Business of Media
Meta is said to plan significant job cuts this week
Meta plans to lay off employees this week, three people with knowledge of the situation said, adding that the job cuts were set to be the most significant at the company since it was founded in 2004, reports The New York Times’ Sheera Frenkel.
It was unclear how many people would be cut and in which departments, said the people, who declined to be identified because they were not authorized to speak publicly. The layoffs were expected by the end of the week. Meta had 87,314 employees at the end of September, up 28 percent from a year ago.
Meta has been struggling financially for months and has been increasingly clamping down on costs. The Silicon Valley company, which owns Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger, has spent billions of dollars on the emerging technology of the metaverse, an immersive online world, just as the global economy has slowed and inflation has soared.
At the same time, digital advertising — which forms the bulk of Meta’s revenue — has weakened as advertisers have pulled back, affecting many social media companies. Meta’s business has also been hurt by privacy changes that Apple enacted, which have hampered the ability of many apps to target mobile ads to users.
Twitter bans comedian Kathy Griffin for impersonating Elon Musk
Elon Musk has banned a US comedian’s Twitter account after taking on users who impersonate him on the platform, report The Guardian’s Dan Milmo and Alex Hern.
Twitter’s new owner announced an immediate ban on accounts pretending to be someone else without flagging them as parodies. The move resulted in the removal of an “Elon Musk” account held by the comedian Kathy Griffin, who had changed her account name to match that of the Tesla chief executive.
Musk tweeted: “Going forward, any Twitter handles engaging in impersonation without clearly specifying “parody” will be permanently suspended.” He added that there would be “no warning” before suspensions are imposed and that any name change would result in people losing their blue tick – which verifies who they are.
Agencies
Weber Shandwick announces promotions to its Australian team
Weber Shandwick has announced key promotions within its PR and client leadership team and introduced an integrated project manager.
Amelia Thomson and Rishu Sharma step into the role of business directors in Australia, amplifying the communications agency’s consumer, corporate and tech communications credentials.
The new roles will see Thomson and Sharma contributing to the next chapter of the agency’s growth, responsible for holding strong client relationships, producing a high calibre of strategic and ideas-led work, and leading a team that is thriving.
With almost ten years of consumer PR experience up her sleeve, Thomson will lead some of the agency’s longest-standing relationships with ServiceNow, Pinterest and Ancestry.
With over 16 years of experience delivering integrated communications campaigns across the corporate and tech category, Sharma will lead Moderna and IBM among others.
Both Thomson and Sharma joined Weber Shandwick Australia as account directors towards the end of 2021 and have become guiding forces helping to unlock the potential of the team and business.
Thump Media appoints Cian Jarver as head of digital
Thump Media has welcomed the recent hire of Cian Jarver to the newly created role of head of digital.
Cian joins Thump from Essence in Brisbane where he was digital lead, and joins at a critically important time as Thump embarks on a significant growth phase.
Prior to his time at WPP, Cian spent time at Publicis (UK) as part of the award-winning Procter & Gamble account team, as well as, Accordant in Sydney and Suncorp in Brisbane.
Cian will be leading the digital team and developing the agency’s digital offering with a focus on performance media, data-driven optimisation, attribution and measurement.
News Brands
ABC sets 2023 Upfront date
ABC will hold its 2023 Upfront on Thursday November 24, reports TV Tonight.
Unlike other broadcasters, ABC is not holding an in-person event. But ABC also does not have advertisers it needs to impress, which even SBS has to schmooze.
The good news is the event will be conducted via iview and will be open to members of the public at 2pm AEDT on November 24. A link will be available later.
Radio
Kate Ritchie reveals reason behind her ‘really hard’ career decision
Kate Ritchie has opened up about her recent decision to take a break from radio in a new interview, reports news.com.au.
The former Home And Away star, 43, announced last month she would be stepping away from Nova’s Kate, Tim and Joel Drive Show after a “hectic” year.
She told fans she had decided to take a break to allow “more time for myself and my family to re-energise”.
Her break however will only be temporary, with the star promising to return to the program in 2023.
Speaking on the latest episode of Kidspot’s The Juggling Act podcast, Ritchie confessed it had been a difficult decision to take time out to focus on herself.
“It was a really hard decision because I’ve been working since I was an eight-year-old child and I think that I thrive by having a schedule every day,” the former child star revealed.
“I am not good at just sitting with myself. I have done so many great things this year, but it was just time to have confidence in saying, ‘this is what I need’.
Television
Record sales and properties passed in: The Block’s controversial finale
If The Block producers were aiming to shake things up with this season’s “tree change”, then it was mission accomplished following Sunday night’s finale, reports Nine Publishing’s Thomas Mitchell.
After a controversial season, which was marked by accusations of racism, The Block came to a thrilling conclusion, with two properties passed in and the remaining three houses all purchased by the same eccentric millionaire.
Ultimately, best mates Omar Slaimankhel and Oz Malik were crowned winners of The Block.
The pair pocketed a record profit of $1.69 million, earning the biggest win in the show’s history after selling their home in Gisborne, country Victoria, for $5.67 million.
The eye-watering win will no doubt dominate headlines, but aside from their huge windfall, the remaining results paint a curious picture.
For one thing, all the properties that sold in last night’s finale went to one man: Melbourne-based IT entrepreneur Danny Wallis, whose net worth is reportedly $120 million.
The Block winners Omar and Oz explain how they will spend their $1.6 million in prize money
The Block’s record-breaking winners Omar and Oz have revealed how they will spend their life-changing $1.6 million in prize money, reports news.com.au.
The Sydney friends emerged as the winners of The Block’s ‘Treechange’ season, earning by far the biggest win in the show’s near-20-year history with a profit of $1,686,666.66 for their luxe home in Gisborne, country Victoria.
The longtime pals confirmed it would be evenly split, giving them both a staggering profit of more than $843,000.
And the pair told news.com.au that they would be giving some of that money away.
The Block contestant Josh Packham slams ‘unfair’ auction result
A contestant on last year’s season of The Block has slammed the show in the wake of Sunday’s chaotic finale, declaring that Nine “got it wrong” and that the competition itself is becoming “unfair”, reports News Corp’s Nick Bond.
Sunday night’s season finale was a rollercoaster ride, with the winning team scoring the biggest-ever prize in Block history – almost $1.7m – while two failed to sell, and another couple earned just $20,000 over their reserve.
Josh Packham, who came second in last year’s Block season alongside twin brother Luke, called the auction results “crazy”.
“To walk away with nothing, or close to nothing, after giving up three months of your life and working so hard … I couldn’t imagine it. Major, major condolences to those three couples,” he told his followers on Instagram overnight.
“Obviously, Channel 9 got it wrong. They were looking for too high of reserves in this current market. They should have known it was too high for what it is, in Gisborne. If you’re going to spend that much, you at least want privacy, you don’t want to see other houses, so they got that wrong too,” he said, referring to the five luxury homes’ proximity to each other on their parcels of land outside Gisborne, Victoria.