Starting early the full Sunrise team was back in action with Sam Armytage returning from leave to join Kochie and other colleagues at the desk. Mark Beretta was reporting from the Australian Open at Melbourne Park and weather reporter Sam Mac was sending back wonderful images from a journey to Canada.

But the big buzz around the show was a guest appearance from Will Smith who was in Australia to promote his Netflix movie Bright. Smith paraded and played with a big Sunrise crowd in Martin Place and then he played inside with the Sunrise team. It was a great program and a perfect lead-in for coverage of Day One from Melbourne Park.

Sunrise was subsequently rewarded with the biggest metro audience on Monday of 258,000 with Today on 234,000. (Today did manage bigger audiences though in both Sydney and Melbourne).

Nationally the Sunrise lead was more pronounced – its metro plus regional number was 461,000 to Today’s365,000.

Despite a cautious start to the year, the media of digital, outdoor, radio and cinema all reported record agency bookings in CY2017 while television bookings were back only 0.7%.

For the month of December, the market is back 3.0%, but it will push into positive territory and a new record high for the month once late digital bookings are received at month end.

December’s metropolitan TV market is the best performing off the back of a strong Ashes series with total ad spend up 9.7%.

SMI AU/NZ managing director Jane Ractliffe (nee Schulze) said the record calendar year result is a surprise given the strength of the 2016 market which featured large one-off advertising events such as the Federal election and Rio Olympics.

“This time last year the market was extremely cautious as there were no scheduled events in 2017 that were expected to spur advertising demand,” she said.

“But you never know what’s around the corner, and in the second half of this year we’ve seen especially strong growth from the government category due to advertising surrounding the Same Sex Marriage debate and the Queensland election, with the category providing an extra $53.6 million to the market in this period,” she said.

The retail market remains unexpectedly weak given the time of year with total spending for December so far back 7.5%. Beneath that headline number the figures show most of the weaker demand is centred in the food/alcoholic retailers market which is back 13.7% in December. In contrast, discount stores/online retail advertisers have lifted their ad spend 22.2% from December 2016.

SMI is predicting key sporting events such as the Commonwealth Games, Winter Olympics and Soccer World Cup are expected to attract unusually large ad spend.

Cookson brings over 25 years’ experience in the sector, and previously worked at OMD from 2007-12. She joins OMD from Ikon Melbourne, where she held the role of managing partner. In the new position, Cookson will join the Melbourne leadership team that includes OMD Melbourne GM Antonia Glezakos.

Aimee Buchanan, CEO of OMD Australia, said, “We are excited to have Sharon back at OMD. With the significant growth the Melbourne team has experienced, Sharon will bring an additional level of support for the team. She has extensive knowledge of the local market and I look forward to her contributing to the ongoing success of our Melbourne office.”

Cookson commented, “I’m delighted to be joining OMD, who are committed to delivering excellence across the board. I’m looking forward to working with their very talented team to add value and focus on the success of its impressive group of clients.”

Cookson commences with OMD from April 2018.

He has also expressed admiration for Hitler and claimed to have manipulated women “using violence and terror”.

Seven News director Simon Pristel said: “Seven News has reported on many meetings in the past couple of weeks held to discuss the African gang violence crisis, including governments, community leaders and police. Sunday’s meeting was newsworthy, so it was reported.”

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The Guardian has launched a global digital redesign to coincide with the launch of its new Guardian tabloid newspaper in the UK.

The mobile-first design aims to meet the needs of The Guardian’s growing digital audience across the UK, US, Australia and rest of the world.

The Guardian also this week unveiled a new masthead to be used across its print and online assets, replacing the blue and white masthead that has been used since 2005.

The digital overhaul coincides with new versions of its print products in the UK, which see the paper change from its unique Berliner format to the tabloid size.

Guardian Media Group continues to implement its three-year transformation plan with the target of Guardian News & Media breaking even at operating level by April 2019.

Guardian News & Media editor-in-chief Katharine Viner (pictured) said: “Since we announced our plans to change format seven months ago, it’s been an exhilarating period of creativity, imagination and focus, and I’m thrilled with the result: a new paper that feels bold, striking and beautiful, and still unmistakably The Guardian. It has also been a fantastic opportunity to redesign our website and apps. The new Guardian will be a space for big ideas, for debate, for clear thinking and new perspectives.

Guardian Australia editor Lenore Taylor said: “Guardian Australia readers will notice a new look to our site with a new masthead and design. Our commitment to high-quality independent journalism and to reporting important Australian stories remains the same.”

Katharine Viner also welcomed the new look print and digital editions of the newspaper in an item on The Guardian:

The masthead has a renewed strength and confidence to represent the Guardian’s place and mission in these challenging times.

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It’s clear that our industry needs assistance. If the free market is allowed to go its merry way without intervention, the local production slate is likely to look punier with each passing each year. The commercial FTA channels appear to invest in drama because they are obliged to by a quota system imposing minimum levels of production.

Given that the SVOD services are participating in and profiting from this market locally, it would be reasonable if they were also required to invest in Australian-made production. It seems clear that, if we want to preserve, protect, and, yes, nurture, our local industry – which we should, for a host of reasons – the government needs to intervene.

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Beau Ryan and Darryl “The Big Marn” Brohman will return in 2018 to host their popular segments. This season Paul “Fatty” Vautin will move into the Wide World of Sports commentary box, where he began with the Nine Network 25 years ago.

Nine’s director of sport Tom Malone said: “We are delighted we’ve been able to retain Fatty’s services in the commentary box, and that Beau and Big Marn have agreed to roles for 2018 and beyond.

“The new Footy Show will better reflect the requirements of our NRL programming in 2018, with 23 nights of Thursday Night Football. There will be a greater focus on football with a mix of entertainment that is better suited to the later timeslot.”

New NRL Footy Show executive producer Andy O’Brien said of the changes: “It’s extremely exciting to be part of the new era of such an endeared television program. We are working hard to create a show which honours the Footy Show’s rich heritage while reflecting the game and its fans in 2018 and beyond.”

Twitter has partnered with the Australian Open once again to give users a behind-the-scenes view of the tournament. The social media giant first partnered with the event in 2017.

As part of the partnership, Twitter will produce a live daily behind-the-scenes show called #AOLive. There will be two 90-minute episodes each day starting at 9:30am and 5:30pm (AEDT). It will be available for free to logged-in and logged-out users on Twitter globally via live.twitter.com/AustralianOpen and on connected devices globally through @AustralianOpen.

The official hashtag for the competition is #AusOpen, and Twitter has also created a special Australian Open emoji.

Tennis fans in Australia will also be able to catch video highlights from @7Tennis’s exclusive coverage of the grand slam. Throughout the tournament, video Tweets shared by @7Tennis will include instant and catch-up replays of on-court action at the #AusOpen, with a short pre-roll ad from sponsors including @ANZ_AU, @Blackmores, @IndustrySuper, @kiaaustralia, @LottolandAU, @MastercardAU, @Optus, @SamsungAU and @Toyota_Aus.

Twitter Australia recently released a list of players who have been tweeted about most frequently in relation to the hashtag #AusOpen this year.