News Brands
Winners and losers emerge as News Corp’s major restructure takes shape
The News Corp Australia executive who oversaw the company’s partnerships with major technology firms is set to be one of the biggest winners as the media group finalises plans for its most significant restructure in a decade, reports Nine Publishing’s Max Mason.
The shake-up, revealed by The Australian Financial Review last month, will involve News Corp Australia shifting three divisions with separate balance sheets.
Twelve women, NDAs: Nine Entertainment in crisis amid Darren Wick allegations
More than a dozen former and current TV journalists from the Nine Network have alleged verbal or physical misconduct by the company’s former long-serving news boss, Darren Wick, as the media giant struggles to limit the reputational damage it has incurred as a result of the shocking harassment revelations, report The Australian’s Sophie Elsworth and James Madden.
The deepening of the scandal will be the subject of urgent discussions at Nine’s next board meeting, due in coming days, with several current staff considering making a formal request for the company to conduct an internal investigation into the matter.
Seven West news boss Anthony De Ceglie urges staff to ignore the TV ratings
Seven West Media news boss Anthony De Ceglie has surprised staff just one month into his new job by telling the company’s journalists to stop worrying about the traditional ratings war with rival Nine, and instead focus on taking risks, reports The Australian’s Sophie Elsworth.
Speaking to staff last week at Seven’s first national town hall meeting since he was appointed to the new executive role as the director of news and current affairs, he urged them to move away from the “status quo”.
“I think one of the big things I’ve noticed already is an almost paranoia about trying something different because it’s too risky or we might lose the ratings war with Nine,” he said in leaked details from the staff meeting, obtained by The Australian.
See Also: Anthony de Ceglie’s ‘dream’ is a ‘unified’ Seven and new audiences
Business of Media
The Block NZ was cancelled, then more than 200 journalists lost their jobs. A media crisis is coming
On both sides of the Tasman, there are massive shifts on the horizon in the news and production industries, with a raft of closures and cancellations already hitting in New Zealand and mystery surrounding the next moves of one of the world’s biggest media empires, reports the ABC’s Emily Clark.
In a sign of just how tough things are in Aotearoa, The Block NZ has been cancelled ahead of its upcoming season and the pre-renovation, unfinished properties put on the market.
It’s telling that even a reality show that delivers the audience a play-by-play drama of people competing to win at housing cannot survive.
Netflix to face court action over redundancy of maternity leave employee
A senior Netflix marketing officer who previously worked at tech darling Canva has launched court action against the streaming giant after her role was made redundant while on maternity leave, reports The Australian’s Angelica Snowden.
Film and series marketing manager for Australia and New Zealand, Vanessa Hughes, lodged a breach of general protections dispute against her employer, Netflix Australia Pty Ltd, in the Federal Court.
See Also: ‘Greedy’ and ‘shitty’: Adland urged to stop making parental leave redundancies
Elon Musk’s X accountable for hate speech posts in Australia: ruling
Elon Musk has suffered a legal defeat in Australia after his social media company X argued it should not be subject to local anti-discrimination laws, reports Nine Publishing’s Alex Mitchell.
The Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal ruled X, formerly known as Twitter, has to answer to the state’s laws despite being based in the United States.
The Australian Muslim rights group behind the complaint hailed the ruling as “precedent-setting”, saying it ensures social media companies must be held accountable for locally accessible content that breaches hate speech laws.
How BBC’s breaking news alerts are giving voters – and political parties – an electoral buzz
The most powerful person in British media during this election, in terms of having the most direct access to voters, is no longer the editor of BBC’s News at Six or the person who chooses the headlines on Radio 2, reports The Guardian’s Jim Waterson.
Nor are they a newspaper editor, a TikTok influencer, or a podcaster. Instead, they’re the anonymous on-shift editor of the BBC News app, making snap judgments on whether to make the phones of millions of Britons buzz with a breaking news push alert.
Television
Axed: But what about that Gladiators prize?
Blind Freddy knew Gladiators would not be returning to 10, plummeting in viewing in its second episode from a substantial summer audience of 395,000 metro viewers for its premiere, to only 196,000 for the second episode, reports TV Tonight.
It soon became one of those shows on TV’s “no decision” network lists.
Fast-forward 4 months later and we have clarity that it will not be returning.
Documentary filmmaker Morgan Spurlock, known for Super Size Me, dies at 53
Documentary filmmaker Morgan Spurlock, an Oscar nominee whose most famous works skewered America’s food industry and who notably ate only at McDonald’s for a month to illustrate the dangers of a fast-food diet, has died. He was 53, reports AP’s Mark Kennedy.
Spurlock died on Thursday (US time) in New York from complications of cancer, according to a statement issued by his family.
Larry Emdur reveals why he has survived so long in TV industry
He’s the most successful and enduring TV host in the business but Larry Emdur insists it’s more “arse than class”, reports News Corp’s Cydonee Mardon.
“I’m TV’s most axed guy really, I say ‘yes’ to everything. I feel like I have gone from one disaster to the next, had more ‘worst’ shows than anyone but I’m still here,” said Emdur who hosts Channel 7’s The Morning Show alongside Kylie Gillies, and The Chase Australia.
He puts his success down to being grateful for every opportunity, being nice along the way, and to his side hustles – which he admits for a lot of years has been his TV work.