One of Australia’s biggest-selling and best-known magazines had a birthday this week. Bauer Media’s Woman’s Day has turned 70. The magazine celebrated by taking readers into its archives …and a cash giveaway! It’s a good news story in the sector when the headlines often surround closures or staff exits. To talk about magazines and their place in the market is the commercial director of Australia’s biggest magazine publisher, Bauer’s Paul Gardiner.

Mercado & Manning: Mediaweek TV – Seven in 2019

Andrew Mercado and James Manning discuss the Seven Allfronts event and talk about the new 7Food Network Channel and the programming schedule for 2019. Andrew talks about the dramas Between Two Worlds and Ms Fisher while James is initially confused about Secret Bridesmaids’ Business. The two TV writers also discuss one of their top picks of the year – Bodyguard.

Listen here.

Mercado & Manning: Mediaweek TV – 10 in 2019

By James Manning

PodcastOne Australia releases SME Experts with Craig West

Owning your own business is a lot of work, with many owners feeling they only have time to work in their business, rather than on it. As a result, passion, productivity and sales often deteriorate, and owners can quickly become burnt out.

Mentored is the brainchild of founder Mark Bouris, who hosts the original PodcastOne series, The Mentor.

“Ongoing education is imperative to the successful management and growth of a business,” said host Craig West.

“There is an overabundance of information out there, which can be highly overwhelming for people.

“This podcast is designed to present time-poor business owners with the clear facts they need to make smart choices about the structure and direction of their business.”

Mark Bouris said:

“Craig has an incredible business acumen and loads of experience. He is a consummate professional and someone I not only trust to run my own business, Mentored, but to lead and inspire our clients and podcast listeners to achieve their goals.”

The first six episodes of SME Experts focus on Valuation, Cyber Risk, Estate Planning, Legal Framework, Self-Managed Super Funds and Asset Protection.

West, who has written four critically acclaimed books on employee incentives, succession planning, asset protection and exit strategies, is passionate about helping SME owners succeed and reduce stress.

“This information is absolutely fundamental for all business owners and it doesn’t need to be overly complex,” he said.

“We have pared things back and cut through a lot of the confusing jargon, and the podcast medium allows business owners to educate themselves on the run, for free, whenever it suits them.”

Mark Bouris said the new podcast SME Experts is a valuable resource for current and aspiring business owners. “I cannot recommend it more highly,” he says.

All episodes of SME Experts are supported by a complete set of resources available at mentored.com.au.

Listen to SME Experts here.

OMD partners with podcasters to research audience & opportunities

OMD has partnered with ARN, Macquarie Media, Mamamia, Nova Entertainment, Southern Cross Austereo and Whooshkaa to commission a research study to understand the state of podcasting in Australia.

OMD conducted online interviews with more than 4,000 Australians.

From podcast usage and habits to the most effective types of podcast advertising, the study delivers an understanding of the podcast audience and the realm of opportunities in this unique medium.

OMD’s research uncovered that 3.8 million Australian adults have listened to a podcast in the last three months. That’s just over one in five people engaging with the medium, providing the scale that brands are looking for.

OMD, in collaboration with ARN, Macquarie Media, Mamamia, Nova Entertainment, Southern Cross Austereo and Whooshkaa, is exclusively presenting OMD’s Soundscape: The State of Podcasting in Australia, 2018 research to clients in Sydney and Melbourne in November, followed by Brisbane in the new year.

Read more at mediaweek.com.au

Fairfax My Small Business section recommends The Mentor

Fairfax Media’s My Small Business section this week highlighted 10 podcasts it recommends for entrepreneurs:

Coffee Pods with Holly Ransom
TWISTA – This Week in Startups Australia with Mark Pesce
That Startup Show with writer Benjamin Law and Junkee Media editor Rae Johnston
Scaleup from Victorian Government’s LaunchVic
Your Dream Life – new from Kikki K founder Kristina Karlsson
The Osher Günsberg Podcast
Hot Copy – copywriters Kate Toon and Belinda Weaver on freelancing, branding and communications
The Mentor with Mark Bouris
Small Business Big Marketing with entrepreneur and marketing veteran Tim Reid
Indigipreneur – Dean Foley hosts the program from indigenous business accelerator Barayamal

Dead Wrong podcast: How it got cold case reopened

The office of Queensland’s Attorney-General spent two months considering nearly 100 pages of documents, transcripts and forensic advice compiled by newspaper reporters before a decision was made to hold a new inquest into the death of scientist Jeffrey Brooks, reported Kate Kyriacou in The Courier-Mail this week.

The formal submissions, made by prominent criminal lawyer Peter Boyce on behalf of Brooks’s parents, summarised a year-long investigation into the shooting death of the 24-year-old.

Brooks, an aquaculturist employed at the Beenleigh Crayfish Farm, was found dead in a work vehicle in 1996 from a shotgun wound to his chest.

Police determined he had shot himself by accident pulling an old, loaded shotgun from the car towards his body.

Throughout the year-long investigation, The Courier-Mail, which told Brooks’s story through the podcast series Dead Wrong, conducted ballistics tests and consulted with forensic pathologists.

Attempts to recreate the angle of the wound in Brooks’s chest proved impossible and an international expert in gunshot wounds was highly critical of the police theory.

[Read the original]

Listen to Dead Wrong here.

The Best Podcasts For Falling Asleep

Not all podcasters would want their titles to fall into this category!

Lifehacker publishes a feature this week it said to file under insomnia:

Now that every person on earth has a podcast, you can find one for any topic or need – in fact you can pick your favourite from a whole roster. Say you need a podcast that’s interesting enough to stop your mind from spinning into late-night anxiety, quiet enough to calm you in bed, and boring enough that you don’t stay up an extra hour waiting for the end. We looked at some of the most-recommended podcasts for falling asleep, chose the best, and added several of our own favourites.

See Lifehacker’s most interesting and most boring lists here.

Connolly now also has responsibility for other Bauer Media Australia titles NW and OK! magazines. Collectively those titles make up Bauer Media’s Women’s Celebrity Entertainment category as Bauer centralises editorial to maximise efficiencies.

Despite the extra duties, Connolly told Mediaweek the emphasis remains on her Woman’s Day duties. “There is no question that has to be my focus, but it has been great to be able to pass on some of the learnings I’ve had to the team at NW and OK!.”

Connolly said the centralised team makes perfect sense, “particularly in terms of picture buying and repurposing content opportunities. It is also good to be able to position all three in the marketplace to make sure we are not eating each other alive. We want to make sure we complement each other in everything from storylines to photos.

“Bauer wants to make sure we speak to as many readers across the category as we can.”

Going through the archives for the 70th anniversary edition of Woman’s Day this week gave Connolly and the team time to reflect on the brand today and what made it a companion for many Australian women over the decades.

“An anniversary like this makes you have a think about where you have been and where you are going,” said Connolly. “The biggest impact for me was a reminder of the real life stories published over the decades. I realised just how many Australian women we have spoken to and who have filled the pages of the magazines.

“They have been such a part of this iconic brand and how blessed and lucky we have been to have them in there. It made me realise we definitely need to continue that tradition and focus on continuing to search for those incredibly inspiring women into our next decade.”

In seven decades many of the editorial highlights remain constant. “Woman’s Day has always been about variety. It wouldn’t have been such a successful brand for so many years if it hadn’t provided that breadth of content over the years. It is a model that is unique to Australia. There are niche celebrity titles in the US and the UK, but there are very few that combine everything from celebrity to real life to puzzles and lifestyle.

“Within that lifestyle category there are so many pillars from food to homes, pets, fashion and food.”

There have been some casualties along the way though. “We certainly don’t do as much knitting these days,” said Connolly. “You won’t find many patterns or embroidery either unless it is a special occasion, like a royal baby and we cover knitting baby clothes.”

There has been a stronger focus on celebrities in some decades, noted Connolly. “That was the case particularly when Nene King was in charge of the title.”

After her five years editing News Corp’s Confidential brand before joining Bauer, there are few better schooled in the public appetite for celebrity than Connolly.

Nene King used to make sure readers got plenty of the British Royal Family too, although Connolly reckons this year in particular there have been more royals perhaps than ever before.

As to how good the royals have been this year, Connolly said: “The British royal family has been more of a gift than you can imagine. We could not have asked for more – two weddings in the past few months, babies and then the tours. We have been very lucky.”

Celebrities in the spotlight now often engage with the title too. Some more forcefully than others – from Rebel Wilson to more recent feedback from Karl Stefanovic and Jackie O.

Although the readership and circulation figures are well down from the glory days (Australian publishers no longer reveal circulation data), Connolly said she is very confident about the future of the print edition. “I’d like to think the lights would never go out. Largely because of the variety I speak of, there remains a strong desire for many women to escape through the pages of the magazine in a way they can’t in electronic form.

“I am always on the lookout for people engaging with our brand and I see it everywhere from on aeroplanes to beaches in the summer. Readers enjoy the escape from their daily routines, which is something that can be best delivered in print.”

While readership of many magazines is stronger with older readers, Connolly has been doing much work with her titles about attracting younger readers to the brands. “We look at shifting readers from one title to another as they move through their life stages and that is one of the reasons we created the category.

“Woman’s Day has been historically read across different generations of Australian women and is handed down from one to the other.

“We have been holding some really heartwarming focus groups around the country including regional areas.

“One of the familiar phrases I was hearing was that ‘I always buy Woman’s Day because my mum did and it reminds me of my mum’. Some copies of Woman’s Day can be read by three generations of Australian woman. That gives us a good starting point to connect with a younger generation and bring them through the decades.”

For the future, Connolly will examine the results of the focus groups with a view to implementing some of the ideas. “It would be foolish for me to think because I have been editing this magazine for so long that the readers’ needs haven’t changed.

“I really look forward to regular check-ins with readers and they are very important to me. We got some great food for thought about how we could provide them with more of what they love.”

Some of those changes could be implemented early next year. Everything is up for review – from content like food trends through to more practical things like the size of the magazine.

—

Top Photo:  Fiona Connolly

First quarter 2019 highlights

• Revenues of US$2.52 billion, a 23% increase compared to $2.06 billion in the prior year, reflecting the consolidation of Foxtel and continued strength at the Digital Real Estate Services and Book Publishing segments
• Net income was $128 million compared to $87 million in the prior year
• Total Segment EBITDA was $358 million compared to $248 million in the prior year
• Strong paid digital subscriber growth at The Wall Street Journal, The Times and Sunday Times and The Australian with digital subscribers accounting for more than half of total subscriber base.

Commenting on the financial results for the three months ended September 30, 2018, chief executive Robert Thomson said:

“In the first quarter, our growth in revenue and earnings reaffirmed our strategy to focus on digital development, and to put particular emphasis on subscriptions as the advertising market continues to evolve.

“Reported revenues grew 23% to $2.5 billion for the quarter, while profits rose 44% to $358 million. These numbers are noteworthy as, even excluding the Foxtel consolidation, we achieved tangible increases over the same period last year across many of our segments.

“Digital Real Estate Services continued to post strong operational gains, and we took an important strategic step forward with the acquisition of Opcity, which deepens the quality of our engagement with realtors and homebuyers.

“Our News and Information Services segment showed progress, with digital paid subscriptions rising at many of our mastheads. Dow Jones (DJ) is well advanced in its digital transformation, with nearly 65% of The Wall Street Journal subscribers digital-only. That growth is complemented by the Professional Information Business, which allows us to sell higher value-added products across the WSJ subscriber base.

“HarperCollins again demonstrated that unique, compelling content can be monetised successfully across different platforms and markets, posting another quarter of robust profit growth.

“We are enhancing the new Foxtel, having already launched a dedicated Fox Cricket channel, begun the rollout of 4K, and done advanced work on a sports-only IP offering. The Foxtel leadership team has also been transformed in recent months.”

Read more here.

By James Manning

Seven

Home And Away has held above 600,000 for the third consecutive night this week.

Bride & Prejudice – The Forbidden Weddings has not been quite as consistent. It soared from 629,000 on Monday to 744,000 on Tuesday, but the numbers slipped last night, down to 583,000 up against The Bachelorette.

At 8.30pm the drama 9-1-1 did 455,000 after 492,000 last week.

Nine

Stress-testing luggage got our attention on A Current Affair last night in addition to good work from ACA tracking down a Red Rooster rorter. The midweek episode did 780,000, which is the best audience this week.

An hour of Young Sheldon then did 580,000 for the new episode and 501,000 for the repeat.

Manifest did 371,000 after 345,000 a week ago.

The Nine programmers then had a laugh scheduling World’s Worst Flights, but there was a change of mind with Ghostbusters II taking the slot with 114,000 watching.

TEN

Steve Price forecast how long Mark Latham might last in One Nation and then a Pub Choir closed last night’s episode of The Project. The Wednesday episode was on 475,000, which is close to where each night has traded this week.

The Bachelorette won the commercial hour with 601,000 after 537,000 a week ago.

The final episode of the Australian drama Playing For Keeps then did 402,000. The series launched in early September on 575,000.

ABC

Hard Quiz continues to rate strongly with 776,000 its best this year after 679,000 last week.

Shaun Micallef’s Mad As Hell was also up significantly this week with 745,000 after 669,000 last week.

The second week of Tomorrow Night did 567,000 after launching with 582,000.

The new music show The Set did 179,000 after launching with 202,000.

SBS

Great British Railway Journeys had the biggest audience with 268,000.

The repeat of DNA Nation then did 172,000 with Food Safari Water on 182,000.