Business of Media
Musk says Twitter has a new boss. She starts soon
Elon Musk said he has found a new CEO for Twitter, or X Corp as it’s now called. He did not name the person but said she will be starting in about six weeks, reports AP.
Musk, who bought Twitter last fall and has been running it since, has long insisted he is not the company’s permanent CEO.
The Tesla billionaire said in a tweet on Thursday (Friday AEST) that his role will transition to being Twitter’s executive chairman and chief technology officer.
Musk has been saying for nearly six months that he plans to find a new CEO for San Francisco-based Twitter. In mid-November, just a few weeks after buying the social media platform for $US44 billion ($66 billion), he told a Delaware court that he does not want to be the CEO of any company.
While testifying, Musk said “I expect to reduce my time at Twitter and find somebody else to run Twitter over time.”
Fox News sued for defamation by ex-government disinformation chief
The former head of a disinformation group created by the US Department of Homeland Security has sued Fox News for defamation, saying its attacks threatened her safety, reports The Guardian’s Lauren Aratani.
In the lawsuit filed on Wednesday, Nina Jankowicz alleged that multiple Fox News hosts spread lies about her work, fueling an internet campaign against her that ultimately led to her resignation and the disbandment of the group.
Jankowicz was executive director of the Disinformation Governance Board, created to coordinate efforts to combat disinformation posing a threat to US security.
The group was created in April 2022 but paused just three weeks later, after a barrage of conservative attacks. Jankowicz resigned and in August the group was shut down.
Jankowicz’s lawsuit focuses on three claims she says Fox levied against her: that she intended to censor speech, that she was fired, and that she wanted to give verified Twitter users, including herself, the power to edit others’ tweets, a claim taken from a video clip used out of context.
“Several of these falsehoods stand out as especially destructive – and directly contrary to available, verifiable evidence,” the lawsuit says.
The lawsuit also says Fox hosts continuously attacked Jankowicz, calling her a “wicked witch”, a “disinformation czaress” and a “lunatic”, among other things.
“I would have followed that advice”: Lisa Wilkinson denies speech warning
Lisa Wilkinson would not have made a speech at the Logie Awards if she had been warned by ACT Prosecutor Shane Drumgold, according to a statement released by a public inquiry this week, reports TV Tonight.
In 2022 Wilkinson won a Logie for her Project interview with Brittany Higgins but the speech triggered a trial delay.
Director of Public Prosecutions Drumgold this week told the public inquiry he had warned Wilkinson, that Bruce Lehrmann’s defence team could lodge a stay application if there was any more publicity.
In a statement released by the inquiry, Wilkinson said “If Mr Drumgold had told me not to give the speech, I would have followed that advice.
“If Mr Drumgold had told me that ‘publicity’ posed a risk to the trial, I would have further questioned that issue, especially given the publicity that had already occurred regarding the Logies, and the inherent publicity that could follow from the Logie award nomination irrespective of any speech given by me.”
Daily Mirror apologises to Prince Harry at start of phone-hacking trial
A British tabloid newspaper has apologised to Prince Harry for unlawfully seeking information about him at the start of the royal’s lawsuit against its publisher over alleged phone hacking, in which he is due to give evidence himself, reports the ABC.
The prince, 38, and some 100 celebrities, including actors, sports stars, singers and TV personalities, are suing publisher Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN), accusing its titles of habitually accessing private information through widespread phone hacking, deception and other illicit means between 1991 and 2011.
The claimants say the unlawful behaviour at the Daily Mirror, Sunday Mirror and Sunday People had occurred with the full knowledge of senior executives, who they say failed to stop it and had actively covered it up.
The titles are owned by newspaper company Reach PLC.
SBS staff to receive a 9.5 per cent pay rise over the next three years
Staff at SBS have been awarded a 9.5 per cent pay rise over the next three years just weeks after ABC employees received an 11 per cent wage increase, reports The Australian’s Sophie Elsworth.
Following months of negotiations the nation’s largest media union, the Media, Entertainment & Arts Alliance, announced on Thursday night a majority of staff at the publicly-funded broadcaster had voted in favour of a new pay deal.
SBS, led by managing director James Taylor, will see staff given a four per cent pay rise in the first year, 3 per cent in the second year and 2.5 per cent in the third year.
The pay rises will be backdated to February 6 and the MEAA said it came after 200 union members wrote to management and “outlined how years of undervaluing and unfair pay had affected them”.
Radio
Adelaide radio: 10 years of behind-the-scenes drama
If, like Pat Benatar warned us back in the 1980s, love is a battlefield, then radio is a minefield, reports News Corp’s Anna Vlach.
It is a highly volatile landscape, where shows live or die by the ratings.
Especially in the crucial breakfast shift. That is the timeslot where advertisers spend big bucks, and it is also a catalyst; as one switched-on industry insider told us, “get the listeners at breakfast and you’ve got them for the rest of the day”.
Let’s revisit the past 10 years of Adelaide radio, to see who was – according to market share – No. 1 in brekky when.
And, while we’re there, we’ll take another look at some of the comings and (explosive) goings that were happening on the local scene.
Television
CNN slammed for “Shameful” Trump town hall: “You failed journalism and our country”
CNN and CEO Chris Licht came in for ferocious criticism over the chaotic town hall the cable news network held with former president Donald Trump on Wednesday, reports The Hollywood Reporter’s Abid Rahman.
Amid his 2024 presidential campaign, Trump sat down with CNN This Morning anchor Kaitlan Collins at the event held in New Hampshire. The 70-minute town hall was populated by mostly Trump supporters and likely Republican voters, and the former president was able to dominate proceedings, overwhelming Collins who tried in vain to correct Trump’s statements and falsehoods about issues including the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, a federal abortion ban, immigration and the war in Ukraine.
A particularly shocking exchange occurred over E. Jean Carroll, who had this week been awarded $5 million in damages after a New York jury held Trump liable for sexual abuse and defamation against the writer. Among other things, Trump once again claimed he did not know who Carroll was and described her as a “whack job” to loud cheers from the audience.
The lack of pushback from Collins and Trump’s bullying performance was a boon to his campaign team. On the New York Times live blog of the town hall, reporter Jonathan Swan wrote, “Advisers to Trump are thrilled at how this is going so far for him. They can’t believe he is getting an hour on CNN with an audience that cheers his every line and laughs at his every joke.”
In the days leading up to the town hall, CNN was criticized for platforming Trump, but the backlash against the network, and Licht in particular, went into overdrive as events unfolded. The reaction on social media among the commentariat was almost uniformly negative.
Reacting to the town hall on MSNBC, New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez called CNN’s decision to platform Trump “shameful” and a “profoundly irresponsible decision.”
CNN’s Trump town hall nabs 3.3 million US viewers amid brutal criticism
CNN’s town hall with former President Trump drew 3.3 million viewers on Wednesday, but network executives faced a tsunami of criticism for giving the Republican candidate a platform to spread lies, reports the LA Times’ Stephen Battagilo.
The audience counted by Nielsen was the largest for CNN since the network’s coverage of the July hearings over the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. While Trump’s appearance delivered a strong number for CNN, it was the size of a typical audience for Tucker Carlson on Fox News before he was fired last month.
CNN anchor Kaitlan Collins grilled Trump for 70 minutes in front of an audience of New Hampshire Republican voters at St. Anselm College in Goffstown. It was the rare appearance by Trump, who is seeking the Republican nomination for the 2024 presidential race, on a media outlet that is not friendly to him.
Streamers could cope with 20 per cent levy, producers say
The only way to guarantee more Australian content on streaming platforms is for the federal government to impose an obligation for companies such as Netflix to spend 20 per cent of their gross revenue on local commissions, according to analysis by lobby group Screen Producers Australia, reports Nine Publishing’s Karl Quinn.
The group also argues the cost to the streamers of this levy would only be about half of what they report they already invest in Australian and Australian-related content, yet it would result in a 35 per cent boost in new Australian content on their platforms.
Responding to a consultation paper issued by the federal government in which five possible models of regulation are proposed, the organisation that represents more than 800 film and television producers nationally argues that an obligation for the streamers to dedicate 20 per cent of their gross revenue to Australian commissions “is the only model that will deliver increased jobs and hours of Australian content – an objective of this regulation”.
Citing the streamers’ own data, as reported to the broadcasting regulator, the Australian Communications and Media Authority, the group notes that “streaming services are likely already investing in Australian content at a level that is nearly double the spend entailed by a 20 per cent obligation, if both Australian and Australian-related content is counted, without causing any undue harm to their businesses”.
Disney+ sheds four million subscribers in second straight quarterly drop, streaming losses narrow by 26%
Disney+ shed another 4 million subscribers in the first three months of 2023, marking the streamer’s second consecutive quarterly drop after closing 2022 with its first-ever decline. On the bright side, the Mouse House also managed to narrow its streaming business losses by $400 million, down 26% year over year, reports Variety’s Jennifer Maas.
On Wednesday, CEO Bob Iger and Co. beat Wall Street estimates for Disney’s quarterly earnings and revenue due to an impressive January-March showing at the company’s theme parks. That win comes during a fiscal Q2, which concluded April 1, plagued by company-wide layoffs, a looming (and now active) writers strike and a turf war with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
Disney ended the quarter with 157.8 million subscribers at Disney+, significantly missing Wall Street’s estimate of 163.17 million subs. That projected figured would have been up from the 161.8 million subs Disney+ fell to the prior quarter.
This second sub drop was driven by a 4.6 million sequential decline at Disney+ Hotstar, the version of the service offered in India and parts of Southeast Asia. Last year, Disney lost streaming rights to Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket matches, which prompted it to lower growth targets for Disney+ Hotstar in India.
In the U.S./Canada, Disney+ lost about 300,000 subs (to reach 46.3 million), while it added nearly 1 million in international markets excluding Disney+ Hotstar.