MailOnline, BuzzFeed, New Daily and Junkee journos to share pitching tips with PRs
Senior journalists from several of Australia’s major new arrivals on the media landscape are to set out for the first time how they want to engage with public relations professionals in a session at next month’s CommsCon conference.
The panel includes representatives from MailOnline, The New Daily, BuzzFeed and Junkee.
CommsCon – aimed at PR and communications professionals – is organised by Mumbrella’s parent company Focal Attractions.
Representing The New Daily is editorial director Bruce Guthrie. The New Daily launched late last year as a general news site offering coverage of news, sport, money and entertainment with funding from some of Australia’s superannuation funds.
Guthrie is a former editor-in-chief of News Corp’s Herald Sun. He has also edited The Age, The Sunday Age and been editorial director for Time Inc. After his departure from News Corp, he wrote the book Man Bites Murdoch.
Senior reporter Candace Sutton will represent MailOnline on the panel. MailOnline announced in November that it was coming to Australia as part of a joint venture with Nine. The website battles with The Guardian for title of the world’s best read news website.
Sutton is well qualified to speak from both sides of the journalist-PR relationship, having also spent six years as director of media and communications for Corrective Services NSW. In addition to having been a reporter for news.com.au, Sutton is a previous columnist, New York correspondent and chief-of-staff for Fairfax Media’s The Sun-Herald.
Also on the panel is BuzzFeed’s Australia editor Simon Crerar. News and entertainment site BuzzFeed’s local presence officially launched last month. Crerar was previously visual story editor for News Corp and before that online editor of The Cairns Post. He has also worked for The Times and The Sunday Times in the UK and the Sydney Morning Herald.
And The Sound Alliance’s pop culture website Junkee, which launched 11 months ago, will be represented by managing editor Steph Harmon. Harmon is a former editor of street title The Brag and has been a writer for The Music Network, Time Out, The Vine and Beat Magazine.
The panel will be moderated by journalist-turned PR Simon Canning. Canning was marketing and advertising writer for The Australian for more than a decade and spent eight years editing AdBrief. As well as running his consultancy Simon Says, Canning is communications manager for ad agency Droga5.
CommsCon takes place next month, on Thursday March 20. The program can be viewed via this link. Discounted earlybird tickets are available until the end of this week.
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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Bruce Guthrie
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Candace Sutton
CommsCon
junkee
MailOnline
New Daily
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public relations
Simon Canning
SImon Crerar
