Mumbrella live blog: Thursday, February 20
Welcome to Mumbrella’s live blog, your rolling diary of everything you need to know in the marketing and media worlds (and some stuff that makes us chuckle). Refresh the page regularly for the latest updates.
Highlights: Mumbrella Hangout this afternoon with Julian Morrow and Kate Browne from The Checkout | Police turned up one ‘unconsummated’ Schapelle Corby agreement during raids on Seven | Fairfax boosts profits despite revenue falls |LinkedIn opens up publishing platform to anyone in content push | TV ratings: Ten falls below ten per cent share for main channel | Dr Mumbo: Calvin’s got a hashtag
5:59pm – If you didn’t get enough of Robbie Williams on Today this morning (see 8:10am) then fear not, there’s a hard hitting interview on ABC’s 7:30 tonight, where he talks about, amongst other things, UFOs. Who does he say “I’m daddy bear and I want to protect her with a ferocity. I have a ferocity that is beyond me.”
5.25pm – If you haven’t opened up Sydney’s Daily Tele today, there’s evidence of that rarest of things – an Australian film with a decent marketing budget. There’s a DPS ad for Wolf Creek 2 on page two and three.
4:40pm – There’s a new tender opening up for the Barangaroo Project in Sydney. They are after creative, design, strategy and public relations are all up for grabs for specialists, sole practitioners as well as larger agencies. Get more info here.
2:55pm – A reminder we have our Hangout with Julian Morrow and Kate Browne from ABC1’s The Checkout happening in just 30 minutes time. You can watch it live here, and ask questions on that page, or on Twitter using the hashtag #askcheckout. Get involved.
11:43am – Incriminating footage on Sunrise appears to suggest the Cash Cow is the evil genius foiling the police raids at Seven…
11:07am – It doesn’t appear the rift between The Australian and Australian Financial review editor in chief Michael Stutchbury will be healed any time soon. Yesterday ‘Stutch’ told Mumbrella he was “disappointed” with an attack on him in The Aus yesterday labelling him “incompetent”, and defended the offending story, the taxman giving News Corp nearly $900m rebate, as “legitimate”.
Today the News Corp paper has hit back in its opinion quoting editor-in-chief Chris Mitchell labelling Stutch a “bum” and the story as a “mad conspiracy theory”, and labelling Fairfax as “undergraduate and stupid always”.
It’s set to rumble on, and on, and on…
10:58am – ‘Ad chick’ Dee Madigan has been on Twitter talking about her beauty routine. However the Gruen panelist has admitted to a bit of ‘tomato head’ after the latest dose of Fraxel laser treatment:
10:54am – In the latest instalment in the “They paid how much?” tech news Facebook has bought out WhatsApp for US$16bn. That would appear to be the value of teens and mobile applications to the social network as it looks to monetise.
10:38am – Dr Mumbo’s piece on Calvin Klein’s new hashtag has got Twitter talking, but some disagree a 980-word press release about it is unwarranted:
10:17am – Here’s one for the liquor fans, the new Jim Beam ad starring Mila Kunis. We don’t get it on our screens until March. If you’re a Family Guy fan we challenge you to close your eyes while watching it and not hear the words “Shut up Meg” as you do so.
10:08am – This is an impressive feat, a 982 word press release from Calvin Klein, about their new hashtag.
10:02am – The ratings are in, and Ten struggled with just 8.2 per cent audience share last night with The Biggest Loser and Sochi Olympics failing to pull big audiences for the primary channel. Full ratings story is here.
Worner
09.54am: Seven West Media has issued a statement from CEO Tim Worner rejecting claims by police that officers uncovered any documents as part of their raid on Seven’s premises, as published in The Australian this morning.
The statement said:
Any claims by the AFP that they uncovered any relevant documents as part of their raid on Seven West Media and its premises are false.
The document given to them by Seven during their visit on Tuesday was not covered by or requested in the previous production order. A massive amount of public time and money was wasted on something that could have been requested by email.
In any event the document had no legal effect as it is an unsigned draft which was never finalised.
The production order only sought actual agreements. 34 armed personnel were required to correct a drafting error in a massive over reaction. AFP believed what they read in the papers and are no doubt shocked to discover the truth.
Greg Hywood
09:38am – Fairfax’s first half results are in, and CEO Greg Hywood is in bullish mood as they record increased profits, despite revenues dropping compared to the second half of 2012. See the results here.
Hywood said: “We have shown a determination to transform the business through cost reductions and driving new revenue streams. It is these strategies that underpin a half-year result that’s starkly at odds with the conventional wisdom that traditional media faces a bleak future simply because reductions in print advertising cannot be immediately offset by increases in digital revenue.”
09:12am – Unsurprisingly Seven West Media-owned paper The West Australian has taken a dim view of the police raids, publishing this cartoon this morning:
Courtesy of The West Australian
09:09am – The police raid on Seven turned up one ‘unconsummated’ document relating to a deal with Schapelle Corby, and CEO Tim Worner has written to the Attorney General to voice his concerns. See the letter here.
08:29am – ooh, Robbie’s getting the audience to sing along with him to Angels. Some nightmarish karaoke flashbacks are happening in the office.
08:25am – So, what’s going on around the traps? The Australian Financial Review has a yarn about Coke pumping an extra $1bn into their marketing efforts globally next year after profit slip, and a Rear Window piece looking at a phone hacking probe News Corp started in Bali during the Schapelle Corby saga.
08:19am – The favourite tweet overnight comes from Fox Sports media manager Luke Buckle, who caught up with two of the team at their season launch last night:
08:10: – Robbie Williams (the bloke who was in Take That, then wasn’t, then was again, and now isn’t again) is on Nine’s Today show.
Karl and Lisa are trying to interview him, or rather, he’s interviewing Lisa about whether she’d get a tattoo.
Meanwhile, they want to know how he found working with Kylie Minogue. “Frustrating. Sexually.”
08:05am – Good morning all. We’ll start today with the news US skier Ted Ligety completed his Olympic legacy, and made US chain JC Penney slightly more credible or this piece of advertising about him:
Curious Fairfax numbers. Year on year is down hugely, though a big part is TradeMe having been sold. The claims of improvement for the “continuing” business are not showing up in the cash flow from operations, which is down 30%.
What is abundantly clear is that Fairfax is a dying print business.
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