Business of Media
‘I don’t recall’: SAS soldier’s mission memory fails him
It should have been one of the SAS soldier’s most memorable missions: his last in Afghanistan before going home, reports News Corp’s Stephen Rice.
Even more memorable, Nine newspapers allege, because he witnessed Ben Roberts-Smith execute a terrified adolescent “shaking like a leaf” with a pistol shot to the head.
But on Thursday in the Federal Court, the soldier known as Person 11 could recall almost nothing about the 2012 operation in a village called Fasil, except that he was certain Roberts-Smith did not kill the teenager.
“Roberts-Smith went inside a room in the compound with the adolescent who had been handed to you by Person 16 and shot that person in the head with a pistol,” counsel for the newspapers, Nicholas Owens SC, put to the witness. “That’s not true,” Person 11 replied.
Twitter pushes out two execs ahead of Elon Musk deal close
Twitter has let go of general manager Kayvon Beykpour and Bruce Falck, the Twitter revenue product lead, ahead of the company’s possible acquisition by Elon Musk, reports The Hollywood Reporter’s Caitlin Huston.
Beykpour, who joined Twitter through the 2015 acquisition of his company, Periscope, said the decision came about as Parag Agrawal, chief executive of Twitter, was looking for new leadership.
“The truth is that this isn’t how and when I imagined leaving Twitter, and this wasn’t my decision. Parag asked me to leave after letting me know that he wants to take the team in a different direction,” Beykpour wrote on Twitter Thursday.
Agencies
Digital agency Revium partners with automation platform Workato
Award-winning digital agency Revium has announced it has strengthened its customer offering by establishing a partnership with enterprise workflow automation platform, Workato.
The partnership will allow Revium to engineer seamless application integrations faster than before while reducing complexity.
Recognised as the leading integration and automation platform, Workato enables both business and IT teams to integrate their apps and automate business workflows without compromising security and governance.
Headquartered in Mountain View, California, Workato is backed by Altimeter Capital, Battery Ventures, Insight Venture Partners, Tiger Global and Redpoint Ventures. Workato is trusted by over 11,000 of the world’s top brands including Broadcom, Intuit, Box, Autodesk and HubSpot. The company is growing rapidly in the Australasian market, with over 15 new hires in the past six months.
News Brands
Bloomberg aims to compete directly with British press
Bloomberg Media has decided to aggressively court a British audience, the first prong in a retooled global strategy for the business news giant, report the New York Times‘ Katie Robertson and Benjamin Mullin.
On Wednesday night, executives introduced a venture that they hope could generate $100 million in annual revenue: Bloomberg UK, a brand meant to compete directly with The Financial Times and The Sunday Times, staples of British business journalism.
Bloomberg UK will include a website, a weekly Bloomberg Quicktake video series profiling British newsmakers, a podcast about the City of London and a summit this year on the future of British business.
BT and Warner Bros Discovery join forces to create pay-TV sport business
BT has struck a deal with the US media company Warner Bros Discovery to create a joint venture pay-TV sport business, which will bring together rights to sports including the Premier League, the Champions League and the Olympics, worth as much as £633m to the telecoms operator, reports The Guardian’s Mark Sweney.
In February, BT entered into exclusive talks with the US firm to merge BT Sport with the Discovery-owned Eurosport, which broadcasts a wide range of sports including tennis and cycling and holds the pan-European rights to the Olympics in the UK.
Under the terms of the 50:50 joint venture, which will be operated by Warner Bros Discovery, BT will receive a £93m payment in instalments over three years after completion of the deal.
Television
Troubled ex-TV star Andrew O’Keefe apologises after court outburst
Embattled former TV game show host Andrew O’Keefe has conceded he disrespected a magistrate during a dramatic court outburst, report News Corp’s Ryan Young and Lauren Ferri.
The 50-year-old ex-host of The Chase Australia accused magistrate Daniel Reiss of having “no interest in justice” during a bail hearing in Sydney’s Central Local Court last week.
“I do wish to offer an apology unreservedly,” O’Keefe said on Thursday.
“My behaviour last time was quite disrespectful to the court.
“I come from a family that has experience in the judiciary; my father was a judge, I know how difficult the job is.”
Surprise Today shake-up as Nine makes changes in breakfast TV
There has been a significant changing of the guard at Nine’s breakfast show, Today, reports News Corp’s Jonathon Moran.
But it isn’t Karl Stefanovic who has moved on, despite much speculation the host is set to depart the program when his contract runs out.
Executive producer James Birtles is heading to Sky News, with weekend executive Kendall Bora stepping in to the helm of the weekday Today show.
Coincidentally, Bora is married to Seven’s Weekend Sunrise host Matt Doran.
Today supervising producer Lesa De Re is going on maternity leave, too, with Michael Kersnovkse filling that position while she is away. Steve Burling continues as director of morning television at Nine.