When the Nine Entertainment CEO, Mike Sneesby, called on his troops to embrace the Olympic spirit ahead of the Paris Olympic Games he failed to mention his own starring role.
Nine paid a cool $305m for the rights to the Olympics and the Paralympics through to Brisbane in 2032 and about 200 people from the TV, newspaper and radio arms will travel to Paris to produce the coverage across Channel Nine, 9Now and nine.com.au.
For those left behind, there would be “employee exclusive events” and “athlete talks”, Sneesby said, so “everyone can get into the games spirit”.
But few of the journalists at the Age, the Sydney Morning Herald and the Australian Financial Review were feeling the spirit, with looming cuts of up to 90 jobs. The unionised mastheads are also seething over the company’s latest pay offer of 2.5% during bargaining for a new EBA.
It was in this environment that Sneesby, perhaps strategically, left out the highlight of his week in Paris in his missive to staff.
On top of hosting key advertisers, who he says have spent $135m on the games, Sneesby will be running in the torch relay.
The International Olympic Committee reserves a spot for rights holders in the 10-week Olympic torch relay during which about 10,000 people ranging from sports stars to survivors of terrorist attacks take turns to carry the symbolic flame.
To be fair, Sneesby is no stranger to high-level sports, having been a competitive cyclist of some note as a young man.
ABC calls up a few legends
For those of us who prefer our Olympics filtered by Roy and HG, the team is back to commentate the Paris Games with a show titled Roy & HG: People, Medals and Cheese. The boys will analyse the day’s events each weekday at 11am on ABC Radio and 2pm on RN and the ABC Listen app.
ABC Radio has also secured the legendary sports broadcaster Bruce McAvaney for its commentary team. “I’ve always thought the Olympics is the ultimate event for an Australian sports broadcaster and to be given this opportunity by the ABC means a great deal to me,” McAvaney said.
With Nine Radio securing the broadcast rights in their capital city markets, the ABC was free to pick up the rights in Adelaide, Hobart, Canberra, Darwin, the Gold Coast and regional markets. ABC will broadcast live daily Olympics coverage from 6.30pm until close of competition across ABC Radio.
Historic newspapers cut print run
Some of our oldest regional newspapers will cease printing on weekdays from next month.
The historic Central Western Daily in Orange (1945), the Daily Liberal in Dubbo (1875) and the Western Advocate in Bathurst (1848) will no longer be printed on Mondays through Fridays but will be available online seven days a week and in print only on Saturdays.
The papers are owned by Australian Community Media, which publishes the Canberra Times, the Illawarra Mercury and the Newcastle Herald among its 16 daily and 55 non-daily news brands.
Nine Entertainment sold 160 former Fairfax regional papers to the entrepreneur Antony Catalano and investors for $115m in 2019, and dozens have been shut down or gone online-only in the past five years.
“ACM is evolving to be Australia’s leading regional and rural digital media company, and it’s important that we evolve our products to meet the modern reader’s preferences,” the ACM managing director, Tony Kendall, said.
“This new model follows changing consumption habits among readers, plus unsustainable production costs in these markets and reduced support from government and Meta.”
Editors pile on the Murdoch praise
Rupert Murdoch did not make it to Australia for the 60th anniversary of his most cherished title, The Australian newspaper, but he did turn up unexpectedly at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee in what the New York Times said was a show of support for Donald Trump, with whom he has had a somewhat up and down relationship.
Murdoch and his US executives were also in attendance to line up behind News Corp’s editorial team from the Wall Street Journal, the New York Post, Fox News and others.
But the 93-year-old’s no-show down under did not dampen the enthusiastic praise heaped upon him by The Australian’s editors, who fell over one another to laud the founder of the national broadsheet in 1964.
To be fair, launching a new national newspaper – one that was at first liberal in its approach under the increasingly decrepit Menzies government – was an ambitious undertaking. However, the scale of the celebrations and the praise might risk surpassing the event itself.
We bring you a sample from the Sky News Australia documentary: The Australian 60 Years of News, which includes an “exclusive” interview with Murdoch.
Sky News chief executive, Paul Whittaker, who took on the task of interviewing his boss: “Rupert Murdoch, congratulations on 60 years of The Australian, how are you feeling about reaching such an incredible milestone?
Associate editor Chris Kenny, who narrates the doco: “Murdoch’s initial genius and determination in founding The Oz became a mission that continues to inspire.”
Editor-at-large Paul Kelly: “I don’t think there’s been anyone to match Rupert Murdoch in his comprehensive, not just knowledge of the industry, his feel for the industry. With Rupert, it’s tangible; it’s tangible. He knows the production process. He’s a natural journalist.”
Former editor-in-chief Chris Mitchell: “Like most good journalists you know, Rupert is an inveterate gossip, and he loves talking at that level.”
We’ll leave you with this statement from the paper’s editor-in-chief Michelle Gunn in which the word “fairly” does some heavy lifting.
“Our masthead aims to have fairly straight news reporting,” Gunn said. “This is something Chris Mitchell said. It’s something that all editors-in-chief that I’ve worked with have been devoted to.”
Advertiser spikes arts critics
A year after Murdoch’s South Australian tabloid, the Advertiser, largely boycotted the Adelaide Fringe festival after a sponsorship arrangement broke down, the News Corp paper has told arts critics their articles are no longer needed.
The founding chair of the Adelaide Critics Circle, Samela Harris, said the decision was “a severe body blow to the arts in South Australia”.
Adelaide theatre, music and opera critics received emails from the Advertiser saying the paper will no longer be running arts reviews: “This email is to give you 30 days notice.
“The Advertiser has been the main publisher of arts and culture criticism in this state for almost 200 years and well-known, experienced and knowledgable critics play an important part in the cultural and economic life of South Australia,” Harris said.
“For a city hosting internationally celebrated arts festivals the loss of professional reviews in the print media may be seen as an embarrassment.”
The editor of the Advertiser, Gemma Jones, said reviews written by staff and contributors would still be published but reviews which had “very small online audiences” had been cut.
“Readers can continue to look forward to reviews of Adelaide festival, Womad, Fringe and more generally the arts,” Jones told Beast.
“A number of reviews with very small online audiences will cease to ensure the Advertiser’s efforts are directed to arts content with wider appeal.”
Hockey talks Trump in new Sky gig
The former federal treasurer Joe Hockey, who also served as Australian ambassador to the US, has landed himself a plum media gig with the lofty title of “Sky News US policy analyst”.
Former US ambassador Joe Hockey has shed light on one key change ex US president Donald Trump needs to make if he wants to defeat Joe Biden in the election.https://t.co/YK3NwJ0507
— Sky News Australia (@SkyNewsAust) July 17, 2024
He popped up this week at the Republican convention, offering some praise of Donald Trump, who, according to Hockey, “does care about people”.
“He has a curious mind,” Hockey told Sky After Dark’s Andrew Bolt.
“Donald Trump does care about people.
“He did a lot of things for a lot of people that was never publicised.
“That is Donald Trump.”
