Business of Media
Australian creative Mark Green is taking the top job at global firm Droga5
After nearly two decades running The Monkeys, Mark Green has been tapped to move to New York and take over as chief executive of Droga5, the global agency founded by fellow Australian ad man David Droga. Green starts in October, and is moving with his partner, two teenage children and a dog, reports The AFR’s Sam Buckingham-Jones.
Founded in 2006 as Three Drunk Monkeys by Mark Green, Justin Drape and Scott Nowell, the agency later renamed The Monkeys has created some of the most memorable advertising campaigns for the country’s biggest corporate clients over almost two decades – Qantas, the Sydney Opera House, Tourism Australia, Foxtel, Airbnb, Telstra, Diageo and IKEA. Even the Pacific island nation of Tuvalu has been a client.
In 2017, the agency sold for $63 million to consulting firm Accenture, which added it into its Accenture Interactive (later Accenture Song) division. The Monkeys has about 160 people in Sydney, Melbourne and Auckland.
See also:
Mark Green appointed global CEO of Droga5
‘What a ride and privilege’: Mark Green reflects on his time at The Monkeys after being named Droga5 global CEO
Mark Green confirmed the process for his replacement as Accenture Song lead across Australia and New Zealand was underway with an announcement “in due course”, reports The Australian’s Danielle Long.
“I am happy to hand it to someone to bring in some fresh ideas and some energy. I feel like I am leaving it in as good shape as possible.”
The Monkeys managing director Matthew Michael, who is also MD of Accenture Song will continue in his roles.
“Matt will continue to lead the marketing capability within Song and The Monkeys report in to him and he’ll continue to head that up and to drive both Song and The Monkeys in the transition to Droga5.”
News Brands
End of an era: Terry McCrann remembers highlights of 46 years in journalism
This is it. My final regular column, writes News Corp syndicated columnist Terry McCrann.
It completes a journey that I embarked on 46 years ago, when in 1978 I first started writing a daily business and economic commentary column. And I continued, writing, for most of that time, six columns a week, unbroken since.
Albeit, with along the way, some time off for good – or indeed, bad – behaviour. So, I guess I’ve totted up somewhere north of 12,000 in total.
For nine years, I was writing first in Melbourne’s The Age newspaper and then also in its sister paper The Sydney Morning Herald.
And for the last 37 years it’s been in Melbourne’s The Herald, its subsequent incarnation as The Herald Sun, along with The Weekend Australian, The Telegraph in Sydney, Brisbane’s The Courier-Mail and The Adelaide Advertiser.
It’s been a rollicking ride. For you and me both. Although, I’ve had the time-honoured journalist ‘privilege’ of ‘power without responsibility’.
My fuller journalism journey has actually been 54 years, starting in 1970, at Melbourne’s Sun-News Pictorial. I was hired by the legendary Harry Gordon. And most recently I worked with the equally legendary Peter Blunden.
Seven tells court 13 women have claims about newsman Robert Ovadia
The Seven Network has told a court 13 women have come forward with evidence about its former high-profile crime reporter Robert Ovadia since his dismissal last month allegedly sending inappropriate images to two colleagues, reports The AFR’s Sam Buckingham-Jones.
Ovadia, a 24-year veteran of the network, was stood down and went on leave in June after allegations were raised against him. He was sacked weeks later.
After taking his case to the Fair Work Commission, and following a failed attempt at mediation on a video call, Ovadia launched legal action against Seven and its news and current affairs director, Anthony De Ceglie.
A Federal Court in Sydney on Thursday morning heard that Mr Ovadia, 51, had filed two claims against Seven.
He has argued Seven breached the terms of his contract and had no basis for terminating him, and also claims De Ceglie intentionally made statements “calculated to demean, offend and injure” him.
Former ABC star newsreader Jan Deane has died at the age of 70
A former ABC newsreader has been remembered as an “incredible journalist” after news of her death broke, reports News Corp’s Clareese Packer.
Jan Deane, who worked as a journalist across Victoria for 20 years, has died at the age of 70.
Deane was a regional radio host at 3SR before moving to work at Shepparton, Bendigo, Ballarat and Melbourne as an ABC newsreader and journalist.
Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan shared the tragic news on social media late Wednesday night. “You may not know her name, but so many of us in regional Victoria would instantly recognise the voice of Jan Deane,” Allan wrote on social media.
“Jan was an incredible journalist — a Shepparton girl who I first met when she was reading the news for Bendigo’s own 3BO. She clocked up an impressive 20 years at the ABC, leaving the Melbourne newsroom to tell the stories of her own community in Shepparton.”
‘I’m so glad he ignored me’: Alan Kohler on the advice son Chris didn’t take
Despite working for rival TV networks, finance editors Alan Kohler, 72, and his son Chris, 35, refuse to think of themselves as competitors. As Chris says of his “goofball” mentor dad, you just can’t compete with the best. The two are featured in Good Weekend out tomorrow. The story also appears online today. Chris Kohler speaks to journalist Melissa Fyfe first:
Chris Kohler: Calamity sometimes follows Dad around. He’s fallen off motorbikes and once dropped a car in a lake. He has long-running injuries from jumping off the roof as a kid and is missing a finger. He’s had a million jobs: steel-pipe salesman, taxi driver, he built a boat in Perth, and worked at a roadhouse in Tennant Creek. I want him to write a book because he doesn’t just tell you things. In 1974, he was in Cyclone Tracy, but you’ve got to ask him about it. If I’d been in Cyclone Tracy, every time it was windy I’d say, “You think this is wind? No! Our house ended up in the backyard, mate!” It’s why we love him so much: he’s a softly spoken goofball.
Radio
Billy Walters quits Triple M Brisbane gig following breakfast show criticism
Brisbane hooker Billy Walters has dropped a broadcast bombshell by quitting his role with Triple M following savage criticism of his father, Broncos coach Kevin, and the club’s “poncy rock stars”, report News Corp’s Peter Badel and Travis Meyn.
The Walters family are at loggerheads with Triple M after the NRL rights holder’s breakfast show delivered a stinging critique of Walters’ coaching ability and the attitude of Brisbane players.
Former Wallabies star Greg Martin, Dan Anstey and Margaux Parker, the wife of former Broncos skipper Corey, head up Triple M’s popular Marto, Margaux and Dan breakfast show in Brisbane.
It is understood Walters’ wife, Narelle, was so stunned by Martin’s attack she called Margaux after the segment to express her disappointment.
Television
‘Thank you’: Ally Langdon fights back tears on A Current Affair
Ally Langdon teared up on Thursday’s A Current Affair during a heartfelt segment about organ donation, reports News Corp’s Joshua Haigh.
The host was discussing Jersey Day which encourages people to start the important conversation about organ and tissue donation with loved ones.
The father of Nathan Gremmo appeared on the show to chat with Langdon about his son, who tragically died at the age of 13 when crossing a road in 2015. Nathan went on to become an organ donor, and ended up saving the lives of six others who were in desperate, including a baby.
In 2010, shortly after giving birth to her first child, Langdon’s sister Kristen was in urgent need of a kidney transplant. She eventually required a pancreas-kidney transplant and her life was saved in 2014 by an organ donor.
“Thank you,” Langdon told told Michael tearfully.
Watching the detectives: TV’s 10 most memorable cops
As soon as we had television, we had shows about the police. Crime and punishment, the weekly procedural, has been a small-screen staple. But over the past 70 years, the officers who serve as the protagonists on cop shows have changed, whether to match the times or reset them, writes Nine Publishing’s Craig Mathieson.
Through the quality of the show and the strength of the actor’s performance, the most memorable police officers on television rise above their individual eras. Consider this list of 10 unforgettable men and women behind the badge, presented in alphabetical order, as the pillars of the police drama. Whatever the charges, these officers made them stick.
One of Mathieson’s Top 10:
Catherine Cawood
Sarah Lancashire in Happy Valley
A police officer’s struggle between public responsibility and private need has never been better depicted than in the character of Catherine Cawood, a West Yorkshire police sergeant whose commitment to her job and community is tested when the man who raped her daughter and fathered her grandson is released from jail. Happy Valley can be grim viewing, with corrosive bursts of violence, but Cawood is a transcendent character whose complexities are revealed over three outstanding seasons. The show is both poignant and brutal, full of human frailty and slowly unwound conspiracies, and Lancashire’s performance reveals how someone can live through it all.
Watch Happy Valley – Streaming: BritBox (seasons 1-2), Stan (seasons 1-2), ABC iview (season 3)