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Opinion
Video: How to win new business
Mumbrella Question Time saw the panel asked the secrets of winning new business. Read more »
Let’s stop the anonymous vitriol
In this guest posting, Peter Bray, boss of The Brand Shop, takes issue with negative comments from anonymous posters on Mumbrella and elsewhere.
There are very few ads that I vehemently dislike. There are also very few ads that I really love. But most ads I see on Mumbrella and other blogs I can usually take something from, whether it is information about the brand, a bit of inspiration or a “watch out”. I’m open to learning as much as I can from others, and encourage those around me to do the same.
My basic assumption, however, is that because an ad has been produced by a professional agency, and had the approval from the client, then the end result must be doing something right. Therefore, without knowing the practical rationale behind the ad, for me to have a strong opinion about whether it is great advertising would be kind of arrogant. There is a reason that awards shows ask for information about why an ad was created: they are rarely judged on end product alone.
So as someone who enjoys watching the work that our industry creates, I am stunned at the level of vitriol stemming from some people’s comments in both this blog and others. Read more »
Read his lips
This is several weeks old, but worth a look. It’s certainly an original way to deal with media criticism.It features Air NZ boss Rob Fyfe responding to weekly current affairs magazine The Listener using the medium of sign language. Read more »
Let’s not be too positive just yet – the nail is still there
It’s more than a year since News Ltd’s marketing boss Joe Talcott used the memorable analogy of a dog whimpering on a nail to describe the structural change the industry needs to go through. Read more »
The AdNews numbers that mislead the market
It’s always a tad tawdry when competitors attack each other, but I hope you’ll bear with me…
Whether cynically or through incompetence, AdNews has been misleading its advertisers by providing them with data that seems to suggest they have six times their true online audience.
Allow me to present the evidence. Read more »
Technology will help us own the agenda – all day, every day
In this opening speech to the Future Forum of the Newspaper Publishers Association, News Ltd CEO John Hartigan argued that news organisations have the opportunity to become more rather than less relevant.
Today I want to talk about a tipping point that heralds the most exciting era for journalism. The most exciting era ever.
This tipping point is already upon us. It has arrived at lightning speed, with the explosion in demand for mobile devices.
I am not consigning newspapers to the scrapheap. Not by a long shot.
But this tipping point is going to change journalism forever. In my opinion, very much for the better. Read more »
The real time shit sandwich detector
In this guest post, Clive Burcham of The Conscience Organisation, relishes the instant feedback of social media.
I’ve been making brand driven content since 1996 and often I’ve been so close to the work that I couldn’t tell the difference between if we were chomping on a shit sandwich or savouring the crème de la creme. From an audience perspective, we wouldn’t know the difference for weeks or months. What excites me most now is that we know within 24 hours if we’ve developed shit or cream. Read more »
SMH shows how to make a home page takeover work
When you’re a commercial organisation, balancing the needs of consumers with the need to make money through ads is tricky.
Among the organisations that sometimes goes the wrong way in my view is Fairfax, with its autostart video ads, for instance.
But today, a bit of unreserved praise Read more »
Inside the Foxtel factory
Having been at the launch of Foxtel’s new season the other night, nine points occur… Read more »
ABC News 24 – a handy service for niche journalists
It may not have many viewers yet, but ABC News 24 saves specialist journos having to leave their desks, argues Delimiter’s Renai LeMay
When media commentators discuss the future of journalism, they usually agree on at least one thing: It will involve much fewer generalists and more reporters dedicated to exhaustively covering niche fields. Read more »
The seven ages of Carlton Draught’s Made From Beer
Today sees the launch of “Slow Mo”, the latest instalment of Carlton Draught’s irreverent Made From Beer series.
It’s been quite a run – from the highly awarded Big Ad, to the comedy of Flash Beer, to the debacle of the abortive banned Tingle campaign. These are the seven ages of Made From Beer… Read more »
Real consumers don’t have ‘brand conversations’. They use search
In this guest posting, Simon van Wyk argues that much as marketers might wish otherwise, most consumers don’t have emotional connections with brands
I have a background in marketing, but my understanding of branding seems at odds with the 2010 opinions I see from social media commentators, marketing and advertising agencies. Read more »
Hot, censoring atheists: Google’s insight into what punters think about pollies and journos
One of the charms of Google is autocomplete, where it takes a punt on what you’re going to ask, based on what the rest of the world has been wondering previously.
And it certainly gives a few insights into the high quality of political debate about the Labor leaders in the run up to the election.
Take NSW premiere Kristina Keneally… Read more »
The copyright-busting election
This is rapidly turning into the copyright-infringing election. Read more »
Digital Fail: The gaping void in digital training is failing our industry
In this guest post, Amnesia Razorfish’s Iain McDonald warns that the industry has fallen badly behind on digital training.
Before I get accused of trolling with that headline, I’ll state what I think is obvious: The current education system isn’t producing or nurturing enough ‘digitally skilled’ individuals to sustain a growing a digital economy. Read more »
A triumphant night of Masterchef coverage at Telegraph Towers
Sydney’s Daily Telegraph appeared to be inhabiting something of parallel universe last night – one that was not occupied by more than 4m TV-watching Australians.
But nonetheless, after the biggest TV audience of the year watched Julie win the first Masterchef Australia, the Tele rushed to announce that Poh had won.
“It was a case of third time lucky for the Adelaide artist who initially didn’t make it past the first audition,” burbled The Tele.
And apparently, Poh “returned one last time to claim victory over mother-of-three Julie Goodwin”.
Rather intriguingly, the story even contained delighted quotes from Poh in which she revealed that she described “was stunned by the verdict but happy to embrace it”.
Apparently Poh told the Tele that her experience of winning was “surreal”.
Not half as surreal as reading the website was was for the Tele’s readers.
Well. Done. Everyone.
(Hat-tip for this image @neerav)
July 20th, 2009 at 9:45 am
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Comments
20 Jul 09
10:01 am
and then there was the herald sun, jumping the gun last week, announcing chris getting booted off a half hour before it actually aired:
http://twitpic.com/aix0x
at least *they* got it right…
20 Jul 09
10:04 am
Huh..I can see them announcing the wrong winner early. But the quotes? Wow… must be some heads rolling at Tele towers this morning..
By the way, did anyone else notice the dress the female host (you know, the boring one that repeats everyone else’s statements) was wearing? More of a corset…
20 Jul 09
10:14 am
Wow – I can’t believe they stuck the quotes in too. It is one thing having multiple stories ready to roll, but surely you would leave the quotes blank until they actually said something.
Do they really think the reader is that thick? That is poor….
20 Jul 09
10:49 am
Channel 10 obviously provided the outlets with quotes for either scenario so they could have both articles complete and ready to go.
Either that or they are statements she made in a different context – they dont actually comment on winning. If that is the case thats poor form from the Tele.
20 Jul 09
10:55 am
And the “traditional Media” are concerned that Blogs and social media are proliferating poor journalism in terms of content accuracy?
20 Jul 09
11:33 am
That’s hilarious
20 Jul 09
1:57 pm
I was a little surprised when i saw the DT story about 15 mins after MCA finished last night. I was a bit more surprised to see Poh’s quotes, and even more surprised to see Julie’s congratulatory message to Poh.
Then I saved the page and sent it to Media Watch before DT took the story down and replaced it with an amended story (with the same posting time of 8.57pm).
20 Jul 09
1:58 pm
Gold
20 Jul 09
2:01 pm
The news that a media outlet writes two stories covering two possible scenarios is nothing earth shattering – but the fact that the story contained quotes from a happy winner and gracious runner-up is the big deal here. Where did these quotes come from? A Channel 10 press release? From the contestants themselves? (“Just pretend you won – how do you feel?”) or were they just made up by the Tele?
Where ever they came from, this is a huge eye-opener on how our media outlets “create” the news.
We might only be talking about a television show in this instance, but if this is how “real” news is gathered, then the Tele has some very serious questions to answer.
20 Jul 09
2:02 pm
Hi Rhys,
As per Louise’s email. I am keen to explore what job opportunities are available at the moment. Are you be around to catch up for a coffee and chat in the near future.
Thanks
John
20 Jul 09
2:03 pm
I see a Mediawatch opener coming up.
20 Jul 09
2:19 pm
Classic – a few heads will be rolling.
20 Jul 09
2:20 pm
Hmm John, think you may be commenting in the wrong window there buddy.
20 Jul 09
2:34 pm
Why are people surprised that the Daily Telegraph journo’s are reporting inaccurate news stories? Don’t they do it on a daily basis
20 Jul 09
2:44 pm
@AC – Yes they do, but this is the first time we have proof!
20 Jul 09
2:53 pm
Hi, this is Kathy Lipari, Online Editor for The Daily Telegraph.
The story was posted due to a technical error. It was up for less than ten minutes. There was good reason why two stories with two outcomes existed in the first place. As with every reality show where the winner is kept secret, news organisations need to prepare themselves for either eventuality. And so on Friday we interviewed both Poh and Julie who were asked to answer as if they had won and as if the other had won. This is where the quotes came from – we did not make them up. We have apologised for the error.
20 Jul 09
3:00 pm
Thanks Kathy, appreciate the response.
20 Jul 09
3:08 pm
Much respect to Kathy Lipari for the response from The Daily Telegraph.
Good to see a straightforward answer.
20 Jul 09
3:24 pm
Kathy, I appreciate that there was a production error but that doesn’t make what the Telegraph did any less palatable. You still had a journalist sit down with contestants and conduct a pretend interview with all parties in on the deception. The quotes were not genuine, and they still aren’t genuine even now that the show has aired.
I fear that this represents the tip of the iceberg as far as news gathering in this country is concerned – not just at the Tele, but all news outlets. The fact that a television program can orchestrate such a charade and there being NOT ONE media outlet questioning the arrangement is of great concern to the Australian public.
If this is what you are willing to do for Channel Ten, what are you prepared to do for governments and other corporations? Do commercial arrangements dictate the way news is reported? These are the big questions that your little “production error” asks and is something that the media consuming public really need answered.
20 Jul 09
3:31 pm
If this was what Hartigan was talking about “original content” (http://mumbrella.com.au/news-l.....ginal-7294) then I would prefer the less-than-original content that non-news websites serve
Go online newspapers!
20 Jul 09
3:56 pm
Agree with Simon and Sully. Kudos to Kathy for the response from the Daily Telegraph.
20 Jul 09
3:56 pm
I love reading blogs but when i want the truth i look to the traditional media for accuracy. I think its a huge mistake to try for the exclusive or the to be first with the story at the expense of accuracy.
I understand Kathy’s position and the pressures that the larger organizations are under to try and deliver the news faster than the blogs but surely thier reputation for accuracy is more important. Disappointing.
20 Jul 09
4:13 pm
Yeah, thanks Kathy.
Masterchef contestants will no doubt be well trained in how to extrapolate on how they would have felt/would be feeling, if X was going to happen.
After all, throughout this entire show they’ve had to describe how they felt at certain points *in the present tense*, so it can be cut in and used to build suspense.
20 Jul 09
4:43 pm
I’m with Adam Paull on this one – it’s refreshing to hear an honest response from Kathy at the DT, but it still doesn’t excuse the fictional story masquerading as real news. There was NO need for the story to include quotes from the winner if no genuine quotes were available. A standby story could have been written declaring the winner, with quotes cited as “when interviewed before the finale, Poh said…”
This story was a blatant lie. What else does the Telegraph lie about?
20 Jul 09
5:36 pm
Kathy the article was up for more than an hour and more importantly it was posted approximately ten minutes BEFORE Masterchef finished. It ruined my viewing but then confused me when Julie was announced as the winner on tv. I was elated but it was too late the masterchef finale had already been spoiled for me.
20 Jul 09
5:51 pm
The Daily Telegraph – never wrong for too long either!
20 Jul 09
6:19 pm
So two articles were written one which was a pretend article and one which was correct but at the time they didn’t know which was correct. This doesn’t really sound like journalism to me. Why didn’t channel 10 just embargo the result and have the interviews in the late afternoon a few hours before the broadcast?
21 Jul 09
10:50 am
The story was up for a lot longer than ten minutes though. It says it was posted at 8:57, yet I posted a link to it on my Twitter account at 10:25pm saying how suprised I was that it was still up.
And the excuse that they need to be prepared for either outcome is a bit ridiculous – why not just wait until there is an actual outcome and write a story then?
Dodgy from the Tele and Channel 10
21 Jul 09
11:33 am
Hi Caitlin,
Now you come to mention it, you’re right about the story being up much longer than the ten minutes being claimed. If you look at the iPhone screen grab above, that was at 9.42pm.
To give the Tele editorial team their due, it may have been that they attempted to take it down after ten minutes, but it stayed cached for longer. Can any technical experts tell me if that’s plausible?
Cheers,
Tim – Mumbrella
21 Jul 09
2:52 pm
Hi to Kathy and other readers – this story not be allowed to go quietly, there it a lot at stake for us readers and indeed the entire Australian public here.
Firstly, this statement: “The story was posted due to a technical error. It was up for less than ten minutes. ” The (recorded) evidence suggests otherwise. Why make this mess worse?
2. You have an automated Content Management System (CMS), which can be overridden. When the Poh story was taken down, it was not immediately replaced with the Julie story, it was a ‘file not found’ (for quite some further time). Surely this is time for an apology (or don’t you think we are watching?) Well by this stage thousands were, it was post-Masterchef entertainment.
3. As several people above have pointed out, when the ‘correct’ story went up the time was not changed. This is the sort of thing a child might try on (on a bad day).
4. The quotes. For goodness,sake, what has happened to the rules of journalism? I agree with Andrew Yoole and Billy C, the story should have been written properly and then embargoed. Your CMS has a clock.
5. 100% agree with Adam Paull on this and all his comments: “I fear that this represents the tip of the iceberg as far as news gathering in this country is concerned – not just at the Tele, but all news outlets. The fact that a television program can orchestrate such a charade and there being NOT ONE media outlet questioning the arrangement is of great concern to the Australian public.” As you say, Adam, they have no doubt done this before, but this is the first time they’ve been caught with their pants as far down as they can fall.
6. Has anyone seen a NewsCorp publication reporting not only the error but apologising for this lapse of ethics? (Not saying they haven’t but I have not seen one.)
7. How can they suggest that they wish to charge for online content – indeed, paid content is the be the saviour of the news industry! – when these are the dishes we are served? I for one am not prepared to pay for such stories and practices, and I doubt many others would either.
I’d rather choke on the cholesterol and fat-laden chocolate dessert, personally.
PS to Tim – most CMSs have a ‘clear site cache’ button. This would remove a deleted story immediately from the Tele’s servers – it could get stored in some smaller caches en route for a while, but very unlikely in larger ones that refresh very regularly, and almost certainly not for 2 hours. It also does not explain the intervening ‘file not found’ period. However someone from an ISP might be able to add more to this.
21 Jul 09
3:15 pm
hilarious
21 Jul 09
3:33 pm
Robyn, you’re not entirely correct regarding the caching. Major websites like the Tele’s use large caching systems based overseas, and they cannot necessarily be cleared that easily. So it’s like the story could have been removed within 10 minutes as stated, but it might still appear on the recipient’s end for quite some time.
21 Jul 09
3:39 pm
Thx for the heads up on that, Anon. Still doesn’t explain a whole heap of other things though, especially the ethical questions. (or why it went up before the program finished). Cheers.
21 Jul 09
3:39 pm
Hi Robyn,
Just on point number 6: The next day’s Tele did mention the error.
Cheers,
Tim – Mumbrella
21 Jul 09
5:04 pm
It was a disappointing episode of Media Watch last night which only gave the stuff-up a passing smirk. They missed a golden opportunity to dig deeply into the mechanics of the media – it’s rare that we see proof of their shenanigans, so to dismiss it with a wry smile and then spend so much time on yet another “PR survey” story (a topic they’ve been beating to death this year) was a let down.
This is not just a about a silly little publishing mistake about a frivolous TV show, there are much bigger questions here – questions that really need answering.
21 Jul 09
5:14 pm
Hi Adam,
Although it fell quite well for Media Watch’s Monday episode in terms of topicality, they appear to mostly have the show locked down by the end of a Friday, so I suspect that they didn’t have time to do much more with it.
Cheers,
Tim – Mumbrella
21 Jul 09
5:17 pm
I assume media watch had some regional North Queensland local paper editor that made a typo or paraphrased a press release they needed to focus on for the 10 mins.
21 Jul 09
5:39 pm
Locking a show down three days before it’s recorded?? How very old media!
I knew it would be a bit of a stretch (I’m long time ago ex-ex-ex-TV person) but to blow it off as a cheeky “gotcha” without mentioning the fake interview was a dropped-ball in my opinion.
I agree with Mr Littlemore above – MW has spent far too much time picking over fairly trivial matters this year. Daryl & Ozzie used to do it so much better in the original “Media Watch”! (If you’re under 30, ask your parents…)
22 Jul 09
11:44 am
Do you people whinge about syndication, claiming it’s fraudulent, too?
I fail to see how ethical concerns are breached when you’re dealing with a situation where there is only ONE provider of information (Fremantle/Ten) and they strictly control that flow – including, from what I’ve heard, a lot of NDAs and associated cloak-and-dagger. I’ve no love for the Tele, but this is an easy mistake to make – if anything, the posting on the web is the failure, not the process of writing the stories. Had it been in the hardcopy version, there’d have been more strict subbing at work – if the Tele is anything like the SMH, there just ain’t that level of care given to online posting.
23 Jul 09
9:13 am
Which just goes to prove the existence of a parallel universe – one inhabited by people (like me) who (somewhat naively no doubt) work on the assumption that if newspapers/the media don’t quite report the truth, then they still make some attempt to seek it out, and what would appear to be a significant proportion of the media (and probably their mutually-dependent bedfellows, politicians).
Don’t you guys/gals ever wonder why most of you have lost our respect? Why we don’t buy your papers anymore? But no, it seems the end justifies the means….
You might have our eyeballs (some of the time) but you don’t have our wallets.
24 Jul 09
1:04 pm
@Luke – What if this was the Government instead of Channel Ten? What if the story was vital to the National interest? Should media outlets bow to every demand of those “controlling” the news? Should news be manipulated like this in the first place?
These are the big questions that need answering.
In this case the story was just a TV show, but it demonstrates how media in this country, and therefore us as well, are being manipulated.
Another consideration here is credibility. When you start an interview by telling your subject to pretend they’re in a certain situation, you lose all credibility – and you don’t sell papers without it.
24 Jul 09
2:26 pm
i guess that’s an issue.. they aren’t exactly selling papers
anyway.. as you were.
24 Jul 09
2:32 pm
I’m not sure that’s true Great Strategy.
24 Jul 09
3:38 pm
I recall leaving a Waratahs game 3-4 years ago before Del was busted and being handed my free copy of the Tele with a back page story including the line “Del was spotted in a Paddington bar after the game deep in conversation with blah blah blah….”. This was about 3 minutes after the final whistle!
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