suburban Cable, to Comcast in 2000. They donated an estimated $1.1 billion, The Associated Press reported.
News Brands
Sky News expresses regret about an interview with Blair Cottrell
Outgoing Australian News Channel CEO Angelos Frangopoulos also vowed that “Blair Cottrell will not be back on the channel” after the former leader of far-right group the United Patriots Front appeared as a guest of former Northern Territory Chief Minister Adam Giles on Sunday.
After a review of the editorial processes, Sky has appointed Greg Byrnes to the newly created position of acting program director and named Kaycie Bradford as acting news director.
“We deeply regret featuring the interview on our channel. It was an error of judgment and we have taken action to ensure our standards, which we are proud of, are maintained,” said Frangopoulos in a statement.
A spokeswoman for Sky News, said: “Sky News management is currently investigating the circumstances around which Blair Cottrell appeared on the channel.”
Veteran Sky News and Sky News Business host Helen Dalley has also announced her resignation this morning, but says that this had nothing to do with Cottrell’s appearance.
Craig Emerson quits Sky News after Cottrell appearance on news channel
Giving airtime to neo-Nazi Blair Cottrell might be passed off as defending the right to free speech, but former chief minister of the Northern Territory, Adam Giles, was effusive in his praise, wrapping up the interview with: “Good luck. I hope it all goes well for you.”
A Sky anchor wishing a neo-Nazi all the best in his endeavours is yet another step in the mainstreaming of racism and bigotry in our country.
Another Sky anchor, Andrew Bolt, has used his position as a News Corp columnist to warn: “There is no ‘us’ any more, as a tidal wave of immigrants sweeps away what’s left of our national identity.”
He complains that “immigration is becoming colonisation” and criticises Jews for clustering in Melbourne’s North Caulfield, and Chinese, Vietnamese, Cambodians, Indians, Muslims and even Italians for doing the same in identified suburbs of Sydney and Melbourne.
Nine’s Hugh Marks on speaker list at Inform News Media summit
The one-day conference will be held in Sydney at the Hilton Hotel on Friday September 14.
If the merger is approved, Marks will lead one of the country’s largest media companies.
Marks will be joining other keynote speakers including Tom Goodwin – EVP of Innovation at Zenith Media – USA, and Vanessa Clifford – chief executive of Newsworks UK.
There will also be a panel of senior editors across news media, including Paul Whittaker, Tory Maguire and Brett McCarthy.
Publishing
US superstar editor and executive Joanna Coles quits Hearst Magazines
Joanna Coles, a former editor of US Cosmopolitan who was appointed one of Hearst’s highest-ranking executives in 2016, has resigned from the company. Her decision to leave ends her 12-year stint at the publisher, which she joined in 2006 as the top editor of US Marie Claire.
“Joanna is an innovator, a connector and an inspired editor,” Hearst said in a statement on Monday. “She’s made the decision to start a new adventure and we thank her for her creativity and many contributions and wish her the very best.”
Coles, who was born in Yorkshire, England, was the New York bureau chief of The Guardian and a columnist for The Times of London before going into the magazine business. She distinguished herself at two Hearst titles by expanding the role of magazine editor into a position that embraced multimedia.
Television
AFL matches on Seven/Fox Footy lead Nielsen Social Content Ratings
In the sports category, AFL filled all top five spots led by the controversial clash in Perth between West Coast and Fremantle. The Friday night clash between Richmond and Geelong, and which wasn’t decided until the final few seconds, narrowly ranks #2.
In the non-sport category, the final episode of season 10 of TEN’s MasterChef Australia was a clear leader ahead of the final episode of Seven’s House Rules. The highest ranking news program was Seven’s Sunrise.
CBS aiming to launch CBS All Access streaming by December
Speaking to media at a programming showcase in Los Angeles, the streaming platform’s president and chief operating officer Marc DeBevoise said it would launch here in the fourth quarter of the year.
The announcement today follows remarks made by CBS president Les Moonves on a phone conference call with investors two days ago.
It is still unclear whether the paid CBS All Access service would complement or replace Ten’s free tenplay catch-up streaming service.
Disney streaming service building content – from Star Wars to Nat Geo
Disney is building the streaming service as part of a make-or-break plan to address threats to its vast television business.
A live-action Star Wars series coming to the platform from Jon Favreau, the director of films like Iron Man and The Jungle Book, is expected to cost roughly $100 million for 10 episodes.
Original movies will include Timmy Failure, which has a $45 million budget and is based on the best-selling books about a comically self-confident boy detective. Tom McCarthy, the Oscar-winning Spotlight filmmaker, is directing the adaptation.
To make the Disney-branded service as robust as possible, Disney will allow a lucrative licensing deal with Netflix to expire. Starting with Captain Marvel in March, all of the films that Walt Disney Studios releases in theatres will subsequently flow to the Disney streaming platform instead of to Netflix.
Programming from National Geographic, which is part of the Fox acquisition, will probably be offered on the service.
At least nine movies are in production or advanced development, with budgets ranging from $20 million to $60 million. Disney is remaking two musicals from its animation library as live-action films: Lady and the Tramp (1955) and The Sword in the Stone (1963). Other films headed to the service include Togo, a period adventure about a sled dog, and Noelle, starring Anna Kendrick as Santa’s daughter.
Audio
David Nash moves from Triple M Cairns to Brisbane
Nash will be making the move to Brisbane from Triple M Cairns, where he has been working as announcer/operations for over two years.
He started his radio career in community radio, commentating the local AFL, before getting a paid gig as a panel operator at 96.9 Star FM in Shepparton.
Jackie O’s diet plan saw her shed 10kg, “What a sad life” says Kyle
During the KIIS FM show, Henderson revealed her very low-calorie daily intake — which begins at 5am with nothing. Henderson said her first food comes at about noon.
Henderson has been on a public weight-loss campaign after claiming on air her doctor had diagnosed her “borderline obese”. She has since lost 10kg.
While co-host Sandilands has been supportive about his friend and long-term colleague’s health kick, he did not sound impressed by the mother-of-one’s admissions yesterday.
“What a sad life,” he said.
However, Henderson was quick to shut him down. “I actually enjoy it,” she responded.
New Magazines This Week
