Digest: Goodbye to a great; Countdown to 7pm Project; TED in Sydney; Canning versus Scientology
Last Monday, the media and marketing sections of our national newspapers were so moribund that writing a digest seemed cruel and unusual, not so much for the reader, but for me having to do it. So I didn’t.
But sometimes you’ve got to make sacrifices (and a couple of people did mention that they missed it), so let’s get back on the horse, starting with The Oz’s media section.
And it’s good to see the paper give extensive space to the Wall Street Journal’s coverage of the death of US news great Walter Cronkite.
But mostly, it’s about telly today. The Oz reports on this week’s arrival of three big shows supposed to make us laugh. The biggest investment (of airtime, at the very least) is Ten’s new 7PM Project, which kicks off tonight and will run daily. But also coming are sketch show Double Take and TV Burp, which both debut on Seven on Thursday night.
Sadly there’s no mention of the other one to watch this week – Nine’s Dance Your Ass Off on Tuesday night. That’s as in watch-through-your-fingers, I suspect. I strongly urge you to catch it tomorrow, because it seems unlikely it will be back the following week.
Still with TV, The Oz reports that three of Masterchef’s sponsors are likely come back on board for a celeb version due later this year.
And the paper also reports on how Yates is to fund Lifestyle TV show The Party Garden.
Over in the Australian Financial Review, the focus is on TV there too, with the paper catching up on last week’s announcement about Nine launching digital channel Go. It reports that Nine is visiting more than 60 advertisers and agencies to promote the new channel. And no edition of the AFR’s marketing section would be complete without an update from WPP’s media buying point Group M, which is still talking to the three major networks about the coming 12 months, says the paper, although nothing much appears to have happened.
The paper does break one story though. ANZ is to announce a three-year sponsorship deal with Tennis Australia, it says.
Back at the Oz, there are a couple of interesting nuggets. The paper suggests that anti junk food camapigners want internet and mobile phone advertising to be regulated.
And the paper reports on plans for a TEDx event in Sydney. TED – the US-based Technology, Entertainment, Design conference features cutting edge speakers.
And in one of the quirkier tales of the day, Simon Canning reveals in the diary section that the Scientologists have moved in next door to News Ltd. In a fit of apparent bravado he mentions: “Of course, Scientologists inundate any journalist who reports on their ‘religion’ so we’ll make it easy for you guys, email me at…” . The effect is only slightly diminished when one notices that the email address he gives is the general one for the media section rather than his own.
Tim Burrowes founded Mumbrella in 2008. He worked on Mumbrella until 2021. At various points he was editor, content director and editor-at-large.
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Given the success of Masterchef, the next question was how quickly would ten overmilk the cow.
Fetch another pail, here comes the celeb version.
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Nice wrap up, Tim.
I’m a massive fan of Group M stories in the AFR so it’s good they get an airing here, they have something of a cult following during the current trading season.
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