The highlight of the trip will be four nights in New Orleans attending the biggest annual exchange of ideas and innovation in the global news business.

It’s the 20th anniversary at the Online News Association, and it is planning its biggest and best events ever. To celebrate the milestone, the ONA is bringing the annual conference to New Orleans, home to some of the richest history, food and music and in the United States.

ONA19 will bring together some of the most innovative minds in digital media, including journalists, media executives, product teams, entrepreneurs and educators.

Mediaweek editor James Manning: “I attended the 2017 ONA conference in Washington DC and was overwhelmed by the information and insights on offer. I got to meet some of the great speakers and hear about media businesses big and small and how they are adapting business models and adopting technology to benefit their news gathering and publishing businesses.”

Details

Visit: Online News Association 2019 conference (ONA19) in New Orleans.

People in news media from around the world will visit ONA19 for inspiring conversations about the latest trends and best practices in digital media; interactive exhibits to explore new tools; opportunities to connect with influencers, peers and emerging talent and much more.

The session in New Orleans will include the opening night function and also the Friday night parties organised by the big media companies and the Saturday night awards function.

We are still finalising some of our schedule for California, but we have secured a visit to Twitter HQ in San Francisco and we will also be taking part in a special session with Google on the Google News Initiative.

Meet news leaders from all major publishers and broadcasters, hear the latest strategies and developments from Google, Facebook, Twitter, Washington Post, Financial Times, Quartz, Politico, NPR, Vox & more

Dates: Leave Sydney Sunday September 8, return early Tuesday September 17

3 nights in San Francisco (Visits to Twitter & Google)
4 nights in New Orleans (Conference, Awards & functions)

We are also travelling with dedicated concierge to cover all requests.

Cost: $6,950
Includes:

All flights economy class Qantas/United
7 nights hotel accommodation with breakfasts
Conference and Awards Night registration
Premium Economy upgrade available +$2000

Email interest to Garry Farrar at [email protected] and we shall be in touch regarding payment.

Tour places will be reserved in the order we receive them.

By James Manning

Hadley’s new multi-year 2GB contract sees him on $4m annually meaning over the term of the reported contract period he will earn $24m.

The increase takes his annual salary from $2.3m to $4m.

See: Ray Hadley to keep increased $4m yearly contract despite Alan Jones staying put at 2GB

Hadley may not (yet) have Alan Jones’ breakfast slot, but they are both now on the same money after Jones recently renewed his contract for a further two years on $4m.

Funding those big pay days is the sales team in Sydney who invoiced close to $50m in calendar 2018.

It is also interesting comparing the salaries of its sister station 3AW. Apart from both winning the ratings in every survey in every year, the stations couldn’t be more different. Both in political sentiment and the size of the salaries.

While Ross Stevenson has just re-signed for six years on 3AW breakfast, there has been no talk (via ego-boosting leaks) of the amount he, or his colleague John Burns, are being paid.

It was estimated close to a decade ago that in his former 3AW deal Stevenson was being paid over $1m annually. Although that should have at least doubled, it seems unlikely the two 3AW hosts and their breakfast team are being paid close to what the 2GB breakfast host and his team are costing the company.

Smaller salaries at 3AW mean it is a significantly more profitable than 2GB with both stations currently writing similar revenue. 3AW is thought to have increased its revenues in 2018 to also just on $50m.

In the world of FM radio salaries aren’t always linked directly to the size of the pay packet. The highest paid hosts arrived at their current station without any survey wins at their new home. However the leaders at ARN correctly predicted Kyle and Jackie O’s audience would follow them to KIIS FM.

Kyle and Jackie O are the highest breakfast hosts in Australia. They are midway through their second contact since departing SCA’s 2Day FM in 2013. They each earn over $5m. KIIS FM is estimated to have ad revenues of close to $46m.

The next highest-paid FM broadcaster is thought to be Eddie McGuire who could get close to the $4m annually that Jones and Hadley earn. That would also make him the highest-paid Melbourne broadcaster.

While breakfast radio hosts earn the big bucks, drive radio is a more significant FM slot these days thanks to the work done by Mick Molloy and Tony Martin and then Hamish Blake and Andy Lee during their successful years on SCA stations around Australia.

Drive broadcasters earning close to $2m annually would be Nova’s Marty Sheargold and Kate Richie, with SCA’s Dave Hughes and Kate Langbroek perhaps not too far behind.

Breakfast FM hosts in that similar salary range include Fitzy and Wippa, Sam Pang, Fifi Box and Amanda Keller. Pang, who starts at 7am daily, does eight hours a week working four mornings. He is also on contracts with 10 for HYBPA? and Seven for The Front Bar. Keller is also one of 10’s brightest stars, fronting both The Living Room and Dancing With The Stars.

Michael Wipfli has been in and out of the real estate pages much of this year as he traded up from his Queens Park property to a more substantial investment in Rose Bay. He’s also a budding media mogul, withhis fledgling production company Two Scoops Media, in partnership with Matchbox Pictures, is behind the new I Am…Roxy coming to 10’s Pilot Week. He won’t have far to travel now for meetings with its star Roxy Jacenko. She has moved in just to a new property up the road from Wippa in Vaucluse.

The next layer of FM stars, and there is a lot of them, are in the $1m range.

There has been a strong turnaround in May ad spend post the federal election that’s seen the decline in total underlying demand reduce to 1.6% at $595.9 million.

SMI has recorded an above-average bounce in ad spend since the May mid-month data was released, with the market then back 11.6%. But a $60 million-plus increase in bookings – mostly from late digital bookings but also attributable to the press and outdoor media – has seen that decline significantly reduce.

As a result SMI is now reporting the first growth in digital ad spend in four months (May data now +3.6%) while there’s also higher demand for radio (+2.3%), regional TV (+6.0%) and consumer magazines (+0.8%).

Metropolitan TV bookings were back only 1.9% and metropolitan press was down just 3.4%, although both of those media would be reporting growth if the United Australia Party advertising was bought through media agencies.

Also, the softer overall press demand is focused on the regional newspaper market as one of the largest groups prepares to transition to a new owner.

The decline in outdoor bookings was mostly due to that media’s large exposure to the auto brand and domestic banks categories, both of which reported double digit falls in the value of their media investment in May.

SMI AU/NZ managing director Jane Ractliffe said the large jump in bookings post the Federal election pointed to a greater sense of confidence within the advertising market.

“We have been seeing reduced media spending from the vast majority of all SMI product categories all year so to see such a strong bounce so soon after the federal election is a very positive sign and strongly suggests that market sentiment has moved back into positive territory,” she said.

In this election month Ractliffe said the market did benefit from the huge increase in election-related ad spend with the political party/industry assoc/union category spending $38.2 million.

“Over the past four months these advertisers – the Liberal, Labor, Nationals and Greens plus union campaigns and campaigns from other interested industry associations – spent $70.5 million which is almost a $20 million increase on what these same advertisers spent in the four months before the 2016 Federal election,” she said.

“Among the major changes in political ad spend, this year we saw a far higher proportion directed to metropolitan radio and while digital’s share of this category’s ad spend doubled it still represented less than 12% of all political bookings by dollar value.”

Ractliffe added the lack of business confidence in the early part of May was reflected in SMI’s product category data which showed that only 13 of the 41 categories reported increases in media investment in May. Apart from the political category, a string of large movie releases ensured strong growth in the movies/cinema category while travel advertising was also strong.

The softer demand seen in May represents the eighth consecutive month in which SMI has reported lower year-on-year growth and as a result the overall market is back 3.6% for the first five months of this calendar year while for the financial year the decline is a smaller 1.5%.

Here is a selection from columns from both the newspaper editor Ben English and 2GB breakfast host Alan Jones have written today.

Ben English

It’s our birthday: Sydney’s Daily Telegraph is 140 years old

Since its foundation in 1879, The Daily Telegraph has been as much a part of Sydney as our harbour and beaches, which in the year of our masthead’s launch, were rather less populated than they are now, 140 years later.

Sydney in 1879 was home to only about 350,000 people. Our entire nation’s population was somewhere close to two million, less than half our city’s current total.

Even from those earliest days, The Daily Telegraph precisely reflected the energetic, competitive and irrepressible nature of our city.

Beyond our boundaries, The Daily Telegraph has also brought to Sydney news of the planet’s most transformative events.

Consider the sweep of history covered during the past 140 years.

When The Daily Telegraph launched, the Boer War was still two decades away. The Daily Telegraph was there, and we were there for World War I, the World War II and conflicts in Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iraq.

In Monday’s eight-page wrap and throughout the week, The Daily Telegraph will revisit many of the momentous occasions that have occurred on our watch. These won’t be simple reprints. They will be written in the present tense, to better indicate through a modern perspective the historical nature of those events.

\We will always speak Sydney’s language. Our voice is – always has been – our readers’ voice.

It’s with their perspective in mind that our reporters, columnists and editors, illustrators, cartoonists and photographers carry out their craft.

The Tele has never condescended to its audience. It has never assumed any lofty, insider’s pedestal.

That’s one reason we have thrived to this day – on the good graces of you, our wonderful readers.

[Read the original]

Alan Jones: The Daily Telegraph has been telling it straight for 140 years

The Daily Telegraph is to be congratulated – firstly on reaching the milestone of its 140th birthday, and secondly on giving its readers this special anniversary feature.

The Telegraph, rightly, describes itself as “the voice of Sydney and NSW”.

No other newspaper does that.

And not only is the Telegraph the voice of “Sydney and NSW”, it’s the voice of the people. The fair-dinkum people. The people I describe as coming from Struggle Street. Not the latte-drinking tree huggers of the left that churn out the bile in some other newspapers.

Now not only do we get the news and the sport in The Tele, we also get the opinions of the people we want to hear from.

People like Miranda Devine, Andrew Bolt, Piers Akerman and the very funny Tim Blair.

[Read the original]

By James Manning

Nova stations in Sydney and Melbourne have looked to boost their daytime performance this year with the injection of superstar announcers into the morning timeslots.

Paul Jackson, Nova Entertainment group program director, explained the move earlier this year, “Nova Entertainment will be at the forefront of change, delivering a new sound in workdays from 29 April. We are giving listeners more reasons to listen across the day with one of the biggest radio announcers in Melbourne and the most highly respected music announcer in Sydney.”

That Sydney-based music announcer is Kent “Smallzy” Small who has been the king of nights across Australia for Nova for six years.

In Melbourne, joining Nova to boost its daytime performance was former KIIS, Triple M and Fox breakfast host Matt Tilley.

See also:
Nova shakes up daytime radio as Matt Tilley joins in Melbourne

Smallzy is someone who is very unlikely to knock back a work opportunity if he could at all fit it into his schedule. He realises the fortunate position he is in now, but he’s all too aware that might not last forever.

“That’s 100% correct,” Smallzy told Mediaweek. “Anyone who has worked in radio for some time has had opportunities come and opportunities go. I like to be in charge of my destiny and I will have a crack at any opportunity that I am given.”

Having said that, Smallzy admitted he had no plan to do the Nova 96.9 morning show and he certainly didn’t pitch it to his radio bosses.

“I was just humming along nicely and it wasn’t until PJ [Paul Jackson] and Peter Clay [head of programming Nova 96.9 and smoothfm] pitched it to me as part of a plan they thought would be a great next radio step for me.

“I saw that as a good chance to grow with my audience after six years of hosting the night show. I have also learned because of the length of the commute for many people in Sydney there is a shared audience for some who listen to me between 9am and 10am and then they get to hear the start of my evening show.”

There was no desire on Smallzy’s part to let go of his evening audience, a part of the day he has made his own. “When you are very close to something you created it is hard to let go. I know one day that will happen and I am slowly coming to terms with that. I haven’t yet finished what I want to do at night.

“For the time being I am very much enjoying doing both.”

Smallzy was much more of a night owl than he is allowed to be now. “Our whole schedule has really been turned on its head. Having to work at the other end of the day is a slowly evolving process. After two months of morning radio my body clock hasn’t fully adjusted yet.”

As to a question about things he could do on evening radio that would be frowned on in morning. Smallzy replied: “I feel very lucky that I get to work in such a supportive environment where I am not micro-managed. The same level of trust has been afforded to me as I have in evening. I am sure there may have been a few things where people shook their head about what should not be done in morning radio, but I don’t feel I’ve crossed the line badly…yet!

“I am very conscious of crafting out an opportunity that hasn’t previously existed and the only way I can do that is by trying different things and seeing how they stick.”

With a focus on music, daytime announcers are not encouraged to chat for too long between the tunes. However that is something that Smallzy has always been awake too, given his evening audience passion for music.

“I have always tried to be very self-disciplined in terms of length. If I ever do talk longer there needs to be a very good reason why.”

Smallzy loves his travel and this Platinum level frequent flyer, who has recently attained Lifetime Gold, is not about to give that up because of his additional radio demands.

“Changing my travel plans was a non-negotiable. The travel and the opportunity that presents is what gives what I do a point of difference. We just did a week on the road with the Jonas Brothers and we did the morning show from Los Angeles and we pre-recorded the evening show. No one said it sounded bad or different. It was a good test for the new show and gave us the chance to test new technology, which will help make the extra workload possible.

“Adding mornings has made me re-evaluate what we have been doing and how we could work smarter. When we have a good guest now we work at sharing that guest over two shows, at the same time making sure we have two very different pieces of content.”

Nova has entrusted Smallzy’s long-time EP Zach La Cava with the EP role in morning. Also working across both shows is evening assistant producer Gemma Prendergast.

Zach La Cava

“Lots of people say they have the hardest working team in radio. I can say I genuinely have the hardest working team. We haven’t added any new staff for the extra show.”

Smallzy added with a grin: “Nova got a great deal, trust me! Two shows for the price of one. Ka-ching!”

That is six hours of radio a day, three for Sydney and three for the national network. In total 30 hours of radio a week. “I guess I’m future-proofing my brand in case anything goes wrong! Only joking.” He added with a laugh.

—

Top Photo: Smallzy

Effective immediately Geoff Cochrane (pictured) has been promoted to national sales director VMO and will be leading the sales team across the three VMO products – Shop, On-the-go and Active.

With over 15 years of outdoor experience Cochrane has been successful as the sales director for VMO Active for the past five years. Cochrane commented, “It is an honour and I am thrilled to be taking on the role of national sales director. There has never been a more exciting time to be in outdoor. VMO’s agility and flexibility offers a unique proposition to clients. I am excited to lead the sales team in growing our share in the market.”

Paul Butler, managing director VMO said of Cochrane, “Geoff has fantastic industry experience, joining VMO in 2016 when we acquired Active Media Group. Prior to Active he had over 10 years with JCDecaux. Geoff’s proven track record in leading sales teams, his reputation in market and ability to drive market share will be key to propelling VMO into the future.”

The appointment of Cochrane follows several structural changes in Victoria that saw Val Morgan veteran Deb Trela take on a group role general manager – sales Victoria, for the cinema and outdoor businesses. In addition, Lucy Porter will join VMO as group sales manager coming from JCDecaux from 15th July 2019.

Carolyne Wearne will continue her role as sales director Val Morgan | VMO for Queensland, and Madison Bayley has been promoted to account manager VMO.

Starring Asher Keddie (Offspring, The Cry) and Richard Roxburgh (Rake, Hacksaw Ridge), The Hunting intimately and dramatically imagines the lives of four teenagers, their teachers and families throughout the lead up, revelation and aftermath of a nude teen photo scandal.

When two high school teachers discover students are sharing explicit photos of their underage friends and peers online, the revelation has devastating consequences for the students and their families. Tackling themes of misogyny, privacy, sexuality and sexualisation, online exploitation, masculinity and gender, the series uses this singular event as a way of exploring some of the most pressing issues of our time and offering a vital portrait of modern, multicultural Australia.

Asher Keddie said:

“There are so many hard-wired ideas we’ve grown up with that we’re realising are unacceptable. I have four and nine year old sons, and the world that they are navigating is vastly different to the one I grew up in. I think The Hunting, and the conversations it will inevitably ignite are really necessary, to stay on the front foot and to help raise emotionally intelligent, respectful human beings” 

Richard Roxburgh said:

“This series explores deeply entrenched patterns of behaviour. It’s critical for us to understand that the ripples of this behaviour have consequences, and in particular, they permeate masculine culture everywhere. Any parent will be aware of the new pressures of dealing with the conundrums of social media once your children can go down the rabbit hole of accessible internet.”

SBS director of television and online content Marshall Heald said:

“Tightly paced and gripping, The Hunting unpicks the choices of four diverse teens with compassion and humanity. This provocative modern drama will force audiences to face uncomfortable questions about social media and our online lives, and where consent and trust fits into this. This is vital viewing for anyone with a teenager in their life.”

Joining Asher and Richard are Sam Reid (Bloom, Lambs of God), Jessica De Gouw (Arrow, Deadline Gallipoli), Luca Sardelis (Nowhere Boys, Deadlock), Yazeed Daher (The Heights, Safe Harbour), and newcomers Kavitha Anandasivam and Alex Cusack.

Rounding out the ensemble are Pamela Rabe (Wentworth), Leah Vandenberg (The Letdown), Rodney Afif (Ali’s Wedding), Sachin Joab (Lion), Elena Carapetis (Look Both Ways) and Anna Lindner (Wolf Creek TV).

The Hunting is created by Sophie Hyde (Animals, 52 Tuesdays) and Matthew Cormack (52 Tuesdays, F*!#ing Adelaide), directed by Ana Kokkinos (Mustangs FC, Seven Types of Ambiguity) and Sophie Hyde, and produced by Rebecca Summerton (Animals, F*!#ing Adelaide), Sophie Hyde and Lisa Scott (Pine Gap, Janet King).

The series is written by Matthew Cormack and Niki Aken (The Secret Daughter, Janet King), executive produced by Sue Masters (SBS). Director of photography is Bonnie Elliott (Palm Beach, Romper Stomper) and editor is Bryan Mason (Animals, 52 Tuesdays).

The Hunting is a Closer Productions production for SBS, with major production investment from SBS and Screen Australia, in association with the South Australian Film Corporation. International sales are handled by DCD Rights.

The Hunting airs over four weeks, premiering Thursday 1 August at 8.30pm on SBS, and on SBS On Demand.

2GB and Chris Smith today announce that they have agreed to end their working relationship.  Smith will attend a pre-planned overseas trip for three weeks commencing tomorrow and following the trip, Chris will leave 2GB on 31 July 2019.

Neither 2GB nor Chris Smith will be making any further comment on the matter. We wish Chris well in his future endeavours.

Chris would like to thank 2GB listeners for their ongoing support.

The departure of Smith comes after talks regarding his future when he refused to accept the role of evening presenter, swapping spots with the current 2GB evening host Steve Price.

By syndicated the new Steve Price afternoon show into Melbourne in addition to Brisbane, Macquarie Media will make savings by dropping the current 3AW afternoon host Denis Walter.

The Daily Telegraph reported on Tuesday security guards at 2GB refused to open the doors of the radio station to accept a petition from angry listeners protesting plans to bump host Smith into nights.

In the most recent Sydney radio survey, Chris Smith’s afternoon timeslot had a share of 12.5%. That was over double the share of ABC Radio Sydney and ahead of his nearest commercial FM competitor smoothfm on 11.4%.

Meanwhile 3AW’s Denis Walter had a share of 11.9%, second only in the market to Gold 104.3 on 12.5%. Walter also had a share more than double ABC Radio Melbourne.

As defending champions, the Australian women’s team heads into enemy territory to England, with a team packed full of superstars including and one of the greatest batters in the world, captain Meg Lanning, the game’s best all-rounder in Ellyse Perry, and reigning T20 international player of the year, Alyssa Healy.

In a unique points-based format, The Women’s Ashes will be decided over seven games during the next month, with each offering the winning side varying amounts of points: three ODI’s (two points each) one Test Match (four points), and three T20’s (two points each). The side that has the most points at the end of the series will be crowned the winner of The Ashes.

The action from each game will be called by some of the biggest names from the world of men women’s and men’s cricket, and hosted by former Australian captains Mark Taylor and Lisa Sthalekar, and Australian great Ian Healy.

By Trent Thomas

Exkept, yes Except with a K, the Kardashians who have shot up to number four on both market’s Overall TV Charts this week after not ranking last week.

The sixteenth season of Keeping up the with Kardashians has been building to the alleged affair of Khloe Kardashian’s husband NBA player Tristan Thompson with Kylie Jenner’s best friend Jordyn Wood. The penultimate episode of the season showed Khloe confronting the rumours of the affair while dealing with a debilitating health issue. With the season finale to feature Khloe dealing with the shocking betrayal as well as more drama from Jordyn Wood, it will be interesting to see if the show moves further up the Overall TV Chart this week.

Another notable new entry to the Australian Digital Originals Chart is the true crime drama series The Act. The first season is based on the real life of Gypsy Rose Blanchard and the murder of her mother, Dee Dee Blanchard, who was accused of suffering from Munchausen syndrome by proxy and abusing her daughter by fabricating illness and disabilities.

In NZ a noteworthy entry was Swamp Thing which joined the digital Original Charts at number nine, the superhero horror drama series based on the DC Comics character, premiered May 31, 2019, on DC Universe but was cancelled one week after its premiere aired.

Tuesday Week 27 2019

By James Manning

 • Seven News 1,092,000/1,019,000
• Nine News 933,000/924,000
• A Current Affair 778,000
• ABC News 633,000
• 7.30 485,000
• The Project 281,000/498,000
• 10 News First 387,000
• The Drum 192,000
• SBS World News 141,000
• Breakfast TV

• Sunrise 256,000
• Today 200,000

Seven

After 661,000 on Monday, Home And Away was on 649,000.

Work continued outdoors on House Rules with 563,000 after 584,000 on Tuesday last week.

Actor Stephen Curry was the guest on Andrew Denton’s Interview with 400,000 after 405,000 last week.

The tennis crowd on 7TWO saw 270,000 watching earlier in the evening and then 256,000 later in the night. Seven copped much flack not showing all of the Ash Barty clash, something that Fox Sports and Kayo showed live in full.

Nine

A Current Affair was reporting on an investigation into a celebrity doctor after two of his patients died. The Tuesday episode was on 778,000 after 836,000 on Monday.

The penultimate episode of The Voice for 2019 sent five hopefuls home leaving four to battle it out in the Grand Final next Sunday. The episode drifted below 800,000 to 790,000 for only the second time this season. The audience was up though on the 745,000 watching a week ago.

The Big Bang Theory then did 285,000 and 179,000 with repeats ahead of the final episodes to be screened tonight.

The Australian women’s cricket teams started its Ashes series last night with about 40,000 watching the first overs on 9Gem at 11pm.

10

5SOS and David Walliams were on The Project, but neither were in the studio. Sam Taunton “interviewed” the pop stars while Lisa Wilkinson looked to be in London speaking to Wallaims. He promised there will be more Little Britain in the next couple of years. The episode was on 498,000 after 563,000 on Monday.

Panna cotta again on MasterChef seemed to upset some of the fans, but it was a strategy that gave Larissa an immunity pin that will keep her in the series as its get closer to the climax. The audience was 645,000 after 581,000 last Tuesday.

The second episode of the new season of Todd Sampson’s Bodyhack did 304,000 after 281,000 last week.

ABC

The second part of the Ask The Doctor food special did 307,000 after 348,000 a week ago.

The second episode of Blue Water Empire was on 185,000 after launching on 258,000.

SBS

Every Family Has A Secret was on 252,000 after 303,000 a week ago.

An Insight repeat then did 231,000.

The provocatively titled 100 Vaginas then did 154,000 in the Dateline slot.