Business of Media
Facebook, citing societal concerns, plans to shut down facial recognition system
Facebook plans to shut down its decade-old facial recognition system this month, deleting the face scan data of more than one billion users and effectively eliminating a feature that has fueled privacy concerns, government investigations, a class-action lawsuit and regulatory woes, reports The New York Times’ Kashmir Hill and Ryan Mac.
Jerome Pesenti, vice president of artificial intelligence at Meta, Facebook’s newly named parent company, said in a blog post on Tuesday that the social network was making the change because of “many concerns about the place of facial recognition technology in society.” He added that the company still saw the software as a powerful tool, but “every new technology brings with it potential for both benefit and concern, and we want to find the right balance.”
See More: Facebook confirms name change to Meta: A social technology company
The decision shutters a feature that was introduced in December 2010 so that Facebook users could save time. The facial-recognition software automatically identified people who appeared in users’ digital photo albums and suggested users “tag” them all with a click, linking their accounts to the images. Facebook now has built one of the largest repositories of digital photos in the world, partly thanks to this software.
News Brands
The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age to hire trainees in newsroom expansion
The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age will hire 10 trainee journalists as part of a broader expansion of the newsrooms.
The mastheads will also hire another four roles in presentation and distribution, which are in addition to the nine new roles in these areas announced in early October.
The Herald and Age’s executive editor Tory Maguire said the introduction of new journalists to the newsroom was an indication of the confidence its leaders have in the health of the mastheads.
“Developing the next generation of journalists is a key responsibility for the leadership of the Herald and The Age. It’s also a great joy,” Maguire said.
New York Times adds 455,000 subscriptions in third quarter
The New York Times Company said on Wednesday that it added 455,000 new digital subscriptions in the third quarter, a gain that keeps the publisher on pace to reach its stated goal of 10 million subscriptions by 2025, reports The New York Times’ Marc Tracy.
Of the new digital subscriptions, 320,000 signed up for The Times’s journalism. The rest came for Games, Cooking, and Wirecutter, the product review site that started offering subscriptions in September.
“This was our best third-quarter performance in both News and total net subscription additions since the launch of the digital pay model more than a decade ago, and, outside of 2020, our best quarter ever for digital subscription additions,” Meredith Kopit Levien, the company’s chief executive, said in a statement.
Radio
Mick Molloy quits Triple M in week of change at SCA network
At the end of his Triple M drive show today Mick Molloy had a special announcement for his audience. “There was something else I had to do today and it has slipped my mind,” he told the show’s anchor Dangerous Dave.
“Oh that’s right, I had to announce the show is not coming back next year.
“That’s sad for me because I love this show and I love this team. After 11 years it feels like the right time to leave my spiritual home for other challenges.”
When Molloy returned to Triple M 11 years ago it was to join Eddie McGuire and Luke Darcy on The Hot Breakfast.
The former Hot Breakfast team Luke Darcy, Eddie McGuire and Mick Molloy
He subsequently moved to drive in October 2017 where he co-hosted with Jane Kennedy. After she quit and the end of 2020, Molloy hosted solo drive this year.
The changes come after a week of activity across the Triple M network as the stations react to flat ratings across part of 2021.
See also: Laura ‘Loz’ O’Callaghan to join Triple M Adelaide Breakfast
In a statement, Mick Molloy said: “The time is right to explore some exciting new creative opportunities that are presenting themselves for the years ahead. It’s not without a small degree of sadness to know I’m leaving my spiritual home at the house of Ms after all this time but I’m genuinely proud of what we’ve achieved here and excited about what lays ahead for me.
“I want to say thanks to the amazing producing team who put out an amazing show each and every day, despite my frequent showbiz arsehole type antics.
“Finally, biggest thanks of all go to the listeners. It’s always been about them as far as I’m concerned, and I can’t say thank you enough for letting me do what I love to do day in day out for all this time. I’m sure it won’t be the last time you’re hearing from me on the radio so it’s goodbye for now, but not a final farewell.”
Jane Kennedy and Mick Molloy
Head of Triple M, Mike Fitzpatrick, said: “Mick is a radio pioneer, one of Australia’s greatest performers and it’s been a privilege to have worked with him at Triple M again. He’s now enjoyed enormous success on Triple M in every different time slot. He’ll be greatly missed by all of us.”
Molloy told the story on air today of how Fitzpatrick tracked Mick and his brother down in a hotel in India 11 years ago to get him on board.
SCA chief content officer, Dave Cameron, added: “Mick Molloy is an Australian radio icon of epic proportions and has been a part of many legendary radio shows for SCA over nearly three decades. He will always have a spot reserved at the SCA bar.”
Triple M will announce details of its new 2022 drive plans shortly.
Molloy will be on air for the next four weeks. “I will do radio again, when it’s appropriate,” said the soon-to-depart drive host.
Television
Why TV executives think The Bachelorette still has a chance despite poor ratings
Traditional ratings have nosedived for 10’s bisexual Bachelorette experiment, but TV executives are pointing to a high uptake of delayed view on demand as evidence their gamble on the format has not failed, reports News Corp’s Jonathon Moran and Georgia Clark.
Overnight ratings for the program, which is a world first with a mixed gender cast of males and females vying for the affection of indigenous youth worker Brooke Blurton, have taken up the undesirable mantle of worst on record for the franchise.
The tanking figures have come as a surprise to programming experts who expected star bachelorette Blurton, who has nearly four times the following of previous Bachelor Jimmy Nicholson on Instagram, to entice viewers to the free-to-air show.
‘Betraying my friends’: Carissa Croft explains why she walked out on The Bachelorette
The Bachelorette’s Carissa Croft has explained how Bachelor alumni and ex-girlfriend Megan Marx encouraged her to pursue Brooke Blurton, reports News Corp’s Amy Price.
The Queensland psychologist, 30, had a fling with Marx in Bali before she continued travelling and Marx went on to meet Jake Ellis on Bachelor in Paradise. The pair have since split, but Marx and Croft remained friends.
But as filming on the Channel 10 dating show began Croft found she wasn’t developing as strong a connection with Blurton as some of her friends in the mansion.
She decided to leave the reality show on Wednesday night’s episode before another rose ceremony might see her take the place of someone else.
‘Complete lie’: Lisa Wilkinson hits back at ex-CEO of Nine
Lisa Wilkinson has hit out at media coverage of her new autobiography, saying Nine Network’s then chief executive officer, Hugh Marks, told “complete lies” about her fight for equal pay, reports news.com.au.
The TV presenter’s memoir, It Wasn’t Meant To Be Like This, was only officially released today, but has been dominating the headlines for weeks as juicy excerpts about her shock departure from the Today show in 2017 were issued to the media by her publisher.
Speaking to ABC’s Radio National host Fran Kelly on Wednesday, Wilkinson lashed out at what she called “cheap tabloid headlines” surrounding her book, saying stories that questioned her were “lies.”
Meghan Markle’s brother says royal eyes are on Big Brother VIP
Thomas Markle Jr is expecting some V-VIPs have been tuning in to Australia’s latest bout of celebrity Big Brother, reports News Corp’s Jonathon Moran.
The estranged brother of the Duchess of Sussex believes his half sister Meghan Markle and her husband Prince Harry are watching online from the United States, as will Queen Elizabeth from the UK.
“I think even the Queen will watch it,” Markle Jr told Confidential. “I am 100 per cent sure Meghan and Harry will watch it. One could only hope she would want to see how her brother is doing.”
Sports Media
Viewers tune out of the Melbourne Cup
The Melbourne Cup’s free-to-air television ratings have fallen for the third year in a row, with Tuesday’s race registering the lowest TV viewership since records began, reports News Corp’s Sophie Elsworth.
Figures from ratings service OzTAM show 10’s broadcast of the pinnacle event drew an average national audience of 1.695 million viewers, compared to 1.861 million viewers in 2020 – a fall of 9 per cent.
The ratings also plummeted in the five major capital cities, falling from 1.4 million viewers this year compared to 1.2 million last year – a decline of 16 per cent.
In 2019 the Melbourne Cup TV rights moved from Channel 7 to Channel 10 and since then audiences have continued on a downward trajectory.