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Opinion | Features
Q&A with Adshel's Rob Atkinson
Online trading is the next big thing says Rob Atkinson in a piece that first appeared in Encore. Who is the most powerful person in Australian media and why?
Harold Mitchell because of his influence and the footprint he has left. He’s built a huge brand in Mitchells, offloaded it into Aegis, Aegis has obviously done extremely well to be then sold on to Dentsu. So if you think about it, he is very much a father figure of the industry.
Making it overseas
Is the best way of being successful in Australia not be here at all? In a feature that first appeared in Encore, Lee Zachariah speaks to Aussies making it big abroad.I always wanted to work in New York,” says Julian Cole. “I thought it was the number one place to work in advertising; a lot of the best campaigns were coming out of there. So I moved over and was lucky enough to have a couple of interviews in the first couple of weeks.”
Cole’s story is indicative of the somewhat contentious idea that the best way to be successful in Australia is to not be in Australia any more.
Got a book in you?
From journos to ad execs and PRs, these days everyone seems to have a book in them. But what does it take to get published and will you actually make any money? In a feature that first appeared in Encore, Brooke Hemphill finds out.Attention wannabe authors. Forget big fat advance cheques and living off royalties. The reality of having a book published today is another story altogether. There are only two reasons you should even consider sitting down at your computer to bash out a manuscript – passion or profile.
Savage counsel
In an article that first appeared in Encore, Chris Savage tackles your career and agency dilemmas in his weekly advice column.Hi Chris,
My clients seem to be demanding more and more from us. At the same time, it seems many of the younger people in our industry simply don’t have the client servicing skills my generation grew up with. How do we instill in our executives some of the good old-fashioned behaviours that would keep a client happy and loyal?
Fake it til' you make it... as an ad agency receptionist
From dressing the part to playing the gatekeeper, Leo Burnett Sydney’s Susie Henry tells us how to make it as the face of adland in a piece that first appeared in Encore.What does a receptionist in an ad agency actually do?
Well, there’s the frantic every-day, all-day stuff of deliveries, courier bookings, doing expenses for directors – always challenging – plus arranging all the travel. But one of my main jobs is counselling the account service people. I also keep up with all sports information to discuss with our sports-loving clients – because who wants to be bored while they’re waiting? And I know how they like their coffee. You need to know everyone – from accounting to HR. I’m also the go-to for all catering and sending flowers.
Whose views skew the news? Media chiefs ready to vote out Labor, while reporters lean left
Most journalists lean left-of-centre, says Folker Hanusch of the University of the Sunshine Coast, in a post first published on The Conversation.Most Australian journalists describe themselves as left-wing, yet amongst those who wield the real power in the country’s newsrooms, the Coalition holds a winning lead.
But while the media’s political leanings will no doubt be debated in the lead-up to September’s federal election, our study has also found other largely unscrutinised biases remain – particularly whose views disproportionately shape the news.
It's time for a new New Wave in the film world
Government funding bodies are lazy and decadent, says industry veteran Michael Thornhill but in a piece that first appeared in Encore, Ed Gibbs begs to differ.I vividly remember the time I first saw Animal Kingdom, David Michod’s breathtaking labour-of-love feature debut. The press screening was half empty, despite the film winning the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance just months earlier, in 2010. Yet its superb performances, stylistic flourishes and overall polish left me speechless. Could this really be a feature debut, an Australian one at that, I wondered, almost out loud? It seemed too good to be true.
Going cold turkey on an agency addiction
Life is sweet for freelance writer Max Kitchen, but in a feature that first appeared in Encore, he admits his struggle against returning to the agency fold.I’ve never taken heroin. But I suspect if I had, the temptation to try it again would not be too dissimilar to the lure of returning to agency life.
Can sport save Ten?
First there was the Grand Prix. Next came the reported $500m bid for cricket rights, then Ten secured the 2014 winter Olympics. So, can sport save the ailing network? In a feature that first appeared in Encore, Nic Christensen investigates.The television sports rights bidding process is a bit like a game of poker.
Check, fold or bet. Those were the options for the Ten Network last week when it had to finalise its bid for the cricket rights.
Andy Lark: good for the marketing of marketing
I can still remember the first story I wrote about Andy Lark, when it emerged that he was to be the new chief marketing officer of CommBank.
It was immediately clear that Australia was about to meet an interesting marketer, one who blogged and tweeted and thanks to his time at Dell in the US was digitally savvy. Even two years ago, that was a big deal. The fact that he also had a stint in public relations gave him an absolutely intriguing background before he even arrived.
Storming the media barricades - advice for young journalists
This week Mumbrella’s Nic Christensen, who began his career four years ago, gave the keynote address to would-be journalists at the Media, Entertainment & Arts Alliance’s Student Day. This is an edited version of his speech.Good afternoon, I can remember distinctly the last time I was in this room.
It was 2009 and I was sitting where you are. I’d come to this event, a friend and myself — from memory we sat up the back — and I can remember at the time wondering if I’d ever get a job as a journalist.
It was only four years ago and then as now getting a job was ultra competitive but I’m not sure there was quite as much media ‘doom and gloom’ as there is now…
Paywalls will help fund campaigning journalism
In this guest post, News Limited’s group editorial director Campbell Reid responds to the views of ninemsn’s Hal Crawford that the company’s push into metered paywalls is about data rather than dollars.Hal Crawford is both right and wrong in his article which argued that our digital subscription plans are all about the data.
Fake it 'til you make it... as a features editor
Cosmo’s Kate Leaver tells us how to bluff it in her job in a feature that first appeared in Encore.What do you do, as a features editor?
Really, play with words and ideas all day. At any one time, we’re working across three issues of the mag – getting one on its way to the printers, pooling all the words together for another, and planning the issue after that. It’s busy but it’s a pretty magnificent process.
Savage counsel - JFDI
Hi Chris,I run a medium-sized agency that is doing pretty well. As the leader, I am finding my workload just seems to go up and up. I am struggling to stay motivated and particularly to tackle the bigger and tougher challenges I have to face every day. How do I keep up the energy when there just seems so much to do? How do you do it?
Productive, successful executives are those able to consistently tackle difficult and big challenges. It’s a constant struggle for me so I know how you feel. How do the successful leaders do it?
Q&A with Brett Clegg
Brett Clegg, group director – business media, Fairfax Media, in a Q&A that first appeared in Encore, on the journo who refuses to work with him – his wife.Who is the most powerful person in Australian media and why?
Hard to go past Rupert Murdoch. He controls the single largest and most diverse portfolio and is intent on leveraging its scale (and, of course, influence). He’s an innovator and his will to win is obvious to all.
Everybody Dance Now rates just 598,000
Ten’s first shot in the post-Olympic TV battle was something of a disappointment for the network with Everybody Dance Now’s two-hour opening rating only 598,000 according to overnight ratings from OzTam.
The Fremantle Media-produced show – featuring dancing duels – is presented by Sarah Murdoch, who is married to Ten’s chairman Lachlan Murdoch.
The show was up against the final night of The Olympics on Nine and Seven’s Once Upon A Time.
Preliminary ratings put the audience at 572,000 – this rose to 598,000 after being corrected for the exact time of airing.
The early evening Olympics session averaged 1.457m while the later session averaged 1.307m. Once Upon A Time rated 883,000.
It was also outrated by ABC1′s Grand Designs Revisited which had an average audience of 944,000.
The Olympics dominated throughout the weekend, attracting audiences of around 1.2m on Friday night and an early evening audience of nearly 1.4m on Saturday.
Ten’s Masterchef All Stars rated 779,000 according to OzTam’s data.
Everybody Dance Now was 13th for the night in all people. It rose to seventh in 16-39, and eighth in the 18-49 and 25-54 demographics. Ten says that in 16-39 and 18-49, EDN rated second during its own timeslot. Its peak all people audience was 928,000, Ten said.
Nine will attempt to maintain momentum by launching Big Brother and Underbelly: Badness tonight. Seven is airing the series final episode of Once Upon A Time, while Ten has Masterchef All Stars and another 90 minutes of Everybody Dance Now.
More follows later
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Comments
13 Aug 12
9:38 am
Worst. Show. Everrrr!
13 Aug 12
9:39 am
What a let down. It was the dancing VOICE without the production values. Sarah Murdoch was a wooden host – sorry, but clearly out of her depth- and the entire show was clunky. Freemantle has done a very poor job. Lost me.
13 Aug 12
9:46 am
More dancing contests? Please NOOO
13 Aug 12
10:08 am
Sadly I watched, I saw what they were trying to do, but it just never worked. I liked the instant vote idea, but in todays world, the pre-record format meant that viewers were not involved in the decision. So if I can’t vote, why should I care.
Then please fire the genius who thought it was a good idea to let the team leaders speak utter rubiish for a minute in order to gain audience votes for their respective dancers. Instant turn off, which is what I did after 10 minutes.
13 Aug 12
10:14 am
“Let’s launch a reality TV show about dancing on a Sunday night, up against the final night of the Olympics!”
13 Aug 12
10:52 am
why can’t Australia make good TV?
13 Aug 12
10:52 am
Unwatchable.
13 Aug 12
11:00 am
i started watching with high hopes but decided it was total rubbish and switched off. wont bother watching it again!
13 Aug 12
11:11 am
horrible format, terrible host, lacked substance, all over the place tacky show.
wth is going on at channel 10?
13 Aug 12
11:33 am
Another dancing show … snore. Singing, renovating, cooking, unfunny panel shows and,worst of all, Big Bother, umh, Brother … who gives a you know what. Free to air television, especially the commercials, has lost the plot and the only idea it has is to repeat the past again … and again. Nine’s endless promoting of its supposedly great upcoming shows during its lame Olympics coverage – Eddie Everywhere should be renamed Eddie Nowhere and not be let outside of Melbourne ever again – was enough to drive you mad. There are also very serious doubts around the Kerry Packer World Series Cricket thing – a bit of in house veneration of Nine’s godfather – and yet more highly unlikeable gangsters shooting one another in Underbelly … is this mark four, five, six? I’ve lost count. And Charlie Sheen’s got a new show where he plays a self-centred dolt, again. Or is that just Charlie being Charlie? Spare us.
13 Aug 12
12:06 pm
Personally I don’t understand why they didn’t bring back So You Think You Can Dance. I thought it had consistently good ratings? At the very least I was watching
13 Aug 12
12:54 pm
It looked like a set of an after school game show and where was the atmosphere?
So bad, bring back So You Think You Can Dance.
13 Aug 12
12:57 pm
Why oh why do we indulge Sarah Murdoch. Get her off the TV
13 Aug 12
1:08 pm
I started to watch it, but stopped halfway through the first dance. Firstly why not locals? Why Kelly Rowland? It seemed forced and edited really badly….
13 Aug 12
1:14 pm
So will James have to fire his own wife? He will be in the dog house for a while after that…
13 Aug 12
1:27 pm
Of all the new Aussie shows launching around now, this one had the least chance of being successful.
People are over dance shows. Simple as that.
It’s three or four years too late.
Big Brother will go OK.
Watch I Will Survive tank also, but not to the extent of EDN.
The weddings one with Kate R might go okay.
13 Aug 12
1:36 pm
I was so looking forward to this show – I’m a self confessed ‘dreamed of being a professional dancer without ever doing anything about it’ kinda gal – but was utterly disappointed. Sadly I watched the entire show, but as I’d paused it before the ballet dancer came on so my sister could watch, I got the pleasure of fast forwarding through all the other nonsense like Kelly and Jason trying to drum up votes for their act before the audience voted. Also, I thought there was only one $10,000 winner at the end of the night, and then there were two. And…why did we not get to see the tap dancing duo or the African dance group. It wasn’t explained very well. Ok, I better stop now.
13 Aug 12
2:05 pm
What a let down ! Appalling set, lighting, host, – what else can I say.
Another failure – add YTT, Lara Bingle, The Shire, Breakfast, Everybody Dance Now – wonderful commissioning and execution.
Who survives this one ?
13 Aug 12
3:46 pm
So, FremantleMedia are on a roll right now. Everybody Dance Now, Excess Baggage, and Got Talent.
13 Aug 12
3:52 pm
i love to watch dance shows but that was terrible ,sarah Murdoch not good at all ,i agree with Ally bring back so you think you can dance that was brillant
13 Aug 12
5:45 pm
It didnt rate? What a suprise. Given the opportunity I’d prefer to watch a dog scratch at fleas for an evening rather than submit to this drivel.
13 Aug 12
8:52 pm
I watched most of this. Woeful.
Pinocchio wondered why his girlfriend wasn’t home. Mrs Murdoch was that wooden it wasn’t funny.
13 Aug 12
9:07 pm
The set reminds me of “Its a knockout”. Feel so sorry for the sponsors of the show who may have thought this was a good invesntment – hope they can get their money back. Didnt Channel 10 get a new TV programming genius from Channel 7?
15 Aug 12
1:25 pm
Why did the promo have such high production values, and the actual show looks so tacky? The set looked cheap and empty, the host was so uncomfortable, it was like a high school media studies production. I have also heard that many production crew have walked off the show. Did anyone notice how they re-recorded the promo to redo the delivery of Sarah’s lines? They must have realised that she looked so uncomfortable in the first promo that went to air, so they re-shot it. Such a shame – I was really looking forward to watching this.