• Paul Whittaker, current editor-in-chief of The Australian, has been appointed CEO of Australian News Channel
• Christopher Dore, current editor of The Daily Telegraph, has been appointed editor-in-chief The Australian
• Ben English, current editor of the Gold Coast Bulletin, has been appointed editor of The Daily Telegraph
• Rachel Hancock, deputy editor of The Courier-Mail, has been appointed editor of the Gold Coast Bulletin

Paul Whittaker will replace Angelos Frangopoulos in the role of chief executive officer of Australian News Channel Pty Ltd (ANC), operator of Sky News channels – Sky News Live, Sky News Weather, Sky News Extra, Fox Sports News and the joint venture with Nine Network, the new Your Money channel.

“This appointment recognises Paul’s extensive and proven journalistic leadership and his intimate understanding of the Australian political, business and evolving media landscape, as well as what drives and engages audiences,” Miller said.

Siobhan McKenna, group director of broadcasting, said: “Paul’s appointment recognises the importance of live news to the growth of News Corp’s broadcast businesses. Under the leadership of Angelos, Sky News has become Australia’s number one 24-hour news channel and Paul will have the opportunity to make further investment to continue expanding Sky News’s reach to more Australians.”

Whittaker, a three-time Walkley Award-winning journalist, was editor of The Australian from 2007 to 2011, and editor of The Daily Telegraph for almost five years before being appointed editor-in-chief of The Australian in 2015.

He said he was excited to be taking on the challenge as CEO of Sky News after working for 12 years as a daily newspaper editor and executive in a career with News Corp spanning more than 30 years.

“Live news, like live sport, is a huge driver of audiences and future growth for our businesses,” Whittaker said.

Whittaker will commence at Sky News on Monday October 15.

Michael Miller announced that Chris Dore, editor of The Daily Telegraph, has been appointed editor-in-chief of The Australian.

Dore said it was a great honour to return to The Australian where be began his career as a cadet reporter and spent more than 15 years in senior editorial roles, including as deputy editor.

“I hold a deep affection for the newspaper and a great admiration for its tremendously accomplished journalists and editors,” Dore said. “It is one of the great news brands of the world and its place in helping shape our national character through big debates and advocacy can never be underestimated.”

Ben English’s appointment marks a return home to Sydney and also to the newspaper where he began his career.

“To now have the opportunity to lead this great paper in the city I grew up in is a huge honour and privilege,” he said. “I will leave the Gold Coast Bulletin with some wonderful memories. It is such a strong paper that serves its community so effectively and boasts terrific journalists who I will sorely miss.”

Rachel Hancock, former editor of the NT News and deputy editor of The Advertiser in Adelaide said she was thrilled to take the reins of such a vibrant and respected news brand as the Gold Coast Bulletin.

“In my last three years in Brisbane at The Courier-Mail, I have watched the growth and performance of the Bulletin with enormous respect and admiration. To now have the opportunity to lead this paper and its superb team, is a lifelong dream.”

—

Top Image: Paul Whittaker and Chris Dore

During Michael Bublé’s whistle-stop Australian tour he played only three shows – a Sunrise concert in Sydney’s Martin Place, a one-off stadium show to close Allianz Stadium and smoothfm’s Feel Good Night show for just 400 people at Sydney’s Seymour Centre.

Even though Bublé was playing for a small crowd in an intimate space, he didn’t skimp on the presentation, bringing his complete 26-piece orchestra to the Seymour Centre stage.

Prior to the performance, Nova Entertainment hosted clients to cocktails in the venue’s Sound Lounge with smoothfm weekend announcer Richard Wilkins welcoming the guests. Sydney commercial director and market lead Luke Minto spoke, as did Nova Entertainment CEO Cathy O’Connor. She recalled the very first song played on smoothfm was Bublé’s Haven’t Met You Yet.

“Michael Bublé typifies every single part of the DNA of this wonderful brand smoothfm,” O’Connor said.

“I remember over six years ago when we came up with the idea for smoothfm we thought we had to do something different from what else was happening on FM. If we did more of the same we would have all just shared the same audience. We knew we had to be different and we had to be bold and do something that no one else is doing.

“We also thought we should do something we like as well. Doing more of the same is never really what gets you a break through performance.”

Nova Entertainment CEO Cathy O’Connor

O’Connor paid tribute to Nova Entertainment’s head of programming Paul Jackson and head of marketing Tony Thomas for the concept of smoothfm. (Neither of the Nova execs was able to attend on Saturday night.)

“These were two men in their 40s who loved The Carpenters,” O’Connor laughed. “I grew up in Australia and I don’t know too many men in their 40s who love The Carpenters. It’s usually all about rock and INXS and Midnight Oil. These guys were kind of in touch with their feminine side, which of course is no problem at all.

“They got so excited with the concept they said they were going to get Michael Bublé in the smoothfm ad. I said that was a great ambition and I was glad they were aiming high. If there is one artist that typifies what smoothfm is all about it is – which is feelgood, relaxed and fun and contemporary with wonderful music – it would be Michael Bublé.

“I told them if they could pull that off they would be legends.

“The two boys with big heads are still walking our corridors and we continue to have a connection with Michael Bublé.”

O’Connor noted how good the smoothfm commercial featuring the Canadian singer was, and it is something they still run six years later. “I don’t think there’s any radio station in the world that got that much mileage out of a commercial – it was just perfect.

“There was a great idea, a little bit of luck, a lot of guts and it was executed very, very well.”

Bublé started his performance with I Only Have Eyes, followed by When I Fall in Love, new singles Such A Night and Love You Anymore, and classics Nobody But Me, Save the Last Dance and Feeling Good.

smoothfm’s Bogart Torelli, Georgie Page and Glenn Daniel

Some of the tunes were from his new album Love, his first studio album in two years, which will be released on November 16.

Guests at the event included smoothfm 95.3 breakfast hosts Bogart Torelli and Glenn Daniel, smoothfm weekend announcer Richard Wilkins and partner Virginia, morning announcer Ty Frost, Kate Mason – smoothfm’s head of music, smoothfm program director Georgie Page, Peter Clay – head of programming Nova 96.9 and smoothfm network, Leanne Gibb – group marketing director, Claire Marshall – music marketing director, Ben Latimer – Nova 96.9 and Nova 919 program director, Rob Sloan – agency sales director, Polly Goodchild – brand & promotions director – Nova, smoothfm & Fiveaa, Nova’s Kent “Smallzy” Small and EP Zach La Cava, smoothfm 91.5 breakfast producer Lauren Saylor and smoothfm 95.3 breakfast producer Anna Crotti.

Others in attendance included Billy MacLeod – Warner Vice President Promotions and Publicity, Graham Donald – Seven creative director, Foxtel’s Danny Keenan – head of artist & music industry relations, Foxtel’s Fraser Stark – GM arts and music, Jamie Campbell – Foxtel’s director publicity & talent, Sasha Mackie – Foxtel’s head of marketing, Daily Telegraph’s Fiona Wingett, Vivienne Kelly – Mumbrella editor, Pippa Chambers – editor AdNews, Cameron Adams – national music writer News Corp and 9Honey’s Shelly Horton.

By Kruti Joshi

The editor of the network, Fiona Baker, told Mediaweek that names like Woman’s Day and The Australian Women’s Weekly are so recognisable that it would be foolish not to use their brand power to attract eyeballs. She described Now To Love as a “department store”.

“Now To Love is still a baby. It is only 18 months old,” Baker said. “It’s unique, because it provides scale that is home to well-known, heritage magazine brands that still have a connection with their audience.

Each Bauer brand has its own tone and style of content that it produces so there is something to suit every reader’s mood and taste.

“If you are looking for royal content, we have Women’s Weekly,” Baker said. “If you are looking for TV content, there’s TV Week.”

There is a team of journalists and producers who keep track of what content is produced in which magazine. They take the content that is relevant to Now To Love’s readers and put it online. Along with this, the network produces about 80% of its own content. “It is just branded and powered by the magazine brands. We are working in real time,” Baker explained.

“We only take a small amount of content from print. The duplication of audience is minimal. A reader of Woman’s Day online isn’t necessarily a reader of it in print. We are very aware of that.

“Any content that we produce we make sure speaks in the voice of the brand that it is going to live under.

“It’s about understanding audiences and why they come to our brands for content.”

—

This is an excerpt from the full article, which appears on Mediaweek Premium. Read the full article here or subscribe to Mediaweek Premium here.

—

Top Photo: Fiona Baker

By Kruti Joshi

The podcast has clocked up over 22 million downloads since the first episode dropped earlier this year.

Another reason for the national masthead to celebrate is that its weekend paper The Weekend Australian took home the titles of inaugural News Brand of the Year and the Weekend News Brand of the Year at the refreshed 2018 News Media Awards (formerly called the Newspaper of the Year Awards). The Weekend Australian is a seasoned winner at the awards, having won the weekend news category four times in the last five years. However, the paper’s editor Michelle Gunn was still “surprised” by the recognition.

The Weekend Australian editor Michelle Gunn

“The win means the world to me because it is recognition of everyone who works on the paper,” Gunn told Mediaweek.

In 12 months to June 2018, The Weekend Australian’s readership climbed to 639,000. This shows the importance of it to the local news consumers, Gunn said. “That may surprise some people because there is a lot of talk about the decline of print. For us, the weekend newspaper is the biggest newspaper of the week.

“Our most successful bundle is the weekend newspaper plus digital. Thirty-two percent of our new subscribers last year took that option.”

There is still a strong urge among the consumers of The Australian to pull its weekend edition apart and spread the broadsheet over the dining table to immerse in the reading it has on offer.

“It’s an interesting thing,” Gunn said. “For some readers it is something they grew up with. They love the tactile feel of paper.

“People still like to read a 3,000-word article without scrolling on a screen.

“Having said that though,” Gunn said, “we now have more than 115,000 subscribers. Some of the biggest growth is in digital, so some of the biggest changes we have made are in the area of digital storytelling.

“We are constantly challenging our reporters, photographers and artists to come up with new and innovative ways to present their content.”

—

This is an excerpt from the full article, which appears on Mediaweek Premium. Read the full article here or subscribe to Mediaweek Premium here.

Nine has announced that hosts Rebecca Maddern, Ben Fordham and Freddie Flintoff will return for the next season. Fan-favourite Ninjas will also return to compete alongside fresh faces who have been inspired by those who have braved the course before them.

Nine’s CEO Hugh Marks said: “With a relocation to Melbourne, Australian Ninja Warrior will return with brand new, breathtaking elements, taking this remarkable show to a new level of awe-inspiring entertainment for Australians of all ages.

“There will be more excitement, more phenomenal challenges, more heroic Ninjas and more high-quality family viewing.”

The move has been made possible with the support of Visit Victoria.

Nine Melbourne managing director Matt Scriven said: “It is with great excitement that we welcome Australian Ninja Warrior to Melbourne. We take great pride in all the shows that are produced here and we can’t wait to have one of the greatest shows on Australian TV right on our doorstep.”

Sampson will present the session Brain Power and provide practical tools and strategies to boost creativity and brain power. Returning to Radio Alive after a successful Q&A panel last year, Trioli will lead a discussion panel on the influence and impact of the media in and on society.

Three podcast sessions have been included at this year’s conference. The sessions called I Have an Idea for a Podcast, Will You Sign Me Up?, Building Your Podcasting Game and Did You Want a Brand with That? will explore the growing podcast category and how the radio industry is in prime position to continue to innovate across the sector.

I Have An Idea for a Podcast, Will You Sign Me Up? will feature award-winning US producer Julia Henderson (ESPN Podcasts), Jay Walkerden (Nova Podcast) and Grant Tothill (SCA’s PodcastOne). The session to be moderated by Jaime Chaux (CRA, head of digital), will look at what will be the next wave of podcasts and what it takes to turn an idea into a viable podcast series.

Building Your Podcasting Game will explore how radio professionals have branched out into podcasting, juggling existing careers and developing a new set of skills. The Did You Want a Brand with That? session will explore what clients are looking for in branded content podcasts and how to balance the demands of original content and client messaging.

Another key session is Preparing for Hybrid Radio Audience Measurement presented by GfK’s Dr Morten Boyer. He will explain the world-first initiative that will take an evidence-based approach to developing the next iteration of RAM in Australia.

Also speaking at this year’s conference will be Cathy O’Connor, chief executive officer of Nova Entertainment and inaugural chair of the CRA Automation and Programmatic Committee, on the future of buying radio.

These speakers join the already announced competing drive time presenters Ben Fordham (2GB), Kate Langbroek (Hit Network), Will McMahon (KIIS) and Kate Ritchie (Nova) in a headline panel discussion on the rise of the drive time session, and Amazon Alexa Skills country manager for Australia and New Zealand, Kate Burleigh, on the future of voice technology and the implications for consumers and brands.

Joan Warner, Commercial Radio Australia chief executive officer, said: “Each year the conference provides a forum for robust discussion on the radio industry and attracts key industry speakers and we look forward to a day of stimulating debate.”

The Radio Alive 2018 conference will be held at the Melbourne Convention & Exhibition Centre on October 19, followed by the gala black-tie Australian Commercial Radio Awards on October 20.

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A city almost twice the size of Brisbane will be added to southeast Queensland’s population over the next quarter of a century, according to new findings released today in The Courier-Mail.

The Future SEQ special series, launched today in The Courier–Mail, will examine the threats ahead, explore options for solutions, and reveal innovative and achievable ideas for transforming the vital region which includes Brisbane, the Gold and Sunshine Coasts, Logan, Moreton, Redland, Ipswich, Toowoomba and Lockyer Valley.

This is the fourth part of the successful GoQld! campaign by the masthead, which aims to discuss issues affecting the state and encouraging solutions to ensure the future prosperity of Queenslanders.

There has been progress with $10 billion in projects in Brisbane alone during the series, including Brisbane Live, Cross River Rail, Brisbane Metro and the Waterfront Precinct in the CBD.

The Courier-Mail editor Sam Weir said SEQ, as one of the fastest-growing regions in the world, had incredible opportunities moving forward over the next quarter of a century.

“But this population surge also brings significant challenges in transport and other physical and social infrastructure to maintain our productivity and liveability,” he said.

“Our future as a place people will want to call home and work from depends on planning decisions made today to get it right for tomorrow.

“The region’s roads, trains and buses will reach breaking point over the next two decades unless we find and fund solutions now.”

New exclusive research from leading demographer Bernard Salt shows an extra two million people will live in Queensland by 2043, growing the population from 3.5 million to 5.5 million.

“The southeast Queensland of 2043 will be the same size as Sydney or Melbourne is today,” Salt said.

“It is quickly emerging as Australia’s third global force and, as such, it will offer all the urban amenity and quality you would expect from an urban conurbation of that scale.”

Salt will also deliver his vision for the future of southeast Queensland at a special lunch event in Brisbane on October 23. Tickets are available at couriermail.com.au/tickets.

More than 500 people are expected to attend, including Infrastructure Australia chairman Julieanne Alroe, The Star Entertainment Group managing director and chief executive Matt Bekier, Transurban Group chief executive Scott Charlton, Brisbane Airport Corporation chief executive Gert-Jan de Graaff and SEQ Council of Mayor chief executive Scott Smith.

The Future SEQ campaign will run in The Courier-Mail and The Sunday Mail in print and digital, with Sky News broadcasting the October 23 event. The campaigns runs until October 24.

The campaign will be launched with an eight-page wrap of The Courier-Mail, continuing daily with coverage in news as well as opinion and business across seven days. It also is supported by a dedicated digital site, which also showcases exclusive images of a future Brisbane provided by campaign partners.

The marketing campaign is run by the News Corp Queensland team, utilising house space for campaign and event ads. The digital promotion campaign is run collaboratively by editorial and marketing utilising masthead platforms using imagery sourced from campaign partners.

Partners for the campaign include The Star, Transurban, Brisbane Airport Corporation, Brisbane City Council, SMEC, SEQ Council of Mayors, Sky News and Seven News Brisbane.

Professional services firm PwC has provided exclusive insight and analysis with city-shaping specialists Urbis to bring the visions to life in striking images.

The animated telemovie, targeted to the 6-9yo audience, will premiere locally on the Nine Network and will be distributed internationally by ZDF Enterprises.

SLR Productions has adapted Alice-Miranda from the award-winning series of books by bestselling Australian author Jacqueline Harvey, published by Penguin Random House Australia.

The 17-part book series (and counting) has been an extraordinary success with sales exceeding 850,000 copies in Australia and 1,000,000 internationally including key international territories such as UK, North America, Germany, Brazil, Hungary, Turkey and Indonesia.

“I am thrilled to bring this perpetually positive and beloved young heroine Alice-Miranda to the screen with esteemed partners, Screen Australia, Nine Network and ZDF Enterprises. It’s an honour to work with Jacqueline Harvey, the author of this incredible publishing property, and to know that Alice-Miranda’s loyal and dedicated audiences will soon be sharing in her awesome adventures on screen,” said SLR Productions’ CEO and executive producer Suzanne Ryan.

“SLR Productions’ all-female creative team, including CEO and executive producer Suzanne Ryan, script editor Melanie Alexander and director Jo Boag, have crafted a smart and inquisitive protagonist in Alice-Miranda that young girls can look up to,” said Sally Caplan, head of content at Screen Australia. “Based off the success of the bestselling books, we’re excited to see this Emmy Award-winning team bring this fantastical and inclusive story to screen as an animated adaptation.”

“Alice-Miranda is a great role model for our audience and we are delighted to be working on this exceptional project with the team at SLR Productions. We know that Alice-Miranda has a great following with young readers and Jacqueline Harvey is one of Australia’s top female children’s authors. We believe all the right ingredients are in place for this dynamic, quality Australian children’s drama to be a huge success on Nine,” said Nine Network co-head of drama Jo Rooney.

“We are thrilled to be working with our longtime partner Suzanne Ryan and her team at SLR Productions on this animated adaptation of the Alice-Miranda book series by Jacqueline Harvey. The books are loved by millions of young girls all over the world and we are sure they will enjoy the telemovie Alice-Miranda Shines Bright just as much,” said Arne Lohmann, VP ZDFE.junior at ZDF Enterprises.

By James Manning

Singles

Not a lot of movement this week with just two artists creeping into the top 10 from lower down the chart while three artists debuted inside the top 50 – but all of them in the 40s.

Khalid’s Better climbed into the top 10 at #8, moving up from #12 after three weeks on the chart.

Also into the top 10, at #10 from #14, is Canadian DJ duo Loud Luxury with Body, which hits a new peak after 12 weeks on the chart.

Three new tunes debuted lower down the chart:
#41 DJ Snake with Taki Taki featuring Selena Gomez, Ozuna and Cardi B
#42 Lil Wayne with Mona Lisa featuring Kendrick Lamar
#50 Lil Wayne with Don’t Cry featuring XXXTentacion

Albums

Lots of turnover at the top with six top 50 chart debuts, five of them cracking the top 10 on week one.

Eminem has lost top spot with Kamikaze dropping to #4 on its fifth week on the chart.

The new top 10 debuts are:
#1 The John Butler Trio with Home. Seventh album and fourth #1 for Burler.
#2 Cher with Dancing Queen. 29 years after first landing a #1 album, Cher is back in the top 10 with her 26th album.
#3 The Living End with Wunderbar. Eighth album, two of which have topped the ARIA chart.
#6 Lil Wayne with THA Carter. The rapper’s 12th album and the first to chart here since 2013.
#8 Logic with YSIV. Another US rapper in the top 10, this time with his fourth album.

Missing out on a top 10 spot was the chart’s other top 50 debut:
#15 Rod Stewart with Blood Red Roses

After their NRL Grand Final appearance last weekend, Gang Of Youths have eased back into the top 50 at #43 after the #1 album Go Farther In Lightness has spent a total of 59 weeks on the chart.

Also slipping into the 50 at #47 on another wave of ABBA nostalgia is ABBA Gold & More (Anniversary edition) after 58 weeks on the chart and a previous peak of #9.

Easing out of the top 50 after 319 weeks on the chart is INXS with The Very Best.

By Luke Reilly games editor, IGN Australia

The FIFA series is the best-selling sports franchise in the world so, with no bigger competition hitting shelves at this time, the result was virtually a forgone conclusion.

FIFA 19 is a definite improvement over last year’s instalment and adds several features sure to resonate with football and FIFA fans, including a licensed Champions League mode (snagging the one bragging right rival football series Pro Evolution Soccer previously had over its rival). You can check out IGN’s review here.

Spider-Man and NBA 2K19 continue their charts success in positions two and three. This is the fourth consecutive week the PS4 exclusive Marvel’s Spider-Man has found itself in one of the top two spots. First-party PS4 exclusives are generally strong performers so expect to see it hover in the charts for many weeks to come.

Shadow of the Tomb Raider drops a single spot to fourth, still unable to leapfrog NBA 2K19 in physical sales but comfortably in the top 10 for now. The fantastic Forza Horizon 4 enters the charts in fifth spot, which is impressive considering these charts ended on September 30 and Forza Horizon 4 wasn’t officially released until October 2 (Microsoft provided early access to the game from September 28 for digital purchasers of the Ultimate Edition, and it appears some retailers were selling special physical bundles which included a download code for the Ultimate Edition). Forza Horizon 4 is an open-world racing game set in Britain. Forza Horizon 3, which was set in Australia, was the most-played Xbox game down under in 2017 and the fourth biggest Xbox game in Australia for all-time so it’s no surprise to see the follow-up performing well.

SEGA’s Valkyria Chronicles 4 is the final new face in the charts this week, coming in at seventh. It’s certainly more niche than the likes of FIFA 19 – it’s a Japanese RPG that fuses turn-based tactical battles with semi-realtime, third-person shooter combat, set in an anime-inspired backdrop based in an alternate reality World War II(!) – but there is clearly a dedicated following out there that were still quick to snap up this long-awaited and quality sequel.

By James Manning

Seven

With just eight weeks to go until the start of summer survey, Seven has launched a new search for a singing sensation, All Together Now. The series got off to a good start with 813,000 up against The Block.

All Together Now’s key difference is there are not three or four judges but a panel of 100, which votes on each new artist. It doesn’t seem to matter that they are 99 people we have never heard of plus Rhonda Burchmore as the key interest is how many give a positive vote during the performance. The first episode started well with singer Chantelle performing Nutbush City Limits, which pulled a score of 94. It wasn’t long until we heard a dud though – Nicholas was next with just 16. Host Julia Zemiro worked the massive set beautifully although judge Ronan Keating got a little lost in the middle of the six-storey set amongst 99 other talent spotters.

Sunday Night followed the new format back in its later slot with 499,000. The show’s two weeks in the 7pm timeslot pulled audiences of just under 700,000 each week.

Nine

While The Block had something like 20,000 people converge on Fitzroy Street on the weekend for the first open day, Nine had over 1m again for its Sunday night reveal episode. The show again dominated the timeslot and key demos for the terrace reveals with cash-strapped Norm and Jess winning, scoring a perfect 30 out of 30. The episode ended with Scott Cam revealing details about the challenger unit, which will see the teams working on over the next fortnight.

As was revealed recently, the apartment will be given away, making it the biggest-ever prize on Australian TV.

The Sunday night episode did 1.13m, down from 1.26m when the show was last on Sunday night two weeks ago.

60 Minutes then featured its Stormy Daniels exclusive with reporter Liz Hayes hearing that stripper and porn star Daniels has some regrets about what she revealed about the US President in her new book. The episode did 698,000.

TEN

The channel had the biggest audience across the day with coverage of the Bathurst 1000 race. The metro average was 745,000, down on 905,000 in 2017. The raceday crowd helped fuel the evening numbers, which were TEN’s best since the evening of the MasterChef final.

The Sunday Project had one its biggest audiences ever for the much-anticipated Lisa Wilkinson interview with The Honey Badger. He didn’t give away too much about his decision at the end of The Bachelor, but the episode did a very healthy 620,000. That is closing in on double the audience watching the previous two weeks (discounting last week’s audience against the NRL Grad Final).

The lead-in should have helped the new Game Of Games show, which launched with 536,000. With $50,000 on offer, the format features many different challenges for contestants, with the winners of each coming together at the end in a battle for the cash. After viewers sat through Dizzy Dash, Don’t Leave Me Hanging, Tomb of Doom, Know Or Go, and Tuba Toothpaste, it all ended with Andrew winning the prize money during a round of Hot Hands.

A new season of NCIS launched after the game show ended close to 9pm with 296,000 watching.

ABC

Joanna Lumley was a guest on The Project on Friday night from the UK, but she was hosting episode three of Silk Road last night as she travelled across Iran. The episode did 593,000 after the show launched with 576,000 a fortnight ago.

The final episode of Rake was just as crazy, and funny, of the rest of this season. The episode did 453,000 after launching with 715,000 at the end of August.

SBS

The second episode of a repeat of Italy’s Invisible Cities looked at Venice with 159,000 watching.