Business of Media
Nostalgia makes the heart grow fonder? Advertisers sure seem to think so
The future is uncertain. The present is complex. But the past? That’s pretty safe terrain for Super Bowl advertisers, reports The New York Times’ Lora Kelley.
This year — yet again — advertisers have reached into the cultural vaults of decades past. Several spots in Sunday’s game feature stars from, and references to, hits from the 1980s and 1990s.
“It’s just comfortable,” said Brad Adgate, a veteran media analyst. “You’re there to relax and enjoy the game and watch the ads. This type of strategy works.”
A Super Bowl ad for Michelob Ultra included a star-studded reference to Caddyshack, the 1980 comedy about mischief at a country club. In the spot, Brian Cox of the TV show Succession tees off against Serena Williams. The professional athletes Nneka Ogwumike, Jimmy Butler, Alex Morgan, Canelo Álvarez and Rickie Fowler, along with the sports commentator Tony Romo, watch and taunt the competitors.
In another plaid-forward throwback, Alicia Silverstone, who starred in the role of Cher Horowitz in the 1995 romantic comedy Clueless, wore her character’s iconic yellow suit look for Rakuten, the Japanese e-commerce giant.
“We’re tapping into that ’90s nostalgia to educate consumers about how they can shop smarter and save with Rakuten through Cher’s familiar beloved voice,” said Dana Marineau, the chief marketing officer of Rakuten. She added that the ad was geared toward millennial women.
‘Damaging’: Takeovers Panel puts market on notice over media leaks
The authority responsible for managing takeover disputes has put Australian businesses on notice, warning them against leaking confidential details of major deals to media publications, reports Nine Publishing’s Zoe Samios.
In a decision related to a dispute over the takeover of document productivity company Nitro Software, the Australian Takeovers Panel has demanded media leaks and correspondence with journalists be “eliminated”, especially in cases where transactions have not been announced.
It said the market was “on notice”, an unprecedented warning that could make it more difficult for business journalists to find out information.
“There appears to be a growing prevalence of apparent contraventions of the confidentiality and publicity restrictions,” the panel said. “We also have seen instances of leaks to the media in relation to potential transactions that have not been announced.”
“The panel considers that this type of conduct is damaging to all parties and to the reputation of our market. The panel is concerned to see the conduct eliminated. We put the market on notice that steps will be taken where there is a breach.”
Cambodia’s Leader Shuts Independent News Outlet Ahead of Election
Prime Minister Hun Sen of Cambodia has ordered the shutdown of the Voice of Democracy, one of the country’s last independent news outlets, intensifying a long-running crackdown on the news media and political opposition as he consolidates his grip on power, reports The New York Times’ Seth Mydans.
Hun Sen said he was angry at a reference to his son and presumed heir, Lt. Gen. Hun Manet, by the outlet, and was not satisfied with the apology he received.
A leading Cambodian human rights organization, Licadho, noted the significance of the action, saying the news outlet, known as VOD, “has become one of the most important independent media outlets in the country in recent years, publishing in Khmer and English.”
Voice of Democracy’s radio arm was shut down in 2017, and it was one of dozens of frequencies taken off the air in a broad sweep before the country’s 2018 elections. Since then it has published online and on Facebook, where it has 1.8 million followers.
As ChatGPT’s popularity explodes, U.S. lawmakers take an interest
ChatGPT, a fast-growing artificial intelligence program, has drawn praise for its ability to write answers quickly to a wide range of queries, and attracted U.S. lawmakers’ attention with questions about its impact on national security and education, reports Reuters’ Diane Bartz.
See Also: The nuts and bolts: What is ChatGPT and will it take our jobs?
ChatGPT was estimated to have reached 100 million monthly active users just two months after launch, making it the fastest-growing consumer application in history, and a growing target for regulation.
It was created by OpenAI, a private company backed by Microsoft Corp, and made available to the public for free. Its ubiquity has generated fear that generative AI such as ChatGPT could be used to spread disinformation, while educators worry it will be used by students to cheat.
Representative Ted Lieu, a Democrat on the House of Representatives Science Committee, said in a recent opinion piece in the New York Times that he was excited about AI and the “incredible ways it will continue to advance society,” but also “freaked out by A.I., specifically A.I. that is left unchecked and unregulated.”
Lieu introduced a resolution written by ChatGPT that said Congress should focus on AI “to ensure that the development and deployment of AI is done in a way that is safe, ethical, and respects the rights and privacy of all Americans, and that the benefits of AI are widely distributed and the risks are minimized.”
News Brands
Nine issues statement after Logan Paul, KSI stunt leaves teen in Sydney hospital
A teenager has been hospitalised and multiple people injured at Logan Paul and KSI’s appearance at Channel Nine, but the television network has downplayed the incident, claiming “we experienced no issues with crowd behaviour,” report News Corp’s Tamaryn McGregor and Madeleine Bower.
A 14-year-old boy caught up in the large crowd suffered a fall and was transported to Sydney Children’s Hospital. He is reported to be in a stable condition on Monday afternoon.
NSW Ambulance confirmed the call for the boy came through at 8:30am, with paramedics arriving on the scene to find others in need of treatment.
A security guard monitoring the crowd of thousands outside the Denison Street building was thrown to the floor after getting caught behind the cement barricade separating him and fans and later treated by paramedics.
After being informed the social media stars would address fans and give out free samples of their Prime Energy drink from the ground level, rather than the balcony above, fans overcome with excitement pushed and shoved their way to the stone barricade, knocking it over.
“We want to thank NSW Police for making sure everyone arrived and left the scene safely, and to the Nine security team for ensuring the crowd knew what was happening throughout the morning,” Director of Morning Television at Nine Steve Burling said, claiming the crowd behaved well.
“Many fans camped out overnight – they were passionate, excited and we experienced no issues with crowd behaviour.”
ABC websites hit by outage
ABC websites crashed, going offline after 5:30pm AEDT, reports TV Tonight.
The outage appears to be affecting all of ABC’s online sites including ABC News, television, radio and iview.
The issue is understood to be due an external technical problem, but not clear if they are contained to certain areas or nationwide.
An ABC spokesperson told TV Tonight, “The ABC is aware of an issue impacting our digital products. We apologise for any inconvenience and are working to return our services to normal as soon as possible.”
Linear TV broadcasts are not affected.
Publishing
Regional community newspapers grow, bucking industry trends of closures and job loss
Rumours of the death of regional news have been greatly exaggerated, according to Lucie Peart, reports the ABC’s Olivia Ralph.
As managing director of Gilgandra Newspapers, Peart is set to launch the group’s fifth masthead in western NSW next month and is not the only one on the hunt for staff.
“We’re trying to hire three positions … I think when I put my job [ads] up there might have been 200 other jobs with the title ‘journalist’,” she said.
“There are lots of jobs for journalists out there at the moment, which is great for our industry, but it just means that our resources are so stretched.”
The media industry has been in a state of flux for much of the last decade.
From mass redundancies across legacy newsrooms to the announcement just last week that News Corp would be axing one in 20 staff at its Australian newspapers, the general feeling has been that news, especially in print, would go the way of the dodo.
But the headlines have been masking a parallel trend. While bigger companies closed up regional newsrooms or shifted to digital-only editions, local, community-owned news outlets have seen a small revival.
“Where print editions disappeared, towns have reached out to us as local publishers and said: We want you to come to our town,” Peart said.
Television
Why Jacinta Price ended her ABC 7.30 boycott
It was something of a shock to see Indigenous Liberal Senator Jacinta Price turn up with Sarah Ferguson on 7.30 on the ABC last Monday night, given her outspoken views on the public broadcaster, reports The Australian’s Nick Tabakoff.
Price’s appearance came just days after she launched stinging criticism of the ABC for its much-discussed coverage of a supposed “white supremacy” meeting in Alice Springs.
Price had taken several potshots at Aunty – both on social media and on TV – in the lead-up to the Ferguson interview, calling for “a complete investigation” of what she claimed was “left wing bias”.
She later went on Sky to claim that in its reports about the Alice Springs meeting, the ABC “had 3000 people to choose from and they chose to listen to the voices of three bleeding hearts”.
She also told Sky of the ABC’s coverage of Alice Springs: “They don’t care for the kids on the streets.”
So was Price’s appearance on 7.30 last Monday an attempted square-up by the ABC, in the wake of its apology days earlier that its coverage of the meeting didn’t contain enough voices?
Both the Price camp and the ABC say that this wasn’t the case.