By James Manning

“It’s all gone perfectly to plan. Our plan was to position this as a mobile optimised site for younger digitally savvy audiences and we are hitting that goal. Eighty per cent of our users are accessing 10 Daily on mobile and 58% of users are between 18-44.”

Harrison added that 62% of the site’s audience are female.

Harrison joined 10 Daily less than two weeks before launch. He joined the platform from HuffPost Australia, where he held the title of opinion editor. He previously held senior editorial positions at News Corp and has written for The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, The Guardian, Sports Illustrated and Mamamia.

The content that is building a 10 Daily audience overs a broad range of topics. “A lot of people come to us because we are integrated with Network 10 content and its journalists and talent,” said Harrison. “They come for show related content – things like The Bachelor, Bachelor In Paradise, MasterChef Australia and I’m A Celebrity etc. But also we are leveraging our audience with 10 News First, The Project and Studio 10.

“We have some fantastic contributors like Lisa Wilkinson, Waleed Aly, Clementine Ford, Jane Caro and Tanya Hennessy. Our views and opinion platform is super popular and we are also doing bespoke content with features and video.”

Harrison noted 10 Daily also plays in the same news space as lot of other publishers. “You can’t be a news site without covering the news,” he said.

“We have lot of points of difference which people are coming to us for and we are pleased they are staying.”

Part of the attraction could be some of the edgier editorial they are running. Clementine Ford didn’t like what she saw as a cultural shift at Fairfax Media, so now she is feeding her following and attracting new readers at 10 Daily.

Harrison: “We are running some edgy content. Last Friday Clementine Ford wrote about the men who pass abortion laws will never have to suffer the barbarism of them. We run hard-hitting content when we need to.

“We have spent 12 months working out what our readers like and we are lucky to be able to cater to them across all our verticals from opinion and so on.”

Our tag line is “News with benefits” – a lot of people are coming to us for news, but they are also staying for the benefits.

Access to 10’s library of video content is a big drawcard with Harrison telling Mediaweek 10 Daily has so far served around 2.7m video streams. 10 Daily is able to use video from 10 and CBS programming, but it has its own dedicated video team too in addition to relying on its partners.

“We did a great feature on will Tony Abbot lose Warringah for example last week.”

10 Daily targets commuters morning and late afternoon and chooses stories that will satisfy that audience. “Hard politics is possibly preferred at other times of the day, but at the moment because of the election that can be across the board.

“Breaking news of course always takes priority whenever it happens.”

With a younger audience there is a perception that 10 Daily might stay away from stories like finance and superannuation. Not so. “We are finding younger people are getting more interested in superannuation stories.

“The challenge for us is not to ignore content we think our demographic won’t be interested in, but to make it relevant for them. Write it in a way that talks to people coming to our website.”

Biggest 10 Daily successes

“Our TL; DR [Too long; didn’t read] wraps of The Bachelor and The Bachelorette have been hugely successful with Matt Whitehead and Nick Ray doing a fantastic job with their video recaps which are super quirky and off-the-wall. They are part of our signature where we are serious when we need to be and we have a lot of fun when we don’t.

“Our drought coverage has been fantastic and one of our video crew noticed a poem a young boy had done. It was a heartbreaking poem about living on a rural property during times of drought. We got him to narrate that to camera and that instigated a video and editorial series on the drought. We leveraged all our networks around Australia to cover the drought and did a 10-part story on it. It helped spark a national conversation and lots of other media started covering the drought too. We were very proud to be leading a national conversation just six months after launch.”

The original reading of that poem has been one of 10 Daily’s most-watched videos.

By James Manning

Similar to what 10’s Sandra Sully told Mediaweek yesterday, Lisa Wilkinson too explained to us she was much more involved in the launch of 10 Daily than she is now.

The digital platform was launched in May last year and this week has been celebrating its first birthday.

“I had a lot of digital experience from my time at The Huffington Post Australia,” Wilkinson told Mediaweek. “At 10 Daily I helped set up the style of the site, employing some of the key people in addition to writing. This year I have had to scale back, mostly because of my additional duties at The Project filling in for Carrie. All I have time for at present is just writing for 10 Daily. Once Carrie is back that may change again.”

As to when Carrie Bickmore is returning to 10, her fill-in is not exactly sure. “I don’t think there is a definitive date yet.”

Wilkinson said part of the attraction to move from Nine to 10 was being involved with the launch of 10 Daily.

“I enjoy the writing but the trick is to find the time. I have been travelling constantly between Sydney and Melbourne and heading overseas for big interviews for The Sunday Project. I am also trying to fit in time to see my family and my husband.”

Wilkinson said the audiences watching The Project and reading 10 Daily were similar.

“10 Daily was set up to be completely integrated and capitalise on the 10 Network and its shows. 10 wanted the site to get the audience engaged with the social chatter around the 10 programming.

“It is a great news site, but a very positive site as well. That was a conscious decision at The Huffington Post and some of that team is at 10 Daily now.” (Including editor Chris Harrison who Mediaweek also interviews today.)

“We are about engagement, we are about breaking news and we are also about a very positive approach to the news. Very similar to The Project.

“So much of the media these days is about pushing buttons and making people look at the way the world is working in a very negative way. We are about finding a very positive spin. We do stories that other mainstream news and current affairs programs don’t do. We take risks, and is wonderful to be able to do that.”

Where’s Lisa on Saturday night?

One significant contributor missing from 10’s first rolling election coverage for several elections won’t be on board Saturday night. Lisa Wilkinson has something else to do.

But she wasn’t about to share the detail: “I have a couple of other things I am working on at the moment that I am unable to discuss. I will definitely be watching.”

When we pushed for even a hint, Wilkinson replied. “I could tell you, but I would have to shoot you.”

Wilkinson might have landed another major celebrity interview, but she really wasn’t ready to spill the beans. She did however talk about landing those Sunday night exclusives.

“If you don’t ask you don’t get. We have had some good wins, but we have great, tenacious producers. The Project has a fabulous reputation around the world. People come on The Project and tell the people in charge how much they have loved the experience and what they think of the journalism on the show.

“You get people like Sarah Jessica Parker coming on the program and saying she wanted to start it up in America because it is such a great program.

“We give people an opportunity to tell their story in a positive way.”

More breakfast TV? Maybe…

Wilkinson said she was happy not to have a 3am alarm any more after years on breakfast TV.

“I did have a great time on the Today show and I loved my time there. But it was time to move on.”

We wondered if there might be something in Wilkinson’s 10 contract saying she wouldn’t do breakfast TV again.

“I am loving working at Channel 10 so much I would always listen to anything they wanted me to do.”

By Andrew Mercado

Bill Shorten – Still Laugh-In (Netflix)

Thanks to Shaun Micallef, we all know Bill Shorten loves a zinger, but so too did Laugh-In (1968 – 73). This new special, part retrospective and part recreated skits, could do with some snappier editing, as could Bill. But given Laugh-In set the standard for equal female representation (Goldie Hawn, Lily Tomlin etc), should Bill share his one-liners with Tanya Plibersek and Penny Wong? You bet your sweet bippy, he should!

Pauline Hanson – Gentlemen Jack (Sunday on FoxShowcase)

Pauline Hanson could learn so much from this period piece from HBO/BBC, created by Sally Wainwright (Happy Valley) and starring Suranne Jones (Doctor Foster) as Gentleman Jack. It’s based on the real-life dairies of an extraordinarily successful woman, written in code to hide her lesbianism. Oops, that might put Pauline off, so how about the final series of Veep (Foxtel) which ended with how history judges its politicians. Yep, she’s not going to like that one either.

Clive Palmer – Chernobyl (Foxtel)

Clive Palmer should love this HBO mini-series, given it’s about nuclear power, bad communists and eating. OK, there is no eating in Chernobyl, because everyone is vomiting from radiation poisoning, but maybe Clive will learn something. Just joking, Clive already knows everything you need to know about nuclear power stations, and it’s right up there with his plans for Titanic II and those giant dinosaurs he built after buying the Sunshine’s Coast’s classiest resort. It now lies abandoned, just like Chernobyl. Making Australia Great!

Scott Morrison – Celebrity Name Game (Ten)

10 axed Pointless for the same reason that the Liberal Party dumped Malcolm Turnbull. Get too sophisticated and you lose the common man, but dumb it down in and you could be in like Flynn! Who knows if Celebrity Name Game and Scott Morrison can survive, but the TV show may have more of a chance. 10 always needs more prime time shows and Family Feud did spin-off into All-Star Family Feud. ScoMo says to get a go, you have to have a go, so let’s have a go … Celebrity Celebrity Name Game, anyone?

Thursday Week 20 2019

By James Manning

• Seven News 941,000/900,000
• Nine News 903,000/851,000
• A Current Affair 731,000
• ABC News 679,000
• 7.30 545,000
• The Project 287,000/460,000
• 10 News First 405,000
• SBS World News 132,000

Breakfast TV

• Sunrise 258,000
• Today 185,000

6pm audience

• 7News 941,000
• 9News 903,000
• Celebrity Name Game 258,000 (Mon: 314,000, Tue/Wed: 248,000)
• The Drum 227,000
• Mastermind 101,000

Seven

Seven won its second consecutive night with leading network and primary shares.

Home And Away had its smallest audience of the week, but kept its average over 600,000 after a week high of 699,000 on Monday.

The Front Bar featured Jason Akermanis with the episode on 464,000 after 457,000 a week ago.

Britain’s Got Talent did 423,000 after launching with 411,000.

Michael Usher hosted the news about Bob Hawke’s death with 260,000 watching.

Nine

A Current Affair dipped to under 750,000.

The NRL match between the Storm and Tigers was a thriller with 371,000 watching – 217,000 in Sydney and 123,000 in Brisbane.

Melbourne viewers saw Paramedics instead of The Footy Show. Didn’t lift the audience much – 105,000 – but it would have been cheaper.

Peter Overton broke into programming during the night with reports and reaction to the death of Bob Hawke.

10

Nigella Week ended with another female contestant departing the series – that makes five in a row. After stumbling in a taste test, Mandy made a smoky peri peri chicken with cabbage and beurre blanc sauce that didn’t wow the judges. The episode did 636,000 followed by a Nigella Lawson Masterclass episode on 415,000.

Elsewhere on the channel, Celebrity Name Game had its second-best audience this week with 258,000.

The Project then did 460,000 with Kasey Chambers visiting the program.

ABC

News of the passing of Bob Hawke broke during 7.30 in between pre-recorded Leigh Sales’ interviews with Scott Morrison and Bill Shorten. The program stayed on air until 8.30pm and included a Louise Milligan tribute to the much-loved leader.

The first 30 minutes of the show did 545,000.

Escape From The City was on 479,000, but that number will eventually be corrected as it includes some of 7.30.

SBS

The first Semi Final replay of the Eurovision Song Contest was on 231,000. The evening replay of the first semi last year did  271,000. The audience watching live at 5am eastern on Wednesday morning was about 65,000.

Subscription TV

News of the passing of Bob Hawke broke during The Bolt Report on Sky News while he was interviewing Athol Guy. The Seeker had some vivid memories of the leader.

David Speers, Kieran Gilbert and Paul Murray then hosted most of the rest of the evening where discussion centred around the former Australian PM.

Both the Bolt and Murray programs were in the top six shows on the Foxtel platform.

Speers and Murray hosted a compelling coverage, made even better with contributions from Graham Richardson and the man who has conducted the final interviews with Hawke for a biography, Troy Bramston.