They will be discussing the product evolution at Australia’s #1 news site.

Voted by peers, the Media i Awards acknowledge the important role media sales representatives play in the continual pursuit of media advertising excellence.

Introduced in 2011, the Media i Awards are the only awards dedicated to recognising the contribution of media owners. This year more than 2,100 media agency professionals voted across three categories:

•National Sales Team of the Year;
• Sales Team of the Year by Market (NSW, Victoria, Queensland, Western Australia & South Australia); and
• Sales Person of the Year by Category by Market (NSW, Victoria, Queensland, Western Australia & South Australia)

Charles Parry-Okeden, CEO Media i, spoke at the ceremony of the importance of collaboration between media agencies and media partners.

“These awards not only recognise the professionalism and excellence of sales individuals and teams, but the success they achieved for clients in collaboration with media agencies.

“We are extremely proud of tonight’s event. The response from our finalists has been overwhelming, reinforcing the significance of this initiative to sales teams and individuals across the country. We would like to congratulate all of tonight’s winners on their fantastic achievement,” said Chris Winterburn, managing director Media i.

Run by Media i, the awards are sponsored by the Media Federation of Australia (MFA), and supported by category sponsors: Carat, Initiative, IPG Mediabrands, OMD, PHD, Posterscope, Starcom, The Media Store, UM, Vizeum and Wavemaker.

This year saw the six team awards presented to sales teams representing five different media channels (newspapers, radio, outdoor, digital and television).

Overall the awards were hotly contested with Nine the most awarded media company on the night receiving six awards, followed by ARN and MCN with five awards apiece, News Corp Australia and Bauer both with four awards, and APN Outdoor with three awards.

Nine (Digital) was presented with the National Sales Team of the Year award by MFA CEO Sophie Madden and board member of the Media Federation of Australia and CEO of IPG Media Brands Australia Danny Bass.

For the list of winners read here.

The GQ Men of the Year Awards, presented by major sponsor Audi for the second year, recognise and honour extraordinary men and women who lead by example, striving for positive change and achieving great success in their chosen field.

Hedley Thomas

International stars walking the GQ red carpet in Sydney for an excited media pack included: GQ Man of the Year Joel Edgerton, Naomi Watts, who presented an award to GQ Creative Force recipient Cameron Bloom, GQ International Man of Style Lucky Blue Smith, GQ International Woman of the Year Emily Ratajkowski plus GQ Actor of the Year Keiynan Lonsdale and TV Actor of the Year Dacre Montgomery.

The evening started with welcomes from News Corp Australia’s publisher of the News Prestige Network, Nicholas Gray, and the editor of GQ, Michael Christensen.

They had plenty of colleagues in the audience including the chairman of the Herald & Weekly Times Penny Fowler, the editors of The Australian Christopher Dore and The Daily Telegraph Ben English, and the new CEO of Sky News Paul Whittaker. Executives from the magazine side of the business included editorial director of Conde Nast titles Edwina McCann, editor-in-chief of delicious. Kerrie McCallum and director of communications Sharyn Whitten.

Mike Christensen; Edwina McCann; Nicholas Gray (Photo by Ryan Pierse/Getty Images for GQ Australia)

Two former Australian magazine editors-turned-publishers visiting from their overseas posts were Nick Smith, now CEO of Buro Global, and Grant Pearce, editorial director GQ Asia Pacific.

Other guests last night included models Jarrod Scott, Jordan Barrett and David Jones ambassador Jessica Gomes, GQ Legend Michael Clarke, GQ Sportsman of the Year Robert Whittaker, actors Jonathan LaPaglia, Ryan Corr, Rodger Corser, Jackson Gallagher and Ben Mingay, GQ Media Personality of the Year Todd Sampson, Nova’s Ryan “Fitzy” Fitzgerald and Michael “Wippa” Wipfli who joked about presenting an award so late in the evening, GQ Sporting Icon Kurt Fearnley, Adam Goodes and Michael Klim, comedian Joel Creasey, band The Rubens who performed three tunes, Atlassian’s Scott Farquhar and Mike Cannon-Brookes, multimedia journalist and social media influencer Melissa Hoyer and #hotAlbo Anthony Albanese MP.

Emily Ratajkowski,

Winners of the 2018 GQ Men of the Year awards:

• GQ Man of the Year in association with Audi Joel Edgerton
• GQ Woman of the Year Elizabeth Debicki
• International Man of Style Lucky Blue Smith
• International Woman of the Year Emily Ratajkowski
• Actor of the Year Keiynan Lonsdale
• TV Actor of the Year Dacre Montgomery
• Creative Force Cameron Bloom
• Sportsman of the Year Robert Whittaker
• Team of the Year Australian Invictus Games Team
• Sporting Legend Kurt Fearnley
• GQ Legend Michael Clarke
• Media Personality of the Year Todd Sampson
• Breakthrough Sportsman of the Year Ben Simmons
• Social Force Andy Ridley
• Breakthrough Fashion Brand of the Year Double Rainbouu
• Special Humanitarian Award Walk Free Foundation
• Outstanding Achievement in Journalism Hedley Thomas
• Breakthrough Artist of the Year Jamie Preisz
• Innovation Award in association with Audi Seabin Project
• Breakthrough Chef of the Year Josh Niland
• Supporting partners of the 2018 GQ Men of the Year Awards include David Jones, Grey Goose, Paco Rabanne, Qantas and The Star.

The partnership combines The Studio at SCA’s audio creativity with Veritonic’s ability to test and benchmark audio assets.

SCA’s national head of radio sales Nikki Rooke (pictured) said, “In an increasingly audio-connected world, many brands are realising the importance of having a consistent audio approach to capitalise on the increasing time people are spending with audio.

“What we’re able to offer with Brandsound is an emotional match to a brand’s visual assets. This means greater attribution of any advertising assets back to the brand, increasing brand fame and fluency across platforms.”

The Brandsound process uses a mix of artificial intelligence technology referencing millions of data points provided by Veritonic, and audience panel testing from SCA’s own pool of almost 400,000 respondents.

The Studio at SCA’s national head of creativity Matt Dickson said, “This has been a conscious effort from The Studio at SCA to create a world class audio branding offering.

“We use a mix of psychology, creativity, data, and insights to position brands precisely in the new world of audio. New content, platforms and offerings have increased audio consumption right across Australia, with smart speaker usage also climbing quickly. The time for brands to enter the audio space is now.”

So far, many brands have taken The Studio up on its unique offering, including SPC Baked Beans and Spaghetti.

Gereurd Roberts, CEO, Pacific, said: “With his experience, Scott brings a deep insight into what truly engages and motivates men to action when it comes to health and lifestyle.

“This, coupled with his drive to extend the brand and focus on the build of new products, audiences and revenue streams, makes him the perfect candidate to spearhead Australia’s number one healthy lifestyle brand for men. We’re delighted to promote him to the role.”

Henderson joined Pacific in 2017 as digital editor of Men’s Health and during this time he has grown Men’s Health Australia’s digital audience to record levels.

With an extensive digital background, his previous roles include co-founder and creative director for Australia’s first dedicated active/swimwear brand, All I Sea, as well as several leadership roles with health PR and marketing agencies.

Henderson said: “I’m incredibly grateful to [former editor] Luke Benedictus and the entire Men’s Health team for the work they have done in positioning Men’s Health for an exciting future, to continue to grow and evolve with our readers.

“I couldn’t be prouder to be part of a brand that has been so crucial in supporting Australian men for more than 21 years. To be given the opportunity to now lead the ongoing expansion and innovation of Men’s Health is a huge honour.”

Henderson will report to CEO Gereurd Roberts, and will commence the role from Monday November 19.

As part of its new MH Live series, later this month Henderson will lead Men’s Health in a new partnership with famed 98 Gym to deliver the inaugural Men’s Health Elite – a niche seminar for the Men’s Health audience, exploring the science behind peak athletic performance.

But it was the Fairfax Media plans shareholders wanted to hear about and he eventually got to that, noting that early this year Nine approached Fairfax with the merger proposal.

He didn’t have much detail ahead of the Fairfax Media shareholder vote next Monday but he did say: “The combination of our businesses and our people will position us to deliver new opportunities and further innovation for our shareholders, staff and customers in the years ahead – effectively accelerating the actions we’ve been taking over the past few years to build the media business of the future.”

Chief executive Hugh Marks then had a little more detail about what the business should look like very soon:

The new Nine will have four principal areas of business, all of which are complementary to each other and all of which can work together to deliver better results than they can in isolation. Those segments are:

Broadcasting: A television business that has both successfully reshaped our relationships with advertisers through state of the art technology and innovative, premium offerings while repositioning our cost base to give us flexibility to respond to changes in the market.

Domain: With Nine’s proven ability as a brand builder, and Domain’s position in the property vertical, we believe that together we can take Domain to the next level. And while there are cyclical headwinds through this current property downturn, Domain continues to build a strong digital business with all of the key fundamentals now in place to rapidly grow market share with the commercial support and exposure Nine can bring. Nine has proven the power of its reach in building digital businesses in the past, and we will do it again with Domain.

Video On Demand: Nine’s VOD properties are both positioned in the segments of the market that are growing the fastest not only in Australia but globally. Video On Demand barely existed three years ago and Nine has done a great job to build two significant businesses across this period – one advertiser-backed and the other subscription.

9Now continued to grow its revenues in excess of 50% in the year to-date, with advertisers recognising the value of engaged audiences in a premium content environment, with non-skippable and now addressable advertising propositions. 9Now is already a scale business.

Stan is a domestic business that is the envy of our traditional competitors. The opportunity to consolidate ownership of 100% of Stan places Nine in a very strong position to take the next steps critical to accelerate.

Publishing: Fairfax has done a great job in moving its metro publishing business to a revenue model now driven more by subscription and circulation revenue than by advertising. And when combining the digital revenues of the existing Nine digital businesses (ex 9Now) and Fairfax’s digital revenue base, the combined publishing business will reach 8.1 million Australians each day and have a revenue base of more than $500 million – a proposition that from an advertising perspective will be very competitive with Facebook in the Australian market, but through a premium-content, brand-safe environment supported by world-class measurement.

With the benefits of Nine’s recent investments in Pedestrian, CarAdvice and Future Women, Fairfax’s new Google relationship driving revenue and profit growth into the future, and aided by clear synergies that will benefit this part of the business, the publishing arm of the merged entity will be a substantial business at scale.

Marks then revealed: “Our two companies have been working tirelessly behind the scenes since we made the initial announcement to ensure we will be able to hit the ground running before the end of this calendar year.”

“I can report to you we have responded positively with a renewed focus on improving our core business with stronger TV ratings, revenue and cost savings.

“This program also demanded that we reduce debt, unfortunately requiring us to suspend our dividends throughout the course of the year.

“However, all of the initiatives have delivered tangible results for you, our shareholders, with the group’s net debt reduced by $90 million from $725 million to $635 million. Meanwhile our cost savings program delivered a net reduction in costs of $21 million, which offset increased AFL rights fees and spectrum charges during the period.

“Despite these necessary cost measures, Seven continues to dominate the television sector, achieving our 12th consecutive year as Australia’s number one TV network, lifting our share of every key demographic segment of the market.”

CEO Tim Worner followed the chairman and continued on the theme of cost management and detailed some of the savings:

“Throughout the year we maintained that firm focus on our costs, driving operational efficiencies, and reducing headcount by 7%. We have outsourced some activities not crucial to our competitive advantage and achieved $61m in savings. When you factor in the AFL uplift and spectrum charge, we delivered a net reduction of $21 million.

“With the mantra of ‘collaborate on technology, compete on content’ we also partnered with our counterparts to launch a joint venture for our respective playout operations. Not only does this deliver savings, it will now provide a new revenue stream.

“And we are currently completing the move of our Sydney teams in Jones Bay to Media City. As this falls within our existing tenancy, it will further reduce costs, as well as foster greater collaboration.

“The West and Pacific also continue to work hard to deliver savings.

“Our new SWM WA CEO Maryna Fewster and her team in Perth are pushing further forward with a cost-out program that reduced costs by 4.4% last year and will achieve at least another $10m in savings in the current financial year.”

In his outlook, Worner first addressed criticism about Seven’s record audiences:

“[This year] we will deliver the biggest share of any network in the history of Australian TV ratings.

“Our competitors do their best to dismiss our achievements by saying our audience is old.

“In fact, there are more young people watching Seven than any other network by some margin, and this year we will not only win all the key demographics that are so important to our commercial partners, we will have our highest ever share of the key 16-39 and 25-54 demos.

“To our outlook in a little more detail, and if we take the market as a whole, the first quarter was flat with a softer September and October partly due to a pullback in spend from banking and insurance given the royal commission as well as government spend. Off the back of that successful cricket take-up we expect Seven’s metro FTA revenue share to grow in the second quarter and first half. The market performance in the second half is expected to be stronger driven by increased ad spend from a number of sectors including election money.

“Overall we expect the metro TV ad market to be broadly flat in the financial year, but for Seven to increase share.”

By James Manning

Seven

Home And Away is repeating its regular overnight pattern with the midweek episode on 580,000 after starting the week on 676,000. Regular viewers are no doubt migrating to catch-up viewing to keep up to date with the soap.

Bride & Prejudice then dipped a little after two nights close to 660,000. The third episode of the week did 623,000.

9-1-1 was then on 498,000, up from 454,000 a week ago.

Nine

Optus was getting a close-up last night on A Current Affair after telling some customers to go elsewhere. The episode did 718,000, up from 694,000 on Tuesday.

Three episodes of Young Sheldon featured a new episode on 522,000 and then two repeats pulling 450,000 and then 462,000.

The US drama Manifest then got the double episode treatment with the first on 291,000 and the second on 195,000.

TEN

The great Kerry O’Brien joined the team with a spot at the desk on The Project with 460,000 watching after 7pm, which is the biggest audience so far this week. A guest on the show was another TV great – Louis Theroux. Todd Sampson was interviewed from the red carpet at the GQ Awards.

The penultimate episode of The Bachelorette managed to rank #1 for the night under 50 and in the key demos, as well as winning its timeslot. The episode did 619,000 after 601,000 on Wednesday last week.

The new US drama series A Million Little Things then launched with 116,000, taking over the slot from Playing For Keeps.

ABC

The channel has had its best three consecutive Wednesdays since Gruen was on air in the first half this year. The channel’s midweek primary share has pushed close to 14% for each of those nights.

Hard Quiz again led the way as the third most-watched show nationally and in metro markets, as well as being #1 non-news show. The audience of 710,000 was as strong as last week’s 776,000 though.

Mad As Hell also had a good night with 703,000, down a little from last week’s 742,000.

SBS

After two nights just over 200,000, the third episode of Child Genius was on 198,000.