All the action off camera at Channel 7
If Channel 7’s Sunday Night were to turn the cameras on themselves, what a juicy story they could get. The tabloid-style current affairs show, which reached its 200th episode last week, has had warring executive producers – Adam Boland and Mark Llewellyn, warring hosts Mike Munro and Chris Bath and now a crisis with violence behind the cameras. The volatile Llewellyn was suspended by the network in October after an altercation with a producer, Paul Waterhouse, at the same time the network was launching its 2015 schedule at Fox Studios.
While Llewellyn was sweating it out at home on extended leave, sources say the staff of Sunday Night were in revolt, refusing to accept Llewellyn if he returned.
When the program’s best reporter, Ross Coulthart, quit, Seven West Media CEO Tim Worner was called in to personally assure staff the show would return next year, despite not having an EP or a chief reporter.
Last week Seven attempted to halt the rumours swirling the program by issuing a brief statement: “Sunday Night executive producer Mark Llewellyn is taking an extended period of leave. In 2015, Mark will return to the network in an executive producer role working on prime-time programming. Mark is the founding executive producer on Sunday Night, which first aired in 2009, and will this season celebrate its 200th edition. Sunday Night returns for its seventh season early in 2015.”
In a move that has upset some insiders, Seven has chosen to stand by an executive who physically attacked a member of staff, giving him a “prime time” role upon his return.
But the search is on for a new EP.
Radio National revenge best served cold
The Sydney Morning Herald editors chose former News Corp executive and former ABC Radio National manager to criticise the network in its opinion pages on Monday. Louise Evans didn’t holdback in her assessment of Radio National: “They didn’t have a 9-5 mentality,” she wrote of the staff in an opinion piece. “They had a 10-3 mentality. They planned their work day around their afternoon yoga class. They wore thongs and shorts to work, occasionally had a snooze on the couch after lunch and popped out to Paddy’s Market to buy fresh produce for dinner before going home.”
What the Sydney Morning Herald failed to mention was that Evans – with no radio experience – only stayed in her position for less than six months. In October 2013 ABC staff received an email saying: “Louise Evans has decided she does not wish to continue in the manager role at Radio National.”
She was moved into “special projects” at News Radio to see out her contract. That piece was her revenge.
Channel Ten to ABC: you are in a time warp
One of the least gracious acts last week was the commercial TV bosses bagging the ABC ahead of the announcement of the $254m in cuts by Malcolm Turnbull on Wednesday. Ten CEO Hamish McLennan, who has barely gained a ratings point in his 18 months at the helm of the struggling commercial network, said he loved the ABC but that the broadcaster was in a time warp.
“They could start by doing the following: save $15m on marketing because they are not required to make a profit; merge the back offices of the SBS and ABC, which would probably save them another $25m,” he told Fairfax Media. “If I sat down with Tim Worner we could probably find the balance of what the government is demanding in a few hours.”
But should the ABC take his advice considering McLennan has spent much of his time at the helm trailing in fourth position in the ratings, beating only SBS?
‘I’m the Shoe ... Get me Out of Here’
Hamish McLennan’s foray into advising the ABC was almost as unwise as something his public relations guy Neil Shoebridge did last week. The Shoe, as he is known, scored a massive own goal by complaining loudly about a review of Channel Ten’s programming slate in Mumbrella.
Mumbrella editor Alex Hayes had written a largely positive piece about Ten’s lineup but Shoebridge wasn’t happy and demanded the media and marketing website run his letter of complaint.
“The column you posted on November 14 described Network Ten’s 2015 programming slate as ‘frugal’, ‘lean’ and ‘minimalist’,” the Shoe thundered.
“That description is inaccurate, misleading and puzzling. To write that ‘almost everything ratings wise next year’ is pinned on I’m A Celebrity … Get Me Out Of Here! is nonsense. The media release issued on Thursday evening outlined a broad and deep programming slate for 2015 and clearly telegraphed that we are not relying on one or two shows to maintain the ratings and audience growth momentum Network Ten has posted in 2014.”
The letter has become one of Mumbrella’s most commented posts, and the commenters are not sympathetic to Shoebridge or Channel Ten. The remarks are perhaps best summed up by this one: “Alex – spot on. The line up is frugal and this response stinks of desperation. Goodbye channel 10 – no advertisers for you.”
AFR unrepentant after attack on journalist
The Australian Financial Review has so far refused to address the outrage that followed an extraordinary attack by its columnist Mark Latham on Lisa Pryor who wrote this honest column about working motherhood and her need for antidepressants in the Sydney Morning Herald.
Latham’s column was highly insulting if not defamatory and two pieces in response published since in the AFR have not dampened the criticism. Pryor, who is the partner of Chaser member Julian Morrow, wrote: “Though it may not win me admiration and a sponsored lifestyle blog, a little bit of neurochemical assistance helps me actually enjoy the glorious disaster of raising two small children while studying medicine full time.”
A journalist who managed to pursue her medical degree while raising two kids, Pryor was called a left feminist with a psychoneurotic disorder who is “externalising personal feelings of distress and deficiency into the demonisation of children” by Latham in his column.
“This is why people in the suburbs, especially women, distrust the likes of Pryor,” the former Labor leader wrote. “Their political agenda is seen as unrepresentative and self-serving. At a personal level, it’s also cowardly: popping pills as an easy way out, instead of facing up to the responsibilities of adulthood.”
Despite emails and phone calls to the AFR’s editor-in-chief, Michael Stutchbury, there has been no offer of an apology yet.
Print is not dead – says print lobby
A printed product lobby group Two Sides Australia commissioned a major report, backed by a $20m advertising campaign, to push the idea that print is not dead.
The executive summary said: “The commercial print industry remains one of the largest industries in the country at $7.5bn. It employs over 320,000 Australians, delivers a $2bn catalogue industry, and has more than 15 million people reading newspapers every month. As a country we spend $790m a year on magazines, one of the highest per capita across the globe. Print remains a strong and robust industry and has the widest reach of any channel.”
Among the report’s findings was that sending paper invoices – as opposed to email ones – increases the number of invoices paid on time and 20% of people remember an article better when reading on paper.
It also spruiked newspapers, direct mail, catalogues and print marketing. Too bad then that the glossy 70-page full-colour report printed on premium paper could not be delivered to media companies last week.
According to the PR operative left to deliver the embarrassing news, the hard copies “went missing on the trip from Melbourne to Sydney – blame Australia Post – so I’m delivering you the hard copy Adriano Zumbo macarons. Fresh from the store at the Star. I will follow this up with delivery of the digital version of the report via email.”
