Media
Tracy Grimshaw takes a pay cut amid Nine’s cost reset
According to The Australian’s Steve Jackson, Grimshaw has accepted a much smaller contract at Nine, pulling back from the hefty package she retained after leaving A Current Affair.
Her previous salary, approved under Michael Healy, had become a quiet flashpoint in newsrooms still dealing with rounds of job cuts.
Tech giants face new incentives to pay for Australian news
The Albanese government has unveiled a new plan to pressure Google, Meta, TikTok, Apple and Microsoft into cutting fresh deals with Australian publishers, with potential payouts reaching $600 million a year.
As The Australian Financial Review’s Sam Buckingham-Jones reports, under the proposed News Bargaining Incentive, any platform that refuses to negotiate would face a levy of almost $1 billion on its Australian revenue.
Companies
Are Media sale talks spark break-up chatter
Back in July, Mediaweek broke the news that Are Media was going up for sale.
Well, a few months have passed, and according to The Australian’s Steve Jackson, interest in taking the whole bundle of titles has been thin.
Inside the company, the chatter is that buyers only want the standout titles and Logies IP, not the weaker magazines that come attached.
Mercury Capital, however, is still insisting the whole portfolio must be sold as one.
Social Media
Teens drive surprise surge in alternative social apps
A cluster of lesser-known social platforms has rocketed up Australia’s App Store charts, fuelled by teens looking for workarounds to the country’s under-16 ban.
Crikey’s Cam Wilson writes that the standout is Yope, which jumped from barely visible territory to the number one spot in a week, according to Sensor Tower.
Vale
Stage and screen trailblazer Toni Lamond dies at 93
Australian entertainment has lost one of its true originals, with Toni Lamond passing away.
She also made television history in the 1960s, first as a regular on Channel 9 and then as the world’s first female Tonight show host on In Melbourne Tonight.