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Opinion | Features
Melissa Doyle is ready for prime time (but what does it mean for Today Tonight?)
It’s easy to be dismissive of TV presenters – particularly when they’re doing something as fluffy as morning television.
But today’s announcement of the departure of Mel Doyle from Sunrise is a reminder that it’s harder than it looks.
How bosses can build trust by baring themselves to staff
In this guest post, Simon Rutherford, CEO of Slingshot Media, argues that bosses should be vulnerable in front of their staff.
Winston Churchill once said: “Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen.”
Fake it til you make it...as a radio newsreader
In a piece that first appeared in Encore, Emily Hoskins from ARN tells us how to do her job.
What does a radio newsreader actually do?
A radio newsreader has to be switched on from the moment they sit at their desk. At the Australian Radio Network each journalist writes, researches, edits and reads their own news bulletins under tight deadlines – every 30 minutes during the breakfast shift and every hour after 9am.
Keith Reinhard on freedom to fail, winning back Maccas and how agencies can survive
In an exclusive interview in Cannes today, advertising icon Keith Reinhard, one of the founding fathers of what is now DDB Worldwide, talked to Mumbrella’s Robin Hicks about freedom from fear, his favourite ads of all time, winning back McDonald’s and why the most important thing in advertising is passion.Savage counsel - little white lies
In a piece that first featured in Encore, Chris Savage tackles your career and agency dilemmas. This week, he talks about when it’s okay to lie to clients.
Hi Chris,
I often find myself telling little white lies at work – I tell people on the phone that I don’t want to speak to I’m about to duck into meetings. I told my colleague her new haircut was great when really it wasn’t and I praised someone’s work when actually it was kind of shit. After each of these occasions, I felt pretty terrible and wonder if you could tell me how can I speak with candour in the future – for my sake and others.
How to build a culture
How important is a company’s culture and how do you ensure you are breeding a good one? Matt Smith investigates, in a piece that first appeared in Encore.When production companies Cordell Jigsaw and Zapruder’s Other Films merged early last year, bringing the staff together within the walls of the Zapruder building proved to be something of a challenge. While the two companies weren’t strangers to each other due to six months of talks and negotiations, working together on a full-time basis was a different story.
Q&A Damian Keogh
In a piece that first featured in Encore, Val Morgan CEO Damian Keogh reveals his potential alternate career.
Who is the most powerful person in Australian media and why?
I’d say Kerry Stokes, slightly ahead of Harold Mitchell and Kim Williams. He controls the entity with the largest revenue across free-to-air, online, magazines and newspapers. On pure size alone, his influence and leverage over advertisers, media agencies and consumers is unmatched. Harold is still the king in media, slightly ahead of John Steedman, but Henry Tajer and Leigh Terry are the heirs apparent. Kim Williams controls News and that’s a big base to work from.
If a violent game is okay, then so is using a violent ad to promote it
An ad for video game Dead Island Riptide was banned by the ad watchdog. James Whitehead of online entertainment publisher IGN argues that it was the wrong call.A fortnight ago, it emerged that the Ad Standards Board had banned a television commercial for the video game Dead Island: Riptide, due to its depiction of violence – specifically suicide.
Why content makers are leaving our shores
In a piece that first featured in Encore, Craig Anderson says there simply isn’t enough opportunity for content makers in Australia, especially for those making comedy.Last year I had multiple meetings with production companies in Australia and discovered that apart from the odd commercial campaign, there’s no proliferation of paying platforms for comedy. From my own experience there’s iView, which will buy content once it’s already been made (though I live in hope that it will one day be granted the financial power to commission content). I’ve also had the odd informal commission from the SMH iPad consisting of two narrative series and a comical review show. But none of these endeavours were financially viable.
Managing your management style
In an article that first appeared in Encore, Stephanie Brown says the advertising industry often leaves people ill-equipped when it comes to managing staff, especially when they’re promoted into management roles.Managing people is hard. In fact, I actually think it’s the hardest job in the world. With no disrespect intended, I often joke that if my job didn’t involve other people to manage, it would be a walk in the park. I could get about my day’s work in a nice, linear fashion, happily checking off my to-do list as I go. I’m a process-orientated person. I get a kick out of getting things done.
Why the Facebook chase is making brands treat consumers like morons
You know how we look back at quaintly patronising ads from the 1950s and wonder what on earth the advertisers were thinking?
I’ve got a feeling that in a few years time, we’ll be looking at the behaviour of big brands on Facebook the same way.
An entire generation of marketers – or at least a sizeable proportion of them – have lost their minds.
So many have become so obsessed with generating user interactions at all costs, that all thoughts about overall brand perceptions or long term marketing goals have vanished. All that counts now, is generating likes and comments at all costs.
Blog this!
Paid content, sponsored posts and brand ambassadorships – in theory, today’s blogger can be just as valuable to brands as mainstream media. But does blogger outreach actually work? In an article that first appeared in Encore, Nic Christensen investigates.“I get approaches from PR companies constantly,” says blogger and author Kerri Sackville, with more than a hint of exasperation. “I have never done a sponsored blog, on my own site, but that doesn’t stop them from asking.”
McLennan right man for job
It’s all change at troubled broadcaster Channel Ten with new directions, new executives and a brand new CEO. Managing director of Adstream Peter Miller says Hamish McLennan is the right man for the job, in an article that first appeared in Encore.I am a bit of a schmuck when it comes to movies. I love romantic comedies. My favourite is One Fine Day with Michelle Pfeiffer and George Clooney.
Q&A with Richard Herring
In a piece that first appeared in Encore, CEO of APN Outdoor Richard Herring talks media.Who is the most powerful person in Australian media and why?
I don’t know if there is one person in particular. The fragmentation of traditional media and new entrants has made it a more level playing field with regards to major influencers. As was demonstrated with the recent media reform recommendations, together, the broader media community still has a very influential and powerful voice.
What one medium could you not live without?
Outdoor – clean, entertaining, evocative and informative.
Q&A with screenwriter Craig Pearce
Craig Pearce, screenwriter for The Great Gatsby, spoke to Encore about working with Baz and writing for 3D.
How did you get into script writing?
I always loved stories and acting and dressing up and being anything but myself and I never realised that was not something other people did. After leaving high school, I did a three year acting course at NIDA but always thought I would one day write. Baz was a good friend and he had a theatre company. He wanted to extend a 20 minute version of Strictly Ballroom. We got it to 45 minutes then he was approached by producers to turn it into a feature film. I started helping him out on the film while they were looking for a real writer but eventually Baz had to go to the producers and say, “There’s this guy who’s my best friend and he is a really good writer”. To the producers’ credit, they believed in Baz so we had two weeks to re-write it.
Fairfax: Nik Howe didn’t quit. We fired him
Nik Howe, the editor of Sport & Style did not quit, but was fired, Fairfax has told Mumbrella.
After Mumbrella earlier today revealed that Howe was launching full time into branded content agency Articulate, Lisa Hudson, Fairfax Magazine’s chief executive and publisher, told Mumbrella: ‘I’d like to go on the record. He did not quit. He was fired for misconduct. He was dismissed.”
After Mumbrella put the claim to Howe, he conceded: “That’s interesting. As far as I’m concerned, we parted company on reasonable terms.”
But he added: “I think they were unhappy with the fact that the agency was going on in the background.”
Although Fairfax declined to comment on the specifics of Howe’s dismissal, Mumbrella understands that the potential conflict of interest of Howe’s involvement in the agency while also editing the magazine was not the only issue.
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Comments
9 Dec 09
1:13 pm
Ouch
9 Dec 09
1:44 pm
sounds like a Christmas Party casualty!
9 Dec 09
1:46 pm
Ooof!
9 Dec 09
1:52 pm
@Elle – LOL!
9 Dec 09
1:55 pm
Does that mean he can’t ask them for a reference?
9 Dec 09
1:59 pm
I think the magazine is the only reference he’ll need.
9 Dec 09
2:01 pm
Nice tantie Lisa! Not only do you come out firing, but you look like a poor sport. I thought fairfax as a whole would be bigger than one employee.
Didn’t think much of it to start with Nik leaving, but now I feel for him that a Corporation is SOOO willing to drag his name through the mud.
Head up Nik, they’re obviously not worth working for. Good luck on the venture!
9 Dec 09
2:03 pm
Yes, guaranteed to send you to sleep
9 Dec 09
2:06 pm
I know a fair few people of the fairer sex who would side with Lisa on this one.
9 Dec 09
2:15 pm
The casualties will surely come from the Top 100 party, but this particular editor wasn’t there.
9 Dec 09
2:15 pm
@Ribbit why would women side with Lisa on this? care to expand your comment?
9 Dec 09
2:16 pm
(removed for legal reasons)
9 Dec 09
2:22 pm
@Ribbit without some evidence there i think it would be wise to tread carefully with that comment. Or are you a disgruntled Fairfax employee?
9 Dec 09
2:25 pm
I know no-one involved here, but accusations such as (edited for legal reasons) seems just plain dangerous. There’s a living breathing reputation at risk here.
9 Dec 09
2:32 pm
game over comb over
9 Dec 09
2:40 pm
I though Tim was supposed to moderate these sorts of comments. I don’t know any of the individuals involved but I’d be calling my brief if I was this Nick bloke.
9 Dec 09
2:45 pm
If he had a comb over they should have said something straight up, would have saved a lot of questioning about why…
9 Dec 09
2:45 pm
Ribbit I’d be watching out for the defamation police.
9 Dec 09
2:48 pm
good consistent quality mag. nice shoes. seems like a good bloke to me.
9 Dec 09
3:07 pm
Always hilarious to hear or read that when someone leaves Fairfax, they’ve always been fired.
9 Dec 09
3:14 pm
Seriously,
To feel the need to go on public record?
Exectuve dramas play out everyday. And most get on with their lives.
But Fairfax, like Westpac, feel the need on this occassion to inform and educate us of their brilliant decision making?
It seems the harder you try, the more it says about you.
So maybe talk to your PR people first, you know, get some advice from more experienced people – rather than taking your own. Because whilst you know how samrt you are, the rest of us don’t – but we do now! LOL
9 Dec 09
3:40 pm
Ahhhh; at least some of your “commentators” get it right. Fairfax, the self-styled Gurus of publishing”, have had a not-too-succesful track record with new publications for most of the last 30 years and more. And when anyone leaves, 90% of the time it is because they were, quote, “fired”. What a load of bullsh..
Most of your comments are spot on; particularly “Larry”, “John Sands” and Fairfax plus Westpac . . . . ” If only they could get first-rate marketing AND editorial people in charge, working together, and NOT splintered like that dysfunctional Board has been for a few years. Sad but true. (At least One can always ‘wish’ I guess. If only . . .”).
9 Dec 09
3:56 pm
In fairness to Fairfax, it is worth just flagging up the course of events. They only went on the record at saying he’d been fired after he put out a press release (which we published) about his agency. So they were responding to what they saw as an inaccurate statement that he had quit.
While I wasn’t privvy to what really went on, hypothetically, if I had fired someone and a few days later they went public saying they’d resigned, I might be tempted to react to it
Cheers,
Tim – Mumbrella
9 Dec 09
4:07 pm
@Tim or do they just start heading into a case of he said she bitched?
I mean why did they feel compelled to go out and say they fired him? Does this add to anything at all? Is it FailFacts just wielding their publishing muscle? surely if his conduct was so poor and so bad to be fired we would have heard about this before now?
He may well have been fired. There are lots of corporate employments contracts out there that have clauses that say you cannot operate your own interest/business while being employed by them (I know my contract at CH7 said that when i worked there).
I see some fast calls being made to legal Suits in the next few days.
9 Dec 09
4:10 pm
@Tim – It’s not that they did react. it’s how they reacted. As “Fairfax + Westpac = Hopeless PR” states…..”maybe talk to your PR people first”. Very unprofessional from a Corporation and an Executive. Look at how many responses to this article compared to the original posting about Nik starting his agency………..only 2 from last check.
Fairfax could have let it slide and not look like a child throwing a tantrum!
Now…Anyone know what really happened? I’m intrigued…….
9 Dec 09
5:23 pm
I agree with all of the above
9 Dec 09
6:13 pm
I’ve got no issues with Lisa Hudson having her say on this – especially after Nik apparently sent out a press release (!) to promote himself, big-note his new agency and make what appears to be an untruthful statement about the basis of his departure from Fairfax.
Things might have been different if Nik had played the game the way it’s always (or mostly) been played – either not saying much or anything about the reasons for his departure or citing the old ‘launched the mag, now time to move on, great time working with the team at Fairfax but new opportunities for the new year blah blah blah’
But there’s clearly a lot more to this than either Nik or Lisa is saying…
9 Dec 09
9:43 pm
There’s nothing wrong with Fairfax’s PR on this issue. It’s barely a “tantrum”. Just getting the right story out there. That’s what PR is all about isn’t it?
9 Dec 09
10:23 pm
Alan – in response -You are right. PR is about getting the right story out there. Your ‘right’ story. It woudl come under the heading – Issues management. It is a critical part of PR. And PR is about contributing to the positive management of the brand for the organisation. In this case there was no issue to manage. ie Nik Howe’s press release got a write up on Mumbrella and managed to attract a massive 2 comments. However, poor issues management , ie the so called ‘correct information’ has dragged Fairfax’s name into a debate that, as you correctly point out is not a ‘tantrum’. But becasue of poor issues management now it and seems to continue to gain momentum.
The more protesting there is about this, from ‘apparent’ Fairfax supporters, the longer it looms for Fairfax, and the more I think, maybe Farifax wanted to help Nik Howe build his newly found minnow into a brand with better awareness than say ‘f2′ ever had.
Alan, you don’t work in corporate affairs at fiarfax do you? Do they even have that department?
9 Dec 09
10:55 pm
No, I don’t work there.
If I did, I wouldn’t be writing without surname or contact details in the comments section of a blog.
10 Dec 09
2:32 am
Now that they have their kicking boots on, Fairfax brass might want to consider jetting down to Melbourne and booting quite a few silly people out of the new Age building.
While spoil a fine space with the same old executive furniture?
10 Dec 09
4:26 am
Only “a few silly people”? I would have a wholesale cleanout. 70% of those who style themselves smugly as ‘journos.’ wouldn’t have lasted 5 minutes amongst the olde hands of say 10-30 years ago. They were professionals; people who were proud of every word and jotting done, with articles being carefully crafted, and not just scrawled down any oild how.. Just ask the old hands who still there.
Sad but true.
10 Dec 09
7:33 am
Given this has been done on an industry blog, the Fairfax management have felt compelled to put the record straight. We do not know the facts behind why he was dismissed but given that many Fairfax staff may read this site, perhaps it was important for them to see the facts corrected.
And no I don’t work for Fairfax, for their PR agencies or anything like that.
10 Dec 09
7:48 am
…or perhaps the parties involved in whatever issues led to the dismissal were external to Fairfax so it was important for them to see the story repudiated publicly as after all, it would seem FFsaid nothing of the issue until Nik did.
10 Dec 09
8:35 am
@Graham – If FF wanted their staff to know, then hold an internal meeting and discuss. Don’t announce in this forum.
It just seems that they have allowed one individual to get under their skin….This is a trait that should be admired….Nik’s CV is good, he’s done well launching the title, just pissed a few people off somewhere/somehow!
FF’s best approach would have been to leave it alone and provide “no comment” when asked for a reference by a potential future employer, or state “Nik’s moved on, We’ve moved on, there’s no more to it.”
10 Dec 09
8:50 am
Maybe Mr Howe was simply being prudent and preparing for life after Fairfax. Have you seen how thin Sport & Style is?
10 Dec 09
9:19 am
Worst editor ever. How he got the job in the first place, only Lisa Hudson knows.
10 Dec 09
9:33 am
So bad that he broke world headlines by printing the jelena dokic story when Sport & Style was only a few months old and other media companies had been chasing the story for years.
10 Dec 09
9:38 am
@Cat – Maybe that’s why they fired him! He was too clever/good at his job…..At Fairfax they call it misconduct for showing up the Executive team.
10 Dec 09
10:16 am
Jeezus
Has anyone stopped and thought the threat that this mere conflict of interest problem has created for the publisher – regardless of the company.
A publisher lives on their integrity and anyone who threatens that integrity threatens the livelihood of all other employees.
In this instance Fairfax needed to demonstrate to all – employees, stakeholders and shareholders- that they will aggressively defend their integrity. If they let Howe ‘get away with it’ they set an awful precedent for all others within the organisation.
10 Dec 09
10:32 am
@Quentin – I agree with you. Their best approach to cover off what you have outlined was to hold a staff meeting, lay out the ground rules/reasons and move on. I had no idea there was an issue until Lisa announced. Bad PR on their behalf.
Then again, we don’t even know what his ‘Misconduct’ was…….What did Howe ‘get away with’? No-one will elaborate, so we can only assume! But are we correct. Like I said previously, I did not care about Nik’s move when I read it and 24hrs a go, only 2 people had bothered to post anything. Now Fairfax appear like bullies.
10 Dec 09
1:11 pm
Interesting to read these comments for what they imply: While there are supporters, there’s also a fair swathe of people who appear to have no love for Fairfax. These are people who place the ads that keep Fairfax alive. Time to sell your shares?
10 Dec 09
11:49 pm
who cares about Nik – he’d be forgotten in a week – worst for Fairfax though is who actually cares about that magazine – it’s the biggest NOTHING – just fluff with swimmers dressed in Gucci – OOHHH PLLLLEAASE -
11 Dec 09
1:08 pm
When I was there we used the backpage of the AFR to get some great PR about a little fall out we were having in the boardroom. Touche ! Anyone for pig hunting ?
11 Dec 09
2:59 pm
Misconduct sounds different to conflict of interest. Is the real story yet to unfold?
11 Dec 09
4:08 pm
@Quentin Long: fair call!
It’s not a _little_ conflict of interest issue — it’s a bloody big one. It’s misconduct enough, regardless of what else Nik got up to at Fairfax.
Every contract I’ve seen and/or signed in this industry includes a heavy section about moonlighting, freelancing, consulting etc for another publishing business in direct competition with your _current_ publisher. Break that deal and you’re out.
If you use (or even attempt to use) your employer’s resources or IP to compete against them, then getting fired is only the beginning.
11 Dec 09
4:19 pm
Ahhh; “truth will (always) out”. Well in this case it is taking a bloody long time. With in between every kiund of comment; idiotic ranging thru to prescient and knowledgable.
But will someone put ,e out of my misery and just give us the facts – tha plain facts; then we can all get on with the rt of our lives.
“here’s hoping Esmerelda?
11 Dec 09
4:48 pm
Doubt it’s so much “regardless of what else Nik got up to at Fairfax” as exactly what else he got up to..
15 Dec 09
2:44 pm
At this point, we’re closing this comment stream for legal reasons.
Tim – Mumbrella