Business of Media
Former prime minister Paul Keating comments on China threat stories from Nine Entertainment’s newspapers
Former Australian prime minister Paul Keating has commented on Nine Entertainment’s two major mastheads for running front page articles claiming the nation has a real threat of war with China within the next three years, reports The Australian’s Sophie Elsworth.
The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald splashed front page articles across Tuesday’s print mastheads with the headlines, “Australia ‘must prepare’ for threat of China war” and “Red alert: War risk exposed”, that drew the ire of the former Labor leader who berated the media company, the journalists and the editors for running the content.
“Today’s Sydney Morning Herald and Age front page stories on Australia’s supposed war risk with China represents the most egregious and provocative news presentation of any newspaper I have witnessed in over fifty years of active public life,” Keating said in a statement.
“It is way worse than the illustrated sampans shown to be coming from China in the build up to the war in Vietnam in the 1960s.”
Musk says Twitter could be cash flow-positive next quarter
Twitter chief executive Elon Musk said on Tuesday that the company had “a shot” at being cash flow-positive next quarter, as costs have been cut and users have risen, reports Reuters.
Musk, who was speaking at an investor conference that was webcast, said it was “startling” how poorly Twitter managed to make money off its messaging service.
The company has cut costs sharply, including layoffs, under Musk, who offered the cash flow-positive target as he described efforts to cut expenditures, or cash burn.
News Brands
News Corp encourages staff to try ChatGPT, forms AI taskforce
Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp has asked its Australian employees to give ChatGPT a go, tasking an AI Working Group to explore how artificial intelligence can add “high-value opportunities” across its consumer, finance, editorial and tech divisions, reports Nine Publishing’s Sam Buckingham-Jones.
Michael Miller, the executive chairman of News Corp Australia, emailed staff this week predicting that artificial intelligence will “change our industry”.
ChatGPT, a generative AI chatbot trained on all the information on the internet until September 2021, has been tested by businesses across the country and has the potential to make menial jobs more efficient.
“We have always embraced technological change at News, and we’ve already incorporated AI into our daily work practices through Prediction/Classification and Clustering AI,” Miller wrote.
ABC staff mulling new pay offer after strike postponed indefinitely
ABC staff have postponed plans to stop work and protest for 40 minutes during Tuesday’s Reserve Bank interest rate decision after receiving an improved pay offer from managing director David Anderson, reports Nine Publishing’s Zoe Samios.
Employees have started posting on social media platforms including Twitter with the hashtag #dontdiscountABC to inform the public about why they are fighting for improved working conditions after voting to postpone a strike to allow negotiations to continue. Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance media director Cassie Derrick said the new offer by Anderson still did not satisfy all employee demands, but was encouraging.
“The new offer provided by management this morning contains several improvements on what has been on the table until now,” Derrick said on Monday evening. “Members are encouraged that the new offer hears their concerns on gender and race pay gaps and buyouts and comes some way to addressing claims on progression and a fair pay rise.”
Union members voted to postpone the planned action on Monday after Anderson provided an improved offer: an 11 percent increase in salary over three years, a one-off $1500 payment in the first year and an expanded gender and diversity pay audit.
ABC calls on media to do better than republishing social media bullies
ABC has issued a statement following media queries in which they were asked to comment on social media bullying of presenter Lisa Millar, reports TV Tonight.
According to ABC, both news.com.au and Daily Mail sought comment on abusive comments around the News Breakfast presenter, in relation to her wardrobe on Monday.
“The ABC regularly receives queries concerning abusive comments being made on social media about presenters and journalists, particularly female ones,” ABC said in a statement.
“Under the guise of concern, these stories are republishing abuse.”
Queries asked ‘how Lisa was doing’ following online criticism.
Television
Jess Rowe claims former boss wouldn’t allow her to open bulletin: ‘You are a woman’
Jessica Rowe has claimed she wasn’t allowed to open Channel 10 news during her lengthy co-anchor stint because she was a woman, reports News Corp’s Lexie Cartwright.
The 52-year-old Australian journalist, who began co-hosting Sydney’s 5pm bulletin alongside veteran Ron Wilson in 1996, made the claim on a special International Women’s Day edition of her podcast The Jess Rowe Big Talk Show.
Rowe said Wilson, now 68, was given the honour of reading the opening story every day for six years until she finally mustered up the courage to call it out.
“When I first began, I needed to earn my stripes. But come on, six years into the role,” she said. “I wasn’t going to make a fuss, I wasn’t going to make a noise, but now was the time to stand up.”
The mother-of-two, who is married to fellow news anchor Peter Overton, then approached an unnamed boss and asked why she was constantly being sidelined. She claimed he said to her, “Well lovey, that’s because Ron’s a man and you are a woman.”
Production begins on Mother & Son reboot
Filming has begun in Sydney on the Mother & Son reboot for ABC. The series starring Matt Okine & Denise Scott is a new take on the classic comedy starring Ruth Cracknell & Garry McDonald, with original creator Geoffrey Atherden having consulted, reports TV Tonight.
ABC Acting Director of Entertainment and Specialist Jennifer Collins previously told TV Tonight, “This is an idea that’s been around for quite some time…. so it’s been a long time in the making. They’ve been talking about this idea, developing this idea quietly on the side. It’s taken this period of time to get the idea right and into shape.
“So it’s not something that has just been cooked up. It’s something that’s been given a lot of love and attention, detail and thought. Matt and Denise have genuinely got a great relationship as fellow comedians, and I think that’s going to come out on screen through their characters.”