It’s been tough for staff at the Courier Mail in Brisbane to watch as dozens of colleagues walk out the door following a wave of redundancies which hasn’t yet finished. On a recent Monday the depleted newsroom was fascinated by a page three picture story in the Courier about an apparent pineapple glut in Queensland, written by an unknown contributor. “Queensland, we have a big pineapple problem,” he wrote. “A combination of a prolonged summer heatwave and a mild winter has left the state with its biggest ever pineapple glut. While it’s good news for consumers, with prices at record lows, the glut means farmers are stuck with the excess.”
Who was the reporter, they wondered. Weekly Beast understands he is the young son of executive editor Chris Jones, the guy who is leading the “editorial production reforms” planned for August, also known as getting rid of subeditors. Courier journos are miffed that at a time of forced redundancies and the depletion of the ranks of photographers and subs, the editor’s son who just started high school gets a byline – and without a disclosure. Courier editor Lachlan Heywood told us: “The answer is very straightforward: [the boy] was working on a high school research project over the holidays and came across this – as you say – excellent story on our patch that we hadn’t yet covered. Jonesy told me about it and I ran the story and picture on merit. The interviews [he] conducted were supervised and of course he wasn’t paid. Good on him.”
Health warning
When Bauer Media chief executive Paul Dykzeul walked into the office of Good Health magazine last week and closed the door behind him, editor Catherine Marshall and her staff were worried he was about to deliver bad news. Was he going to close the magazine? Not at all, he reassured them, the magazine is not closing down. But before they could rejoice he went on to deliver the bad news as far as it related to them anyway. Dykzeul explained that the entire Australian team of eight would be made redundant that same week because the magazine was going to be produced in New Zealand by the team which publishes the sister magazine, Good Health Choices. The decision was based on research, he told them, which found that New Zealand women wanted the same out of their health magazine as Australian women so “greater editorial synergy” was the way to go. Nothing about cost-cutting was mentioned. In an email seen by Weekly Beast Dykzeukl said the Australian magazine would be produced in NZ without the readers or advertisers noticing.
“Our strategic goal is that our readers and advertising partners will not notice any major differences, with the Australian magazine remaining the lead title,” he said. “The NZ magazine will go to press two weeks later with 20% localised content: the cover and cover feature; health and wellbeing developments and news; product news and reviews; and beauty/fashion content.
“Unfortunately, this does mean the Australian Good Health editorial team will be affected from Friday 21 July 2017. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Catherine and the team for their hard work and dedication to the magazine.”
It’s the first major move by Dykzeul, formerly Bauer Media’s New Zealand CEO, who replaced Nick Chan last month after he resigned as a result of “differences in strategic priorities”. Chan’s resignation came after Bauer lost the defamation case brought by actress Rebel Wilson.
Rat in the ABC ranks
Everyone at the ABC loves to send an all-staff memo, but some are more entertaining than most. Last week a news producer sent an email around with the subject line RAT ENCOUNTER which some thought may refer to a staffer who’d been caught in an act of betrayal. But a more literal explanation followed. It was a warning to staff to be more vigilant about leaving food scraps around because a huge rat had been spotted in the newsroom. “As the producer and director of the midnight bulletin emerged from the darkness of the studio 27 control room, we ran head first into a rat as it came around the corner towards us,” he wrote.
“Squeals of both human and rodent varieties were heard as the critter turned tail and fled, weaving erratically past the new painting on the wall, bouncing off the door to the ladies loo, past the gents to screech wildly around the corner and vanish into the new makeup area. Humans consoled themselves with the knowledge that a) we didn’t have to try and catch it and therefore didn’t have to touch it. And b) it probably got more of a fright than we did. Rat probably (I’m guessing here – I don’t speak fluent RAT) consoled itself with the knowledge that the Humans were not expecting to see it and as such had set no traps to discourage it from coming back later.”
It ended with a warning to keep food off the floor and handbags closed. “Have a lovely rat free day.”
Mark of respect
The board of the Kennedy Awards for journalism in New South Wales, established to honour the late and great crime reporter Les Kennedy, has named a radio award after the late ABC journalist Mark Colvin, who died in May. The Mark Colvin award for outstanding radio current affairs reporting is now the first honour bestowed upon the former foreign correspondent after an earlier honour announced by the Lowy Institute just two weeks ago was dropped.
We told you about the decision by the Lowy Institute to name the address at its annual media award dinner after Colvin, the presenter of PM. The choice of speaker for the inaugural Mark Colvin lecture – New York Times columnist Bret Stephens – caused some controversy early on because of his denial of climate change. But now the association between Mark Colvin and the Lowy Institute lecture has been shelved entirely after a family disagreement.
“We would not have named this lecture after Mark without the strong support of Mark’s family as well as his executors,” the Lowy Institute’s executive director Michael Fullilove said.
“Earlier this month we announced that this media lecture would now be known as the Mark Colvin lecture” Fullilove said. “Mark Colvin was a great practitioner and supporter of foreign affairs journalism and a regular attendee of the media award dinner. Mark had many friends and admirers at the Lowy Institute, and we wanted to pay him a lasting compliment.
“However, we have now been advised by Mark’s family that they have reconsidered their decision and no longer wish that Mark’s name be associated with this lecture series. We will, of course, respect their wish. Therefore we will no longer be referring to the media lecture as the Mark Colvin lecture.”
Colvin’s ABC PM colleagues, and his mother Anne and sister Zoe approved the honour with Fullilove before it was announced. The objection to the Lowy honour came from Colvin’s wife Michelle McKenzie, the mother of Colvin’s sons Will and Nic.
Can’t we all just get along?
We were not the only ones to be amused by a rallying call from Rupert Murdoch’s top man in Australia News Corp, chief executive Michael Miller for Australian media to be nicer to one another. In an address to the Melbourne Press Club, Miller said the media industry should work as one, particularly to ensure the government’s media reform package is passed into law.
“We need to stop revelling in each other’s problems and publish less negative headlines about rival newsrooms being ‘gutted’,” Miller said. “No one should be rejoicing in the Channel Nine decision to close its Darwin newsroom, least of all the publisher of the NT News. We need to be our own champions and change the conversation about the value, and contribution, of media in this country and its communities. This is what sets us apart, this is our differentiator.
“Our ability to tell unique local stories, to cover councils, to report on courts, to give a voice to those who so often are without one.”
Would that be the same News Corp that revels in attacking the ABC on a daily basis and Fairfax Media as often as it can? Will Miller call out the Australian for its relentless attacks on other media?
