Legal
Copyright case over Dawn Singleton images quietly ends
A legal stoush between the family of Bondi stabbing victim Dawn Singleton and Nine has come to a quiet end.
Just before a scheduled two-day trial, Singleton’s family agreed to court orders that settled the copyright dispute in favour of Nine and The Sydney Morning Herald.
As Michaela Whitbourn explains in the publication, if the case had gone to trial it would have had an impact on newsrooms across the country, specifically whether they can freely use public social media content under Australia’s “fair dealing” exception.
Journalism
Ita Buttrose memoir to land in October with ABC tales to tell
Clear your calendars and brace for impact: Ita Buttrose’s memoir Unapologetically Ita is set to drop on 28 October.
It must be the season for books from former Aunty workers. Just yesterday Antoinette Lattouf (whose sacking pulled Buttrose into the Federal Court witness box earlier this year) announced she too was writing a tome which will touch upon her battle with the broadcaster.
According to Steve Jackson in The Australian, Buttrose’s book is promising no sugar-coating as she reflects on five years at the helm of the broadcaster, a stint that saw its fair share of public and private turbulence.
What Paramount’s Trump payout says about legacy media’s backbone
In this Op-Ed for Crickey, Christopher Warren laments Paramount’s decision to quietly fork out US$16 million to Donald Trump and what it means for the media at large.
Trump’s lawsuit over a CBS News interview with Kamala Harris was widely viewed as legally flimsy.
But instead of fighting it, the media giant settled, apparently buying peace, while its controlling Redstone family shops for an exit from the media business altogether.
Television
Ten’s first choice to replace The Project revealed
Before The Project signed off, Ten toyed with the idea of replacing it with comedy series The Cheap Seats.
Instead, they took a sharp turn and launched 10 News+, a current affairs reboot fronted by Denham Hitchcock and Amelia Brace, with Ursula Heger and Hugh Riminton rounding out the week.
The network promised “deeper reporting” and “extended context,” but, as Isabella Rayner writes for Sky News Australia, viewers didn’t exactly follow.
Retail
Aldi joins the delivery game with DoorDash deal
Aldi is finally stepping into the home delivery ring, partnering with DoorDash to launch its first Australian delivery service.
As Campbell Kwan and Carrie LaFrenz report in The Australian Financial Review, the rollout kicks off in Canberra this week, but will expand nationally in the coming months, offering over 1800 grocery staples including fresh produce, meat, and dairy.
The move brings Aldi into direct competition with Coles and Woolworths in the online grocery race.
Advertising
Uber’s ad business races past Snapchat in Australia
Uber isn’t just delivering dinner and rides anymore, it’s quietly becoming a serious ad player.
As Tess Bennett details in The Australian Financial Review, the company pulled in over $150 million in Australian advertising revenue last year, up 55 per cent from the year before.
That’s more than Snapchat earned locally, and Uber’s just getting started.
AI
Chief Justice calls AI an ‘existential threat’ to the courts
High Court Chief Justice Stephen Gageler isn’t mincing words: artificial intelligence, he says, could upend the foundations of Australia’s justice system.
In his first Australian interviews since taking the top job, Gageler told Capital Brief‘s Michael Pelly that AI tools like ChatGPT pose serious challenges to how legal arguments are made and judged.
The concern? If both sides of a case are using AI to generate their arguments, what happens to the role of a human judge?
Film
Screen diversity audit reveals who is getting seen and heard
A major health check on diversity in Aussie screen production has dropped, with Everyone Counts 2.0 offering a snapshot of who’s working both in front of and behind the camera.
As David Knox reports in TV Tonight, the report was commissioned by the Screen Diversity Inclusion Network, the voluntary survey tracked nearly 13,000 roles across 395 productions from mid-2021 to mid-2024.
The findings cover just about every role you can imagine and dig into representation across gender, First Nations status, disability, sexuality, age, ethnicity, and socio-economic background.