Business of Media
Facebook makes key news change in warning sign for publishers
Technology giant Meta will stop using humans to edit news on Facebook before the end of the year, telling Australian publishers it could not afford to spend large amounts of money in areas it believes users are not overly interested in, reports Nine Publishing’s Zoe Samios.
Meta’s local news partnerships boss Andy Hunter informed Australian media companies on Thursday of the company’s plans to move to automated news content, the latest sign of its ambitions to distance itself from publishers that have demanded millions of dollars for the appearance of articles on its website and its focus on keeping its users away from TikTok.
The decision will result in a change in positions for a small local team who handpicks stories for the website’s news tab. It will not affect existing multimillion-dollar deals struck with local media companies for use of their news content.
“Along with European curation deals expiring, we plan to end our in-house curation of Facebook News in Australia by the end of the year,” a Meta spokesperson said. “This update will have no impact on our commercial deals and the Facebook News product will still be accessible in Australia.”
Seb Costello spared conviction over ugly confrontation with neighbours
A Current Affair reporter Seb Costello has escaped conviction after admitting getting into an ugly confrontation with neighbours over a parked car blocking access to his garage, reports News Corp’s Miles Proust.
Appearing at the Neighbourhood Justice Centre in Collingwood on Thursday, Costello, 35, was instead placed on a diversion program and fined $750 over the verbal spat that saw his neighbours call triple-zero because they feared he would assault them.
Costello, who is the son of former federal treasurer and Nine chairman Peter Costello, had previously flagged he would contest two counts of unlawful assault over the altercation near his Richmond home on February 11.
The war of words was sparked after Costello asked his neighbours, siblings Finn and Xanthe Whittaker, to move a parked car that was blocking a laneway which led to his garage.
Costello told them he had a legal right to access the laneway before he approached them with a clenched fist and walked up the stairway entrance to their home.
Twitter may ‘halve its workforce’ as key investor backs job cuts
A leading Twitter investor has backed job cuts at the company, amid reports that new owner Elon Musk could cut about half the 7,500-strong workforce, reports The Guardian’s Dan Milmo.
Changpeng Zhao, the chief executive and founder of Binance, said “a slimmer workforce would make more sense” at the social media platform. The cryptocurrency exchange has invested $500m (£441m) in Twitter as part of Musk’s $44bn takeover, which completed last week and has been followed by a stream of changes and mooted overhauls of the company ever since.
According to the latest reports, in the Verge and on Bloomberg overnight, Musk is planning to cut about 3,800 jobs, with affected staff at the San Francisco-based company to be told as soon as Friday.
General Mills, Audi and Pfizer join growing list of companies pausing Twitter ads
Food company General Mills Inc., Oreo maker Mondelez International Inc., Pfizer Inc. and Volkswagen AG’s Audi are among a growing list of brands that have temporarily paused their Twitter advertising in the wake of the takeover of the company by Elon Musk, according to people familiar with the matter, report The Wall Street Journal’s Suzanne Vranica and Patience Haggin.
Some advertisers are concerned that Musk could scale back content moderation, which they worry would lead to an increase in objectionable content on the platform. Others are temporarily halting their ads because of the uncertainty at the company as top executives exit and Musk considers a raft of changes, some of the people said.
Kelsey Roemhildt, a spokeswoman for General Mills, whose brands include Cheerios, Bisquick and Häagen-Dazs, confirmed the company has paused Twitter ads. “As always, we will continue to monitor this new direction and evaluate our marketing spend,” she said.
A Twitter representative didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Australia reacts to TV personality Tony Armstrong’s police matter
There has been a social media explosion following TV star Tony Armstrong’s tragic announcement — with an outpouring of support sending a clear message, reports News Corp’s Tyson Otto.
It was announced on Wednesday the ABC has notified police after the popular sports presenter shared a heartbreaking racist message sent to his work email address.
Despite the situation, the proud Barranbinya man has not deleted the tweet that included a screenshot of the disgusting message. He also returned to work on ABC Mornings on Thursday without showing any sign of distress.
ABC Mornings presenter Michael Rowland wrote: “They’re out there. Sorry you have to deal with this mate”.
Activist Carly Findlay wrote: “Absolutely disgusting. I’m so sorry you received this Tony – thank you for sharing with us, to share the load. You’re so loved and respected, by far more people than these losers who think this way”.
ABC presenter Stephanie Ferrier wrote: “God, that makes my heart hurt Tony. Please know this is such an aberration and we think you & what you stand for are amazing”.
Agencies
MFA NGENers go all out for Halloween events in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne
MFA NGENers went all out in TikTok-worthy costumes and amped up their #maincharacterenergy for last week’s Halloween events in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne.
After a three-year Covid-induced absence, the three-city Halloween events were more popular than ever with close to 700 NGENers making the occasion after attending three or more NGEN workshops throughout the year for priority access to tickets.
Responding to the theme of #MainCharacterEnergy, inspired by national sponsor TikTok, partygoers dressed as water gun-wielding Men in Black, Angels and Demons, sorority sisters, several Barbies and a Ken in their boxes, a Demogorgon from Stranger Things, a tube of mustard and a bunch of (Where’s) Wallies, among other creative outfits.
Alchemy One and Tag appointed to Vialto Partners’ global account
Alchemy One and creative production house Tag have been appointed as the agency responsible for Vialto Partners’ global digital and social media initiatives.
The agencies have been engaged to deliver an integrated and streamlined end-to-end solution, connecting Vialto’s customer experiences across key aspects of campaign delivery from integrated brand strategy, social content creation, and digital activation through to advanced data analytics.
Vialto Partners is a market leader providing globally integrated solutions supporting global workforce mobility, including immigration, tax, managed services, and digital solutions.
Snack Drawer welcomes three new hires to Melbourne office
Snack Drawer has continued its talent acquisition, welcoming three new appointments for its Melbourne operation on the back of booming business.
The new hires follow the recent opening of a Sydney office and the growth in its dedicated Netflix ANZ social content team with three additional new appointments.
Joining Snack Drawer’s team are; head of content and social Steph Grapsas, supervising producer Eliza Bone and social & creator manager Reyann Khalil.
News Brands
Why Victorian voters need to care about press freedom
Later this month more than four million Victorians will be asked to decide who will lead the state for the next four years. But they may be forced to do so without knowing all the facts, reports Nine Publishing’s Annika Smethurst.
On Wednesday, the state’s anti-corruption watchdog applied for an interim injunction order against this newspaper preventing us from publishing information we think you deserve to know.
The Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission made a hurried, after-hours application for the gag order after The Age’s political reporter Paul Sakkal submitted detailed questions.
To borrow a quote from Premier Daniel Andrews, “it’s always a concern when the media is unable to publish a story they believe to be in the public interest”.
Podcasts
From drinking snake blood to dodging mafia, Peking Duk mine their wild lives for a new podcast
There aren’t many Australian bands better placed to create a podcast than Peking Duk, reports News Corp’s James Wigney.
The globetrotting, ARIA-winning duo of Ruben Styles and Adam Hyde are as well known for their hilarious banter and bringing the party wherever they go as they are for their euphoric, high-energy dance music and string of hits including High, Take Me Over, Fake Magic and Let You Down.
The pair realised that not only had they had some pretty wild adventures since their humble beginnings DJing at a Canberra cocktail bar where their one brief was to make sure nobody got up to dance (they failed and got fired) to playing Coachella five years later, they had also met some fascinating people from all around the world. Their own recollections of “hilarious random shit happening along the way”, such as drinking snake blood in Vietnam and ending up in a “spooky situation” with a Mafia boss proved to be a goldmine of material for the podcast.
Television
James Warburton: “See? If you don’t put the number out….”
Networks Seven, Nine and 10 may not be able to reach agreement over a proposal by James Warburton to halt -or pause- Overnight ratings, but in 2023 VOZ numbers will finally include BVOD (live streaming) with Overnight numbers to more immediately reflect how audiences are consuming TV, reports TV Tonight.
At the moment networks issue BVOD numbers for key shows via press releases.
OzTAM also sends a Total TV number a week after broadcast, which includes Regional viewers and 7 day time-shifted (catch up) numbers.
This week’s Melbourne Cup drew 1.024m viewers in Overnight metro viewers.
But as a 10 release noted: “1.5 million viewers nationally (includes BVOD, Metro and Regional).”
Similarly the NRL Grand Final was 1.67m metro viewers in Overnights, reported by many press as the lowest since OzTAM began.
“Phil Rothfeld in the Sunday Telegraph, wrote that the NRL Grand Final was the lowest ever,” Seven CEO James Warburton tells TV Tonight.
“He was, right, because that’s the number he saw, and he compared it to the number the year before -he was 100% right. And then Nine came out said ‘Actually, that’s not right, because we had live streaming on 9Now. And they were right too. My point to them was ‘See? If you don’t put the number out….’”