Business of Media
VMO takes over advertising rights to Adelaide’s Rundle Place
VMO has won exclusive advertising rights to Adelaide’s most premier retail shopping centre, Rundle Place. The win sees VMO taking over the in-centre digital network previously represented by oOh!media.
Located in the heart of Rundle Mall, Adelaide’s leading shopping precinct, Rundle Place is Adelaide’s newest premium destination of choice for fashion and food in the heart of the CBD.
Set over four levels with 50 specialty stores, an international food court and anchored by Apple and Coles, Rundle Place guarantees diverse audiences and high foot traffic with over 200,000 shoppers weekly.
Anthony Deeble, group chief commercial officer comments of VMP parent Hoyts said: “This is a great win for VMO and a strong addition to our retail network. We have an impressive combination of over 15 vibrant, digital large format and portrait screens strategically positioned in high-traffic, high-dwell locations and in close proximity to leading retailers.”
Paul Butler, managing director VMO added: “We’re thrilled to have secured Rundle Place and look forward to extending this proposition to advertisers. The quality of our network coupled with the audience that this centre delivers presents a valuable opportunity for brands to cut- through and engage with consumers.”
The VMO retail network comprises of 1,400 screens throughout 400 locations and reaches a unique audience of over 10 million shoppers weekly.
Facebook listened in on private talk of some users on Messenger
Facebook and other tech giants including Microsoft are being investigated for potential breaches of privacy laws, following revelations they eavesdropped on seemingly private audio conversations to improve their products, reports The Australian’s David Swan.
Facebook has confirmed it hired contractors to listen to anonymous audio recordings that users were sending to each other over the company’s Messenger app.
Since 2015, the company has offered a feature that uses artificial intelligence to automatically transcribe voice conversations to text, with human contractors then hired to transcribe random snippets to check accuracy.
While the feature was enabled only for US users, any Australian who had a conversation with a US Facebook Messenger user may have been exposed. The social media giant has about 15 million monthly users in Australia.
Facebook said the practice was “opt-in” and the company had recently ended it.
Travel blogger Anna Sherchand told The Australian she quit Facebook after seeing ads in her news feed about the topics she was talking about over calls made via Messenger.
News Brands
Journalist’s document leaker ‘should go to jail’, says Mike Pezzullo
Home Affairs secretary Mike Pezzullo has declared the person who leaked a top secret document to a News Corp journalist should “go to jail”, as federal police reveal they have identified a suspect and are concerned about their position in the public service, reports The Australian’s Rosie Lewis.
The powerful Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security also heard warnings from the Australian Federal Police and ASIO that Australia’s international reputation was at risk and global partners would not share important information if they did not believe it would be protected.
Federal parliament is considering how law enforcement and intelligence powers are impacting the freedom of the press after the AFP raided the home of News’ Sunday politics editor Annika Smethurst in June over a 2018 story she wrote suggesting the country’s cyber spy agency could for the first time monitor Australians.
Pezzullo unleashed a scathing attack against the leaker for handing over sensitive information to News Corp, saying he knew the document “intimately”.
He was also critical of The Sunday Telegraph for publishing a screenshot of the top-secret document.
“Frankly, subject to judicial process and fair process, they (the leaker) should go to jail for that,” Pezzullo said.
Asked by Labor’s legal affairs spokesman Mark Dreyfus if Smethurst could be charged, AFP commissioner Andrew Colvin responded: “It remains the case that the investigation is ongoing.”
Radio
Media milestone: ABC NewsRadio celebrates 25 years of broadcasting
It wasn’t one of the biggest media birthdays, but ABC NewsRadio celebrated its 25th birthday on air yesterday with some memories and highlights.
Originally called the Parliamentary and News Network, the station used the Parliamentary broadcasting frequencies, which were not being used when Parliament was not in session
One of those instrumental in NewsRadio sounding like it does today was Kate Dundas, who was the ABC’s head of national networks from 2004 to 2007, and then as director of radio between 2009 and 2014.
Dundas was interviewed on air yesterday and recalled how the format developed.
Scott Morrison slaps down 2GB’s Alan Jones after Ardern attack
Scott Morrison has slapped down Sydney broadcaster Alan Jones over his comments towards New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern, reports The Sydney Morning Herald’s Natassia Chrysanthos.
Jones suggested the Prime Minister “shove a sock down her throat” during the tirade on 2GB radio on Thursday morning, provoked by Ardern’s warning that Australia “will have to answer to the Pacific” on climate change at a Pacific Islands Forum in Tuvalu.
He also called Ardern an “utter lightweight” and a “clown”.
Morrison said on Thursday night, following the end of a marathon leader’s retreat, that the comments were “very disappointing” and “way out of line”.
Morrison said Ardern’s comments about Australia’s climate change policy were “taken out of context”, and he thanked her for her “support during the summit”.
“We don’t always have to agree, and we don’t, but when we disagree we should do it well,” he said.
“And I’m for there being lively debate and lively discussion and I’ve said for some time now, we’ve got to learn to disagree better and showing respect to each other and we did tonight.”
Earlier, former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull called on Alan Jones to apologise for “his latest misogynistic rant”.
If Kyle was running 2Day FM, he wouldn’t program all-music brekky
Struggling 2DayFM radio station has dumped its sixth breakfast team in six years to launch a bold new music-only show that will kick off on Monday, reports News Corp’s Jonathon Moran.
Sandilands was quick to poke fun at the demise of yet another 2Day FM breakfast show, tweeting: “Another one bites the dust #seeya”
“I think it is another bad move because if you want just music only, there’s Spotify and all this sort of stuff,” Sandilands later told The Daily Telegraph.
“I think it is a terrible move because it is not what people want. If they want just music, there’s plenty of platforms.
“It is just another bad move I’d imagine, more of the same, bad moves.”
Triple M’s Gus Worland on 10 years on air: Best & worst interviews
Triple M radio star Gus Worland has revealed which two celebrities were the most disappointing out of the hundreds that he’s interviewed, reports News.com.au’s Andrew Bucklow.
Worland, who co-hosts Triple M Sydney’s Moonman in the Morning with Lawrence Mooney and Jess Eva, is today celebrating 10 years on radio.
Speaking to news.com.au to mark the milestone, Worland opened up about the best and worst stars he’s met over the years.
“The best, the number one standout, is Hulk Hogan,” he said. “He was actually meant to go to Kyle and Jackie O (who at the time were broadcasting on 2Day FM which is in the same building as Triple M) who were one level above us.
“But the security guy that let him into the building just assumed, ‘Oh, he must be here for Triple M.’
As for the worst, Worland named and shamed an Aussie motorcyclist and a Hollywood action hero.
“The one we disliked the most was Steven Seagal who is the perfect actor for Triple M listeners but he’s always been very difficult,” Worland said.
“Wayne Gardner (former 500cc Motorcycle World Champion) was a bit of a knob-end too,” the Triple M host said.
“He was in a filthy mood and we wanted to talk about a whole lot of things from motorcycling to V8s and he just didn’t want to play. He gave really short answers and there were no explanations when we asked for a story. We ended up not even airing it.”
Television
Domain to get television show on Nine hosted by Chris Kohler
There are few Australian corporate rivalries quite as fierce that between real estate listings leader REA (61.6 per cent owned by News Corp) and second-placed rival Domain (59.4 per cent owned by Nine), reports The AFR’s Myriam Robin.
Both count on various levels of support from their respective media owners. And when Nine purchased Domain’s then-majority-owner Fairfax, a TV network was added to the properties that could, hypothetically, be used to boost Domain.
Nine months after the merger, that’s exactly what’s happening. At its results on Friday, Domain will announce a new Domain-branded real estate show to air on Nine. One of its hosts will be Chris Kohler, currently at Sky News. He used to be the national business editor at Domain before being poached by News and Nine (before Nine bought Fairfax) to front the now-deceased Your Money TV channel.
Festival of Trioli comes to an end…for now: ABC farewells host
After a week of goodbyes and reminiscing on ABC’s News Breakfast co-host Virginia Trioli hosted her final show today. The host was also celebrating her birthday making it a double celebration day.
Today the ABC will be hosting a formal farewell for Trioli as current and former (and a future) News Breakfast colleagues gather to celebrate her years on the show and wish her well for the move to ABC Radio Melbourne.
Co-host Michael Rowland was reading out more tributes from viewers across the morning. Trioli said earlier in the week she might save her tears until later in the week for Friday’s show.
News Breakfast’s original co-host Barrie Cassidy was unable to visit today as he is travelling in India. Guests visiting the studio today included former MasterChef judge Matt Preston.
Trioli has written about her memories across the years and here are some of the highlights:
There’s a respect and an affection that goes beyond what we do together each day for three hours, and there’s the unspoken understanding that comes from successes and disappointments experienced in each other’s company.
I admire Michael’s news sense enormously. I love Paul’s breadth and depth of interests. I’m inspired by the polymath that is Nate, and Georgie has a natural feel for television communication that is so rare.
The privilege of the job of journalism is that we get to ask impertinent questions of pretty much anyone, and then expect an honest answer.
You bet we take it seriously: there’s a lot of yak about the “theatre” of the political interview, but for me it’s deadly serious.
The politicians might be posturing, but every time I interview an elected official I’m imagining what the voter who funds them is yelling at the TV, or worrying about at home, or banging their head against at work.
Apparently I have a reputation for going in hard.
After many years in journalism, from the newsroom of The Age, to the re-born offices of Kerry Packer‘s Bulletin magazine, to ABC radio in two cities and television shows around the country, I’ve learned a few fundamentals.
But without doubt the most important is that the team is everything, and I reckon that’s something we can all relate to.
Find the team that looks at you as if you actually have something meaningful to contribute to this world: that’s the greatest truth I take from these 11 amazing years.
Read more at:
Virginia Trioli reflects on breakfast TV, winning over doubters, and her next move