Business of Media
Lisa Wilkinson warned over Brittany Higgins speech at Logies
Lisa Wilkinson was warned four days before the Logies she could set back the trial of the man accused of raping former Liberal staffer Brittany Higgins by speaking at the TV awards night and generating extra publicity over the case, the ACT Supreme Court has heard, report News Corp’s Sarah Ison and Emily Kowal.
The court delayed the matter indefinitely on Tuesday, with Supreme Court Chief Justice Lucy McCallum saying Wilkinson had not heeded the advice and “openly referred to and praised the complainant in the present trial” in her acceptance speech.
Justice McCallum warned the significant publicity had now “obliterated” the distinction between an allegation and a finding of guilt. The ACT Chief Justice also said that she made the judgment to delay the trial “regrettably and with gritted teeth”, noting the “corrosive effect” a delay would have on the course of justice.
Leaked emails reveal fears of ‘destructive spiral’ at Judith Neilson Institute
The executive director of Australia’s biggest philanthropic journalism fund has engaged lawyers in a dispute over his ongoing employment as the abrupt resignation of four independent directors from the organisation’s board reverberates across the media industry, reports SMH’s Zoe Samios.
Leaked emails obtained by The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age underscore the simmering tensions atop the Judith Neilson Institute, the nonprofit journalism organisation set up by billionaire Judith Neilson in 2018.
In one of the emails, Mark Ryan, a former adviser to Paul Keating and the Lowy family who has run the Institute since 2018, urged members of an international advisory council to sign and endorse a letter to Neilson expressing serious concerns about the organisation’s future.
“Those I spoke to late last week felt it was worth appealing to the patron before events spiralled out of control. Unfortunately, that ship has well and truly sailed,” Ryan says in the email.
Naomi Osaka launching media company with LeBron James and Maverick Carter’s SpringHill
Tennis superstar Naomi Osaka is getting into the entertainment business, launching a media company in partnership with LeBron James and Maverick Carter’s SpringHill Company, reports The Hollywood Reporter’s Alex Weprin.
Osaka and her longtime agent and business partner Stuart Duguid are behind the production banner, which is called Hana Kuma. Osaka and Duguid also launched their own athlete representation banner in May.
Hana Kuma (hana means “flower” and kuma means “bear” in Japanese) “will produce stories that are culturally specific but universal to all audiences; playful and bold in its approach to tackle important issues of society,” the company says.
Universal Music Australia — update on major shake-up at top Sydney record label
Industry speculation has ramped-up after Universal Music Australia boss George Ash called his executive team into an emergency meeting at 5pm Monday, reports News Corp’s Jonathon Moran.
It came days after Confidential detailed a potential major-shake up at one of the three top record labels in Australia.
On Monday, Ash used the platform to play down talk of changes at the label, which oversees the careers of artists including Dean Lewis, Tame Impala, Troye Sivan, Hilltop Hoods, and Vera Blue.
Earlier this month, Confidential reported that industry chatter was in overdrive over the internal structures at Universal Music Australia, which comes months after Sony Music Australia boss Denis Handlin was ousted from his post.
Agencies
Dentsu unites its creative brands under one global full-service agency
Dentsu has revealed it has restructured its creative brands and consolidated them into one global full-service creative agency, Dentsu Creative.
The announcement was made by Dentsu global CEO, Wendy Clark, and global chief creative officer, Fred Levron at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity.
The launch of Dentsu Creative is part of the plan to break down silos and inefficiencies and simplify client engagement, and provide modern and creative solutions to answers clients’ needs.
Dentsu Creative brings together assets such as dentsuMcGarry Bowen, Isobar and 360i, from all over the world under one brand.
In the Australia and New Zealand region, BWMdentsu, dentsuMB, Isobar, Haystac, and Cox Inall will come under the new brand network name and will be led by CEO of Dentsu Creative ANZ, Kirsty Muddle.
News Brands
Why CNN is shifting tenor from partisanship news to a political center
CNN has long claimed to be “the most trusted name in news” but its recent history has seen the rolling US cable news channel court controversy with a shift to the left as the rise of Donald Trump roiled American politics, reports The Guardian’s Edward Helmore.
But now the channel – under its newly installed chief executive, Chris Licht – is undergoing another rapid change, seeking to row away from some of its well-known anchors’ political partisanship and back to a more nuts-and-bolts approach to journalism.
According to a swath of US media reports, CNN has entered high gear in a reformist effort to phase out overt political partisanship, reduce the frequency of “breaking news” alerts, dissuade non-primetime anchors from airing their views, and broadly to avoid presenting the extremes of political thought of either side, left or right.
Fox News parent must face defamation lawsuit over election coverage
A Delaware judge on Tuesday rejected a motion by the parent of Fox News Network to dismiss Dominion Voting Systems Inc’s $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit over the network’s 2020 presidential election coverage, reports Reuters’ Jonathan Stempel.
Delaware Superior Court Judge Eric Davis, who last December said Dominion could sue Fox News Network, said the voting machine company can also sue Fox Corp on a theory it was directly liable for statements on the network.
Fox Corp did not immediately respond to requests for comment. In a statement, Dominion said: “We are pleased to see this process moving forward to hold Fox accountable.”
Podcasting
Barack and Michelle Obama strike deal with Amazon’s Audible
The media company of Barack and Michelle Obama struck an exclusive podcasting deal with Amazon.com Inc.’s Audible, a move that comes shortly after a similar agreement with Spotify Technology wasn’t extended, reports the Wall Street Journal’s Jeffrey A. Trachtenberg.
As a result of the deal, Audible will have exclusive first-look rights to all podcasts created by Higher Ground, the production company that the Obamas created in 2018. Financial terms of the multiyear agreement weren’t disclosed, nor were details about programming or how many podcasts the deal might include.
The deal is significant for Audible, which began as an audiobook company but has expanded into podcasts and other areas of audio entertainment. Its celebrity podcasts include My Body, My Podcast, which focuses on sex education and was created by actress Elizabeth Banks; and a podcast from actress Cate Blanchett and entrepreneur Danny Kennedy called Climate of Change which examines the changing environment.
Television
The Block crisis as teams quit & no tradies
In classic The Block fashion, this latest Tree Change season of the hit renovation show is promising to be the biggest and most dramatic yet; but, this time, it might not be too far off, reports News Corp’s Georgina Noack.
Not only is the show going bush, shipping out of metro Melbourne to 10-acre blocks in regional Victoria, but it has been embroiled in scandal for months – which has become pretty stock-standard practice for The Block in recent years, to many diehard fans’ dismay.
Its 18th season of The Block has once again upped the ante, but there are fears the homes may not make it to the final auction due to snowballing drama – pandemic supply-chain issues, tradie shortages, and a contestants quitting production (for real this time).
TV’s golden boy Tony Armstrong addresses Bachelor whispers
TV’s man of the moment right now is ABC News Breakfast’s Tony Armstrong and after winning the Best New Talent Logie and charming the room and red carpet at TV’s night of Nights, is now on the radar of every TV executive in the country, reports News Corp’s Fiona Byrne.
There is no doubt rival networks will be keen to sound him out with new opportunities and that leads to the question of whether his long-term future be at the ABC or elsewhere.
Armstrong addressed the overhyped rumour that he had been in the running to be The Bachelor this year, revealing he had never been asked or had a discussion about the reality TV role.
“They (Channel 10/Bachelor producers) might have got onto my management but it never got to me,” he said.
“I get anxiety just walking down here (the Logies red carpet) so I can’t imagine dating on TV.”