Business of Media
Media companies batten down hatches as ad spending tightens
Australian media stocks are weathering a malaise in advertising spending as major players cut costs and look at acquisitions to meet growing demand for digital content, reports The Australian’s Glen Norris.
As reporting season nears its end, stocks in Nine Entertainment, Seven West Media and Southern Cross Media (SCM) are either treading water or in negative territory as consumers tighten their belts and traditional media such as free-to-air television continues to suffer.
Morningstar analysts Peter Warnes, Adrian Atkins and Ether Holloway said advertising expenditures are in a “funk” driving companies to become more cost-conscious and judicious about the value they place on content.
Market Herald ditches plans to become major publisher, doubles down on classifieds
The new management team behind the owner of the HotCopper share trading forum and classifieds site Gumtree has done a dramatic about-face, scrapping plans to become the “Financial Times of South-East Asia” and instead says it will target Carsales, Seek and real estate, reports Nine Publishing’s Sam Buckingham-Jones.
Tommy Logtenberg, the new chief executive of The Market – known as The Market Herald until this month – said the turbulence that had plagued the company for the past year was over.
Australian advertisers are staying away from Elon Musk’s X in droves
Australian advertisers have all but deserted social media platform X since it was bought by Elon Musk, with new figures showing spending dropped by more than 60 per cent over the first nine months of the year, reports The Australian’s Cameron England.
Figures sourced by The Australian from ad expenditure analysis firm Standard Media Index indicate the total agency revenue spent with X for the first nine months of the calendar year Australia-wide was a meagre $7.12m, “which represents a fall of 61.4 per cent from the same nine months last year’’ the organisation said.
“To provide context, in the same period Guideline SMI’s total ad spend for the social media sector grew 2.8 per cent.’’
News Brands
ABC clears itself of bias in Q&A program on Israel and Palestine
An investigation by the ABC’s ombudsman has cleared the public broadcaster’s Q&A program of bias, concluding the November 13 show – the target of almost 900 complaints – presented “highly polarising views” in a fair and balanced way, reports Nine Publishing’s Sam Buckingham-Jones.
Broadcast a month after the large-scale Hamas attack and Israel’s subsequent invasion of the Gaza Strip, the panel discussion, hosted by Patricia Karvelas, was controversial before it aired. There was no studio audience, and the show was pre-recorded, and there was a heavy police contingent at the ABC’s Melbourne studios.
Radio
4BC weekend host’s surprise resignation announcement
Radio royalty Spencer Howson has announced he will leave his position as weekend radio host at 4BC at the end of the year, reports News Corp’s Mikaela Mulveney.
After three years hosting the Saturday and Sunday breakfast show, Howson dropped the news Sunday on-air that his last show would be December 10.
“I have thoroughly enjoyed spending weekends with you…but it is time for me to keep moving,” he said.
“I’ve got things I need to do next year, some that I’ve done before, some I’ve never done before.”
Kyle Sandilands reveals how his and Jackie O’s $200m mega radio deal happened
It was the deal one year in the making. KIIS FM’s Kyle Sandilands and Jackie O made history this week, penning the biggest entertainment deal in Australia – in any medium – with a base salary of $200 million over 10 years, with share options and incentives – but they don’t have time to celebrate, reports News Corp’s Lisa Mayoh.
If they celebrated every win, Kyle would be ‘off his head’ constantly – and the shock jock doesn’t have time for that anymore – he’s a father now, after all.
“I’m not the celebrating type – even when we win the surveys, we don’t really go out and celebrate,” he told The Sunday Telegraph.
Adelaide radio: Will Ali be back in 2024?
Will 2024 be the year Austereo Radio Network buys Southern Cross Austereo? And what will it mean? In October ARN launched a takeover bid for its rival SCA, but is yet to seal the deal, reports News Corp’s Anna Vlach.
Sources say it isn’t likely to – this side of Christmas.
But that’s not to say the takeover won’t happen next year. If, and when, it does, ARN – by law – could only operate two stations in Adelaide.