The Australian operation of the global newsbrand has enjoyed increased engagement from readers as have publishers globally during 2020.

“We have had a massive surge in audience – we went from about 6m monthly when the bushfires were on in January and then we virtually doubled our audience to almost 12m,” Stinton told Mediaweek. “We were already on a fairly strong growth trajectory and we remain the fastest growing publisher from an audience perspective in Nielsen’s top 10.

“What the coronavirus has done this year was to accelerate that very quickly. That has had a major benefits for us – more readers have been prepared to support Guardian Australia financially.

“Regarding advertising it was quite scary for us at the start of the pandemic, which saw more advertisers cancelling rather than booking. We are now able to report however that ad bookings have rebounded very strongly and that comes after people realise we have had massive audience growth. Advertisers are recognising we are one of the leading news brands in the country and booking with us direct.

“Programmatic advertising has suffered this year which is more a symptom of the market. It went down a lot and then came back, but it hasn’t recovered yet to what it was before the pandemic. We expect more growth heading into Christmas though.

“To summarise, what the pandemic has done is accelerate trends already taking place. For example audiences moving from print to digital have increased and there has been an increase with peoples’ propensity to pay for news and there has been an increase in advertisers moving from print to digital.”

See also:
Guardian Australia’s new subscription option for growing audience
160,000 contribute financially as readers revenue overtakes ad dollars

Guardian Australia’s New Zealand play

“We just dipped our toe in the water,” said Stinton about how Guardian Australia flirted with editorial expansion into New Zealand with just one hire and a freelance budget.

“We have really been encouraged with the response from that. What we now have for readers in New Zealand is a specific section on the home page that launches with New Zealand-specific stories. It launched last year and the traffic has been amazing and there is much interest from advertisers too.

“We are now in the process of planning our next move in New Zealand. It is likely that there will be greater investment.”

While Guardian Australia maintains a full time reporter, Stinton noted the pool of contributing writers.

The publisher is expected to make an announcement soon too about advertising representation in New Zealand.

Investment roadmap for Australia

“We are well ahead of our audience and revenue projections that were outlined in our current strategic plan a couple of years ago,” said Stinton. “We have done that with a newsroom which is comparatively small compared to News Corp Australia and Nine.

“We are definitely going to be investing more into expanding our newsroom and broadening our coverage which will start in 2021. We are currently planning that investment.”

In her new role Lewis will work alongside Global CEO Jakob Nielsen and the global leadership team to supercharge the Finecast global footprint, with expansion into 20 countries over the next 24 months. 

The move will see Lewis return home to Europe in December to take on the global position, and to be closer to her family.

In her time as Chief Investment Officer, Lewis has evolved and futureproofed the Investment and Partnerships capability at GroupM, creating a highly skilled and passionate Investment Community of more than 400 people across Mindshare, MediaCom, Wavemaker and Essence, focused on delivering the best value and investment opportunities for GroupM clients.

She has also been key to bringing GroupM’s market-leading innovations to market, working with her direct team to build out the first Programmatic Digital OOH Marketplace, in partnership with Hivestack, launching Motion Content Group in Australia, and assisting with the growth of Finecast.

GroupM will be appointing a replacement to oversee Investment and Partnerships in due course.

Lewis has been Chief Investment Officer of GroupM since 2018, and before that she was Chief Investment Officer of GroupM agency Mindshare, and prior, spent 17 years of her career working in senior commercial positions within large media organisations.

GroupM Australia CEO Mark Lollback said: “While we’re incredibly sad to see a talented member of our leadership team move on, Nicola has made an incredible contribution to the growth and development of GroupM, our agencies, and our people creating a strong and sophisticated Investment & Partnerships community across GroupM Australia, led by strong investment leads in each agency. Her progression from Mindshare, to GroupM and now to Finecast, is exactly the kind of fulfilling career development that GroupM offers all our people and we’re pleased that she remains part of the GroupM family.”

Nicola Lewis said: “As CIO, I’ve been fortunate to work with an incredibly smart group of people who have helped me strengthen and futureproof GroupM’s approach to investment and partnerships. It’s been deeply satisfying to collaborate with our media owner partners to push the market forwards, enabling GroupM to consistently deliver optimal value to our clients. It has also been a pleasure to be part of the Finecast journey so far. As the second international territory to launch in 2018, we’ve seen it grow phenomenally as clients adopt addressable TV, so the opportunity to drive the global expansion of Finecast, delivering the power of TV with the precision of data for GroupM clients around the world, is incredibly exciting. Of course, I will miss my beloved Australia, but after 18 years away am happy to be moving back closer to my family.”

Jakob Nielsen, Finecast Global CEO, says: “WPP is investing in technology, data and people to support the growth and success of Finecast and we’re now live in 5 markets with more to come. I am incredibly excited to welcome Nicola to the Finecast Global leadership team. Her past experience leading investment, driving innovation and delivering commercial growth, makes her perfectly placed to lead our engagement with agencies and clients, support the markets and work closely with media owners all over the world.”

Ben Lawrence has taken out the Best Direction of a Feature Film (Budget $1M or over) Award for his much-lauded feature Hearts & Bones. The film was released in the US last week following its successful Australian release earlier this year.

The Awards were notable for the number of female directors to win ADG Awards – 10 of the 19 Awards were won by women, a reflection of the industry’s move towards gender parity.

Amongst the many female directors to be applauded this year, Josephine Mackerras won the ADG Award for Best Direction of a Feature Film (Budget under $1M) for Alice, Maya Newell won Best Direction of a Documentary Feature for In My Blood It Runs, and Emma Freeman received the Award for Best Direction of a TV or SVOD Mini-Series for Stateless: Episode 3.

ADG President Samantha Lang said: “The Awards come at a moment when key creatives and organisations in our screen industry are lobbying government to ‘Make It Australian’ and keep Australian storytelling on our local and global screens. The films, television shows, music videos, student films and commercial work of directors nominated and awarded tonight are a shining example of the creative, cultural and fiscal success of Australian content. It’s also heartwarming to see an immense diversity of Australian directors awarded tonight – a reflection of who we are – both as content creators – and audiences.”

A record 202 entries were received in this year’s ADG Awards, up from 117 in 2019.

The Awards celebrate the outstanding work of Australian screen directors over the past year across 19 categories including film, television, online, music and advertising.

Any Australian Directors’ Guild member is able to submit for the ADG Awards. The judging panels are drawn from ADG membership (Full Members).

The ADG Awards recognise excellence in the craft and art of directing, as well as honouring individual contributions by Australian screen directors to the screen industry. The Awards are the only opportunity for Australian directors and their work to be acknowledged by their directing peers. The Awards cover the breadth of screen directing with categories across feature film, documentary, television, subscription video on demand, commercial, short film, animation, online, music video and interactive media.

The full winners list is below. The 2020 ADG Awards Ceremony is available to be viewed online via social media on the @AustralianDirectorsGuild Facebook page. For a digital copy of the program for the show or go to the awards section on ADG website.

2020 ADG AWARDS WINNERS LIST

Best Direction of a Feature Film (Budget $1M or over)
Proudly sponsored by ASDACS
Ben Lawrence – Hearts and Bones

Best Direction of a Feature Film (Budget under $1M)
Proudly sponsored by Panavision
Winner prize $10,000 Camera Package
Josephine Mackerras – Alice

Best Direction of a Documentary Feature
Proudly sponsored by Screenrights
Maya Newell – In My Blood It Runs

Best Direction of a TV or SVOD Drama Series
Proudly sponsored by ABC
Jeffrey Walker – The Commons – Season 1 Episode 1

Best Direction of a TV or SVOD Mini-Series
Proudly sponsored by Docklands Studios Melbourne
Emma Freeman – Stateless – Episode 3

Best Direction of a Documentary Series
Proudly sponsored by Media Super
Rosie Jones – The Cult Of The Family – Episode 1

Best Direction of a TV or SVOD Comedy Series
Proudly sponsored by The Post Lounge
Matthew Saville – Upright – Episode 5

Esben Storm Award for Best Direction of a Children’s TV or SVOD Drama Program
Proudly sponsored by Australian Children’s Television Foundation
Kacie Anning – Hardball – Episode 6

Best Direction of a TV or SVOD Drama Serial
Proudly sponsored by Fremantle
Kate Kendall – Neighbours – Episode 8052

Best Direction of an Animated Project
Proudly sponsored by Animal Logic
Jo Boag – Alice-Miranda Friends Forever

Best Direction of Commercial Content
Allan Hardy ACS – Volvo Penta Makes Australian Farming Possible (Allabah Pastural Co.)

Best Direction of Commercial Advertisement
Luke Shanahan – NZ Post – Little Fibs

Best Direction of an Online Drama Series
Husein Alicajic – One Sided – The Acquired Inability To Escape – Episode 1

Best Direction of an Online Comedy Series
Proudly sponsored by Kaleidoscope Digital
Winner Prize $1000 Screen DIrector’s Identity Package
(Social Media and Website Services)
Michael O’Neill & Dylan Hesp – Australia’s Best Street Racer

Best Direction of a Documentary Short Subject
Karen Pearlman – I Want To Write A Film About Women

Best Direction of a Music Video
Matthew Thorne – The Only Boy Racer Left On The Island (Artist: The Howl & The Hum)

Best Direction of an Interactive or Immersive Title
Matthew Sleeth – A Drone Opera

Best Direction of a Short Film
Proudly sponsored by Panavision
Winner prize $5,000 Camera Package
Melissa Anastasi – Chlorine

Best Direction of a Student Film
Alies Sluiter – Ayaan

Sky News chief news anchor Kieran Gilbert will host the one-hour forum at 4:00pm AEST (QLD time). Undecided voters chosen by polling company YouGov will question the leaders on their policies.

Gilbert said: “The People’s Forum approach is the best for a leaders’ debate because it’s real voters face-to-face with the contenders. Sky News has established this forum as a key element of both state and federal election campaigns and a crucial chance for leaders to make their final pitch to voters.”

Paul Whittaker, Sky News Australia chief executive officer said: “The stakes are high for the upcoming Queensland Election, with the winner securing the state’s first fixed four-year term. The Sky News/The Courier-Mail People’s Forum is the only opportunity for Queenslanders to see the leaders go head-to-head and answer questions from undecided voters about their vision for the Sunshine State’s future.”

Chris Jones, The Courier-Mail editor said: “Election campaigns are usually a series of stage-managed picture opportunities where the ‘real people’ have been vetted by party advancers. This will be the first time the leaders won’t have had the chance to see who’s coming – and so the People’s Forum will be the most authentic event of this campaign, with real undecided voters having the chance to ask their own questions of the two women vying to lead our amazing state.”

At 3:00pm AEST/4:00pm AEDT political reporter Tom Connell will host a pre-forum analysis as he anchors Afternoon Agenda with Kieran Gilbert live from the forum venue.

Palaszczuk and Frecklington will then face the group of undecided voters live for questioning from 4:00pm AEST/ 5:00pm AEDT.

The result of the audience votes and who won the debate will be announced when Kieran Gilbert joins Peta Credlin during Credlin at 5:00pm AEST/6:00pm AEDT.

On Saturday 31 October as Queenslanders head to the polls, Sky News will deliver comprehensive coverage and analysis of the Queensland Election 2020.

From 5:00pm AEST/6:00pm AEDT on Saturday join Kieran Gilbert, political editor Andrew Clennell, Deputy Nationals Leader and QLD Nationals MP, David Littleproud, Shadow Northern Australia Minister and former QLD Labor MP, Murray Watt, former LNP QLD Premier Campbell Newman, One Nation leader Pauline Hanson, LNP Senator for QLD James McGrath and former QLD Labor MP and speaker John Mickel.

Sky News anchors Paul Murray, Alan Jones, Laura Jayes, Graham Richardson and Peter Gleeson will also provide insights and analysis on the night.

QLD ELECTION 2020 PROGRAMMING SCHEDULE

Wednesday 28 October
4:00pm AEST/ 5:00pm AEDT Sky News/ The Courier-Mail People’s Forum lice anchored by Kieran Gilbert

Saturday 31 October
5:00pm AEST/ 6:00pm AEDT Queensland Election 2020 anchored by Kieran Gilbert

The Sky News/ The Courier-Mail People’s Forum will also be streamed on skynews.com.au, on ‘Sky News Radio’ through the iHeartRadio App and to Courier Mail subscribers at couriermail.com.au.

INXS has received recognition locally and internationally for its contribution to the music industry and has sold an estimated 60 million records worldwide. The Grammy nominated and multiple ARIA award winning band was inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame in 2001. And their album The Very Best is set to become certified Diamond for selling 500,000 copies in Australia alone, joining other Diamond certified music legends Taylor Swift, Eminem and Ed Sheeran.

Michael Cassel Group will work closely on the development of the new project with legendary business strategist and founder and chairman of Petrol Records and Petrol Live, CM Murphy, who is instrumental in the band’s ongoing global success.

Michael Cassel, CEO/producer said, “This presents an exciting opportunity to create a new theatrical story, using an extraordinary catalogue that has been enjoyed throughout the decades both here in Australia and internationally.”

CM Murphy commented “INXS’s music just continues to push new boundaries and capture the attention and hearts of people around the world. Their music is like poetry, it tells stories, such beautiful stories, it’s just extraordinary. We’re now going to explore how we take these stories into a new dimension; the theatre. And in a time when everything is dark, to be able to speak about creating something new is really special. It’s a light at the end of the darkness.”

Michael Cassel continued, “Developing new work is crucial to the success of the theatrical industry and we need that now, more than ever. We have so many amazing stories to tell and we want to invest and cultivate an environment where we can develop and share these stories in new and exciting ways. There’s no better person than CM to work with as we begin creative development on this show – in fact CM and I have been chatting about this project for some time and I am thrilled that development is officially underway. This is just the beginning.”

The AFL and NRL match on the weekend were the last live games for 2020 for both specialist footy channels Fox Footy and Fox League. Weekend sports options also include the Bathurst 1000 and Game 2 od the Bledisloe Cup.

On Sunday, Kayo was Australia’s #2 downloaded app with 285,000 unique viewers streaming sports, including 550,000 hours of Bathurst coverage.

SuperCars

Sunday’s Bathurst 1000 attracted an average audience of 424,000 yesterday across Foxtel platforms and Kayo, with the audience making it the #2 rating SuperCars race on STV of all time.

Despite taking the #2 position on the all-time SuperCars ranking list, viewing was down 21% on the 2019 record-breaking Bathurst race with the event impacted by the earlier start time due to forecasted rain, fewer crashes and controversies, and clashes with other major sporting events.

NRL Preliminary Finals weekend

Week 3 Finals round attracted an average audience of 462,000 per match across Foxtel platforms and Kayo; up +5% on last year’s Week 3 Finals with audience growth lead by Foxtel Now, Foxtel Go and Kayo up 80%.

This is the all-time highest rating weekend of NRL Finals Footy on Fox League.

PF#2 between Panthers v Rabbitohs was the #1 match of the weekend across Foxtel platforms plus Kayo with 473,000 making it the #2 highest ever NRL Finals game on Fox League.

AFL Preliminary Finals weekend

AFL Week 3 Finals round attracted an average audience of 467,000 per match across Foxtel platforms and Kayo; down -8% on last year’s Week 3 Finals although streaming audiences on Foxtel Now, Foxtel GO and Kayo continued to grow up +87%.

In 2019, AFL Preliminary Finals involved teams from Melbourne and Sydney, Australia’s two largest STV markets, while the 2020 Preliminary Finals featured teams from Melbourne, Adelaide and Brisbane.

Port Adelaide v Richmond was the #1 match on the weekend across Foxtel Platforms and Kayo with 476,000 viewers.

Part of the success on opening night was the controversy surrounding one of the recruits – Roxy Jacenko. The Sydney PR queen was the first voluntary elimination part-way through the first episode. Something that hasn’t happened much in the UK series so far.

Jacenko has copped a battering online from trolls after it was first revealed she would be making an early exit.

Below is how she responded last night on Instagram. The controversy should help keep the show on the radar for viewers with the second of two episodes screening tonight.

See also:

• SAS Australia: Everything you need to know
• SAS Australia: Everything you need to know about the cast
• TV shocker: Reality show with no winner, no prize and no BS

Roxy Jacenko on Instagram:

To be candid I shouldn’t even need to post this – but I am left with no choice.

To date I haven’t shared these images because I don’t think that it’s necessary to share an accident where I was fortunate enough to get better when many would have sustained long term and irreparable damage. These photos were 6 weeks exactly before I left to join @sasaust7 – after reading the barrage of comments by people on my Instagram tonight I’ve decided – fuck it – I’ll post.

For the fuck wits that have left comments on the post previous to this which I encourage you to read as it shows how alive and well these keyboard warriors are, let me explain how weak and fake I am.

I fractured my hip and pelvis when on a horse for a job – the saddle slipped and I fell off. I got back on the horse so as not to bother the rest of the riders and disrupt their ride and then took myself to Emergency where I spent the next two days.

Followed by 6 weeks on my back with daily Clexane injections and physio, orthopaedic surgeon appointments etc. So if weak and pathetic is showing up to @sasaust7 because I had committed to it 6 months prior and put 6 days a week training into it no matter what my injuries were well then so be it.

I think what it shows was, I had a commitment, I showed up and I tried my very best – which given the circumstances was a hell of a lot given my situation. I recall saying to my orthopaedic surgeon – “I may have to fall out of a chopper can you suggest a way to do this with my fractures” his answer was simply “don’t” – I did what I could but the reality is, my health is my number one priority with two children and a staff of 22 who rely on me – not a show for people’s entertainment and to give them something to troll/gossip about subsequently.

Having had cancer some three years ago I know that I didn’t need to take the chance of doing myself more harm. Anyway I think it simply shameful I had to post this and as I went to include my hospital discharge paperwork I stopped myself and thought – you know what –

Fuck them – this is more than enough! I don’t need to prove anything to anyone I don’t know!

Long-lasting films Trolls World Tour and Tenet once again found themselves in the top five as they continue to be the best performing films in Australia since cinemas began to re-open.

The films to drop out of the top five this week were The Secret Garden and Cats & Dogs 3: Paws Unite which could be a reflection in changing viewing habits coinciding with the end of school holidays.

#1 City of Lies $278,604

Following a series of delays and two years after its original release date, City of Lies is finally released in Australia. The film is based on the book Labyrinth by Randall Sullivan and follows a retired police detective and journalist who try to find out the truth about the Tupac Shakur and The Notorious B.I.G. killings. The film averaged $1,720 on 162 screens.

#2 André Rieu’s Magical Maastricht: Together in Music $270,725

André Rieu‘s latest special celebrates 15 years of his hometown concerts with a selection of his most memorable performances and songs. The special release averaged $2,099 on 129 screens which was the highest average for the weekend.

#3 Trolls World Tour $247,543

After eight weeks Trolls World Tour continues to find itself in the top five as its total revenue has now made it to $6.80m, after averaging $1,338 on 185 screens this past weekend.

#4 Tenet $202,751

Chri Nolan‘s sci-fi blockbuster was the most screened film in the country after being shown on 213 screens this past weekend making an average of $952. After eight weeks the film has now made a total of $11.63m.

#5 The Outpost $139,863

The American war film has now spent two weeks in the top five after averaging $853 on 164 screens.

Primetime News
Seven News 1,018,000/991,000
Nine News 957,000/941,000
ABC News 733,000
10 News First 324,000/222,000
SBS World News 179,000

Daily current affairs
A Current Affair 731,000
7.30 602,000
The Project 333,000/530,000

Breakfast TV
Sunrise 233,000
Today 215,000
News Breakfast 186,000

Late night news
Nine News Late 196,000
The Latest 141,000
ABC News Late 137,000

Monday TV 

Seven: Home and Away started the week on 582,000 after an average audience of 511,000 last week.

SAS Australia was perhaps a brave commission, but it has paid off big time so far with a timeslot winning 834,000 on debut, knocking of The Block and pushing Junior MasterChef lower. SAS Australia won its timeslot 25-54 and grew Seven’s numbers significantly compared to same time last year. The early exit of Roxy Jacenko might rid the show of one of its more colurful characters, but it is driving a torrent of chatter on social media that money can’t buy.

The US drama The Rookie returned with the first two episodes of season two with audiences of 280,000 and then 235,000.

Nine: A Current Affair started its new week with a Brady Halls story about the victim of a drunk driver accident. The episode had an audience of 731,000 after an average of 695,000 last week.

The Block gave viewers an idea why the host on Sunday night called it the toughest week yet. However up against SAS Australia, the audience of 783,000 was down from 860,000 a week ago.

An hour of RBT followed with 365,000.

After Nine News Late, 100% Footy had 41,000 viewers while Footy Classified was on 135,000.

10: The Project featured an interview with Niall Horan about his cancelled Australian live tour and his new virtual concert to be broadcast from the Royal Albert Hall. The episode pushed the show back over half a million after 7pm to 530,000.

We got ahead of ourself yesterday with excitement about how the contestants would qualify for immunity this week on Junior MasterChef. The audience found out last night that Laura and Ruby will be safe from elimination. Andy got to wear his Three Blue Ducks apron instead of sporting MasterChef merch. The audience of 454,000 after 546,000 on Monday last week.

Have You Been Paying Attention? saw Sam and Ed joined by Tony, Susie and Celia with the 10 audience growing to 735,000, over 100,000 up on 628,000 a week ago. The show ranked #1 Monday in all the key demos.

Dave Hughes then portrayed Don Bradman in Drunk History Australia with 288,000 watching.

ABC: Australian Story featured part two of To Catch a Stalker with 617,000 watching.

The rest of the night saw Four Corners on 478,000, Media Watch on 491,000 and then Q+A on 284,000.

SBS: The second season of The Great House Revival is in Dublin where a brave renovator is taking on a 1926 Georgian townhouse from the early 19th century. The series launched with 164,000.

A repeat of 24 Hours in Emergency then did 123,000.