MASS MEDIA – AUSTRALIA

Seven West axes three of its most senior executives in major shakeup

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Original article by Zoe Samios
The Australian Financial Review – Page: Online : 26-Jun-24

Seven West Media veteran Kurt Burnette is said to be among the company’s senior executives to have been retrenched as part of a cost-cutting program. Burnette joined Seven in 1990, and was most recently the media group’s chief revenue officer. Seven Melbourne’s MD Lewis Martin, who is also the head of sport, has also been made redundant, along with chief marketing officer Melissa Hopkins. Recent media reports had revealed that Seven plans to shed up to 150 jobs in response to a difficult advertising market and the looming end of a revenue-sharing deal with Facebook’s parent Meta.

CORPORATES
SEVEN WEST MEDIA LIMITED – ASX SWM, SEVEN NETWORK LIMITED, META PLATFORMS INCORPORATED, FACEBOOK

Nine must address ‘issues of the past’, Sneesby tells his staff

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Original article by Sophie Elsworth
The Australian – Page: 3 : 18-Jun-24

Nine Entertainment CEO Mike Sneesby told staff in an email on Monday that the company is working to improve its culture, but that this can only be done by "acknowledging the issues of the past". His comments come amid allegations involving two senior male managers that involve "predatory behaviour", and as Kerri-Anne Kennerley, one of Nine’s most admired on-air personalities, stated that there was an entrenched culture of bullying at the television network. Sneesby’s email was sent a week after Peter Costello quit as Nine chairman after an incident with a journalist at Canberra Airport.

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NINE ENTERTAINMENT COMPANY HOLDINGS LIMITED – ASX NEC

News Corp to cut sales staff, up to 80 jobs to go

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Original article by Calum Jaspan
The Age – Page: Online : 13-Jun-24

News Corp Australia is set to announce further redundancies as part of a restructuring program and its push to reduce costs by up to $65m. The media group’s sales team is expected to bear the brunt of the latest jobs cuts, with speculation that up to 80 employees will be retrenched. However, a News Corp spokesperson has dismissed claims that 40 per cent of its sales personnel will be sacked. News Corp Australia’s executive chairman Michael Miller recently downplayed speculation that more than 100 journalists will also be retrenched.

CORPORATES
NEWS CORP AUSTRALIA PTY LTD, NEWS CORPORATION – ASX NWS

News outlets producing covert marketing for McDonald’s, KFC and Domino’s, study finds

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Original article by Natasha May
The Guardian Australia – Page: Online : 5-Jun-24

Researchers have concluded that Australian media outlets are overtly endorsing fast-food products by publishing positive stories that are based on press releases issued by these restaurant chains. The research team analysed all press releases issued by McDonald’s, KFC and Domino’s Pizza Enterprises between July 2021 and June 2022. These press releases were found to have generated 86 articles in 31 news outlets; four of the articles were identical to the corresponding press release, while many others were largely based on the original press release. All but six of the articles were favourable towards the fast-food chains.

CORPORATES
McDONALD’S AUSTRALIA LIMITED, KFC, DOMINO’S PIZZA ENTERPRISES LIMITED – ASX DMP

News Corp pain as executive heads roll

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Original article by Sam Buckingham-Jones
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 14 : 5-Jun-24

News Corp Australia’s state general managers are among the casualties of the media group’s restructuring program. Other News Corp staff who are said to have been retrenched include the general manager of print production, Marcus Hooke. Some editors of metropolitan mastheads will also take on additional responsibilities at part of the move to split the company’s publishing operations into three divisions. Meanwhile, former Sunday Telegraph editor Mick Carroll will succeed Lisa Muxworthy as editor-in-chief of the news.com.au website, while Lou Barrett will head the new national sales team.

CORPORATES
NEWS CORP AUSTRALIA PTY LTD, NEWS CORPORATION – ASX NWS

Nine’s CEO signed $1m exit payout

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Original article by Sophie Elsworth, James Madden
The Australian – Page: 1 & 2 : 28-May-24

Nine Entertainment Company is continuing to attract scrutiny over the sudden resignation of the Nine Network’s director of news and current affairs, Darren Wick. A spokeswoman has confirmed that Nine’s CEO Mike Sneesby had sign off on Wick’s severance pay of almost $1m, and the media group’s board had no role in the payout. It has previously been revealed that the board had discussed allegations that Wick had sexually harassed a number of female colleagues during his long tenure at Nine. Meanwhile, Nine will commission an independent review of its TV newsrooms’ culture in the wake of the allegations against Wick.

CORPORATES
NINE ENTERTAINMENT COMPANY HOLDINGS LIMITED – ASX NEC, NINE NETWORK AUSTRALIA LIMITED

Ten baulks at Wilkinson’s $1.8m claim for costs

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Original article by Ellie Dudley
The Australian – Page: 3 : 28-May-24

Presenter Lisa Wilkinson is seeking over $1.8 million from the Ten Network to pay her legal costs in the aftermath of their defamation case against Bruce Lehrmann, with the Federal Court being told by her lawyers on Monday that Ten was showing an "ongoing reluctance" to pay her costs. The dispute between Wilkinson and Ten over her legal costs arose as a result of her deciding to seek separate representation for the defamation case, with Ten arguing that she should pay for all aspects of the case where it was not necessary for her to have separate representation.

CORPORATES
TEN NETWORK HOLDINGS LIMITED, FEDERAL COURT OF AUSTRALIA

Readership of magazines is up from a year ago with increases for nine out of 16 magazine categories

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Original article by Roy Morgan
Market Research Update – Page: Online : 22-May-24

The Roy Morgan Australian Readership report for the 12 months to March 2024 shows that 11.6 million Australians aged 14+ (52.3%) now read print magazines, up 1.4 per cent on a year ago. This market broadens to more than 15 million Australians aged 14+ (67.6%) who read magazines in print or online either via the web or an app, which is up 0.1% on a year ago. The increases in readership were widespread over the last year, with a majority of magazine categories (nine in total) increasing their readership. Six of the top 10 most widely read magazines increased their print readership over the last year and, looking more broadly, a majority of 14 of the top 25 have higher print readership than a year ago. Better Homes & Gardens is still Australia’s most widely read paid magazine, with print readership of 1,800,000 (up 0.4 per cent on a year ago), ahead of The Australian Women’s Weekly on 1,266,000. These are the latest findings from the Roy Morgan Single Source survey of 64,597 Australians aged 14+ in the 12 months to March 2024.

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ROY MORGAN LIMITED

The Australian’s contest of ideas a winner

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Original article by James Madden
The Australian – Page: 19 : 20-May-24

The latest readership data from Roy Morgan shows that The Australian’s weekday readership increased by 9.7 per cent in the six months to 31 March. The weekend edition of the national masthead recorded a 15,000-strong increase in readership during the period. Editor-in-chief Michelle Gunn says The Australian’s continued growth reflects its commitment to high-quality journalism across print and digital. The readership figures shows that on average, News Corp Australia’s newspapers now reach more than four in five Australians each month. Meanwhile, readership of the weekday edition of Seven West Media’s The West Australian has fallen by 2.4 per cent, while the weekend edition’s readership is down 7.4 per cent.

CORPORATES
ROY MORGAN LIMITED, NEWS CORP AUSTRALIA PTY LTD, NEWS CORPORATION – ASX NWS, SEVEN WEST MEDIA LIMITED – ASX SWM

Financial Review print, digital readership jumps

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Original article by Nick Bonyhady
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 3 : 20-May-24

Total news readership data from Roy Morgan shows that The Australian Financial Review boasted 3.5 million readers across print and digital in March. The weekday print edition of the AFR now has an average readership of 262,000 per day, while the weekend edition has an average of 179,000 readers. The AFR’s editor-in-chief Michael Stutchbury notes that the Nine Entertainment flagship’s digital-only audience is growing by 2.4 per cent a year, and the AFR now has the biggest digital audience of any national newspaper brand. Nine’s broader publishing stable reached 16 million Australians in March across its titles, according to the Roy Morgan data.

CORPORATES
ROY MORGAN LIMITED, NINE ENTERTAINMENT COMPANY HOLDINGS LIMITED – ASX NEC