The exodus at The Australian
The Australian newspaper has been hit by six high-level resignations in recent months, putting more pressure on an already-stretched newsroom and sinking morale. We understand only one of the six senior journalists to walk received a highly-sought after redundancy package, leaving some departees very disappointed. Company-wide, News Corp is not offering redundancies anymore and has started hiring again. While some left for other jobs, others just quit. The exodus of some of the paper’s top talent began with Melbourne bureau chief Patricia Karvelas, who left in January to join ABC’s RN as Drive presenter, replacing Waleed Aly. Then the Australian’s industrial relations expert Ewin Hannan quit after receiving an excellent offer from Fairfax to join the Australian Financial Review as workplace editor. Hannan started this week at the Fin in Sydney – breaking a big story on his first day – but will continue to be based in Melbourne. Editor-in-chief Chris Mitchell asked his former Washington correspondent Brad Norington to take over the paper’s IR duties but he declined and has since resigned. Justine Ferrari – who has been the paper’s national education correspondent for nine years – after a long and distinguished career on The Australian and the Sunday Telegraph in many roles, has also quit. Ferrari and Norington have a couple of weeks left to serve, but neither has a job to go to. Opinion editor Rebecca Weisser has left and been replaced by Matthew Spencer. Weisser is the partner of former deputy editor Nick Cater, who also left the paper as a full-time journalist and is now the executive director of Menzies Research Centre. Cater still writes a weekly column for the Oz about the how the so-called elites are ruining the country. Tom Dusevic is another senior writer who has also quit his full-time duties on the paper.
Sharri sledge
More unusual goings-on at the Oz. Staff were astonished to read on Monday in the Australian’s Media Diary a comment on the health of the relationship of Melbourne-based writer Kate Legge. Legge had written a piece about how women of a certain age are struggling to cope with the pressures of elderly parents, offspring, work and demanding partners. But what made her a target is that she is married to Fairfax CEO Greg Hywood, a media boss the Oz loves to ridicule. No matter that she is a multiple award-winning journalist with a three-decade long career. Sharri Markson wrote of Hywood: “And, judging by his wife Kate Legge’s remarks in The Australian last week, he’s at risk of destroying his own marriage as well.” Staff are wondering why editor-in-chief Chris Mitchell and his editor Michelle Gunn allowed the sledge to go through.
Press release ruling
Most journalists know it is a professional sin to cut and paste from a media release. But according to the latest adjudication from the Australian Press Council, if you work for a small regional or rural publication, you’re allowed to copy from a press release – but you have to attribute the quotes. Don’t claim them as your own opinion. “The Press Council considers that newspapers are entitled to draw heavily on a press release provided that in doing so they comply with the council’s standards in relation to such matters as accuracy, fairness and balance,” the council ruled. “It emphasises that any material taken from a press release should be presented in such a way that facts or opinion being asserted by the issuer of the release are clearly distinguishable from those being asserted by the publication itself”. The publication which has been found to have breached the standards is the Gippsland Times which on 15 April 2014 published an editorial headed “Labor labelled as health ‘hypocrites’” and failed to attribute some of the opinion to a politician’s press release.
Abbott gives Insiders a boost
Insiders has only been back on air for four weeks but it has already clocked up some of its best ratings ever. On the back of an intense interest in the political fortunes of Tony Abbott, Insiders has increased its average audience from 292,000 in 2014 to 406,000 in 2015 (simulcast on ABC and News 24). Hosted by Barrie Cassidy since day one, the program has increased its audience every year for 14 years, according to executive producer Kellie Mayo, who has been steering the ship for nine years. Also returning to Ten this year was The Bolt Report, hosted by News Corp columnist Andrew Bolt. Bolt, which screens at 10am, has less than half the audience of Insiders. Last Sunday it had 151,000 to Insiders’ 310,000 on one channel alone. Insiders also beats Sunrise and Today on Sundays.
New classification code mooted
The three free-to-air commercial networks, through their industry lobby group Free TV, are agitating for fewer rules and restrictions to their business. They argue that they need more flexibility to survive now there is increased competition from new players like Netflix and other video streaming services, as well as pay TV. They want to loosen the regulations around children’s content, timezone restrictions, alcohol advertising and accuracy in programming. One significant push is to allow adult content from 7.30pm, traditionally a family viewing slot, and dropping the G-classification block of programming altogether. As such they have released a draft new code of practice for public review on the Free TV website. But there is a long way to go before channels Seven, Nine and Ten change what have been the safeguards the community – and especially parents – have relied on. The Australian Communications and Media told Weekly Beast that while the industry writes its own code it does have to be approved by Acma. “In deciding whether the new code provides appropriate community safeguards, the Acma may consider a range of matters including: the outcomes of the public consultation, its own research and other evidence”, a spokeswoman said. In a major policy document on community standards released last year Acma was pretty clear on the need for safeguards for children regardless of the changing environment: “In relation to protection of children, the Acma concludes that there is justification for safeguards in contemporary broadcasting codes relevant to enabling parents and carers to protect children in their care from inappropriate or harmful content”.
Lateline given a lifeline
After a near death experience last year Lateline is back on Monday 9 March in the new earlier timeslot of 9.30pm (AEST), meaning it will air live at 6.30pm in WA. But it will also be repeated at 10.30pm local time on the main ABC channel, so viewers can watch it later if they prefer. Both hosts, Emma Alberici and Tony Jones, will be back in what is the program’s 25th year, as will all the reporting team. The program did however lose some production staff in the recent cull of some 400 ABC staff. ABC’s director of news, Kate Torney, has promised longer investigative items and extended interviews. The major change is it will be less of a news bulletin because that duplicates what has already been covered on the 7pm news and the continuous news services on ABC News 24 and ABC News Online. Jones said, “With a rich broadcasting history of 25 years Lateline remains essential viewing and we’ll be reaching an even broader audience through increased engagement with social media.” Just a tip to the new executive producer Lisa Whitby: if social media is going to be your focus, you had better write your first tweet: @whitbylisa has yet to post.
