Opinion | Features

• Journalism’s future needs entrepreneurial ‘hackers’

  The future of the media, and in particular journalism, requires entrepreneurial ‘hacker’ journalists argues Merja Myllylahti in this cross posting from The Conversation. The Guardian and The Washington Post have been awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service for their work in bringing to light documents leaked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden.

• The Encore Score: The Logie Awards

  

  Ahead of Sunday night's Logie Awards, Amanda Meade looks at the numbers to see which celebrities might take out Australian television's top awards. 

  The TV Week Logie Awards, a celebration of Australian television, is a wild and colourful beast.

• Behind the screens of the ABC’s China deal

  

  ABC International has reasons to be proud of its recent deal to provide ABC content in a long-term partnership with China’s second biggest broadcaster Shanghai Media Group writes Wanning Sun, in this cross posting from The Conversation.

  ABC International has reasons to be proud of its recent “landmark” deal to provide ABC content in China.

• Should agencies return to a full service model?

  Our current method of separating creative and media is more expensive and less effective, leaving us with the worst of both worlds, argues 303Lowe CEO Nick Cleaver. Is it time to bring media and creative back together? Who ever actually proved that separating media and creative services was a good idea; that it represented a better more effective model; one that could deliver better value outcomes? The simple truth is no one.

• Answers for Adam: Why do agencies struggle to build their own agency brands?

  You’ve heard the story about the cobbler whose kids got around in old shoes, it reminds me of the current state of agency brands. Grab hold of any creative agency brand, and barring two or three notable exceptions very little pulls them apart. 

• Media agency remuneration: It's the smaller nimbler agencies which will thrive

  As huge changes blow through the Australian media agency landscape Nikki Retallick argues the smaller more collaborative companies will be the ones to thrive. It’s a great time to be in the Australian ad industry. The winds of change are blowing. With the recent launch of Department212 and the success of earlier start-ups such as Bohemia, there’s some real momentum towards the rise of the independent, performance-based media agency. The big agencies are starting to follow suit, having seen the ‘race to the bottom on price’ hit their bottom line. It’s all about delivering measurable value now and being able to move the dial on the clients’ business.

• Content marketing moves to centre stage

  Last night ANZ launched one of Australia's biggest branded content plays to date. Mumbrella's Tim Burrowes was at the launch. It took a few minutes too long last night for it to dawn on me why there was a jazz band in the corner of the room at ANZ's Melbourne conference suite. Blue Notes - gerrit? And what last night's event did make clear is that the opportunities of that developing subset of branded content, brand journalism, are beginning to dawn on local brands.

• Answers for Adam: Is reality TV the way to tackle climate change?

  Recently there was another report from the scientists of the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) telling us that climate change (what used to be called global warming) is upon us and there are real changes happening now (I bet I’ve lost several readers already!) The scientists are urging us to heed their warning and change our behaviours, yet we ignoring them in droves. Even though information they are giving us is dire.

• The Tele's textbook example of how to run a winning newspaper campaign

  The Daily Telegraph has delivered a great piece of old fashioned campaigning journalism, argues Mumbrella's Tim Burrowes Back when I worked in newspapers, I was taught that if a newspaper is going to embark on a campaign, it has to pass three tests.

• Piracy: At least the Lannisters pay their debts

  Following a series of special reports on piracy on Mumbrella this week Foxtel's Bruce Meagher explains why the company is airing Game of Thrones as it is. Much has been made in the past few days of the fact that fans of Game of Thrones are unable to acquire the series through services other than Foxtel until after the final episode airs. Unfortunately, there has also been much misinformation about how Foxtel is making Game of Thrones available to the public.

• Why hard-to-win awards are good awards

  This year's Mumbrella Awards are going to be tougher to enter than ever before. Which makes winning one worth even more. As the call for entries goes live, Tim Burrowes explains the changes for this year. Please don't hate me. I hear a common complaint about some industry awards, and I'm afraid it's mostly my fault.

• Encore Score: The newsreaders

  With the battle for early evening eyeballs increasingly important for commercial TV networks Amanda Meade looks at the numbers to see if the most popular newsreaders are the most watched. Despite dramatic changes to the media landscape in the past ten years, the traditional 6pm commercial news bulletin on free-to-air television remains a key building block in a network’s schedule - get it right and you can carry big audiences over to your primetime shows. Some bulletins have even expanded from 30 minutes to an hour in the main markets of Sydney and Melbourne.

• Answers for Adam: Should PR agencies and creative agencies be combined?

  This week Adam Ferrier asks whether PR is starting to mean everything and nothing, and whether it is any different from traditional advertising.   I've been thinking about the PR industry lately and where PR fits in the broader communications landscape. I've thought about it a lot, and worked with most models from integration under one roof to partner agencies, and a few things in-between.

• Australia's class system of brands

  After a rare business class flight, Mumbrella's Tim Burrowes argues that brands may miss opportunities when staff treat customers according to their perceived value. So over the weekend, I finally got to make the metaphorical left turn getting onto a Qantas flight. And it was everything I could have wanted.

• Answering Adam: Agencies need ideas as their engine

  This week in his Answers for Adam column Adam Ferrier asked whether agencies should imitate startups. Here Nic Hodges argues agencies need to focus on their ideas, but modernise processes. In his column this week Adam Ferrier asks  "would your agency be doing better work if it put data, behavioural sciences, and technology up on pedestal along with creativity? Or is a single-minded focus on creativity still the answer?". Here's a secret - nobody at a startup is sitting around caring about acting more like an advertising agency.