At 2GB and 3AW, they’re calling it Macquarie Media’s “hands off advertisers” edict.
Diary has obtained an explosive recording from an internal Macquarie training seminar that implies the network should put the reputational protection of its advertisers above any notion of editorial independence.
News of the tape comes just a month after Sydney breakfast king Alan Jones caused conniptions among network management when he exercised his independence about a 2GB advertiser, labelling supermarket giant Coles a “corporate hypocrite” over its decision to pull ads from his show in the wake of his much-publicised Jacinda Ardern comments.
But the internal Macquarie recording obtained by Diary — which has featured prominently on its intranet in 2019 — suggests the radio network’s management handles its advertisers with kid gloves.
The Macquarie executive who delivered the seminar gave staff the edict that it was “inappropriate” for network programs to air any listener complaints about advertisers, without first contacting Macquarie’s national sales chief for permission.
“If, say, someone has contacted us and they’ve got a bit of a gripe with one of our advertisers, or there’s a bit of a story there, then sure, one option would be to put it straight to air and get stuck in,” the executive told staff. “(But) the far more effective option is to actually go via … Mark Noakes, the (Macquarie) national sales director.
“And, that way, we can actually use our commercial relationship and we’ll probably get the right results in the end. But we’ve also managed to maintain the commercial relationship that we have there, without causing any damage.”
Now there’s a novel idea — consulting the ad chief before running a story! Imagine if there were a similar directive to senior reporters at the SMH and the Age, Macquarie’s sister newspapers. It would likely cause a riot, not to mention strike action.
Remember, it was journalists at those two papers who very publicly took to social media to express fears about journalists staying independent of advertisers, when the Nine merger with Fairfax was first proposed last year.
Not surprisingly, Diary hears some of Macquarie’s own senior staff were furious about the edict.
A spokesperson for Macquarie’s soon-to-be owner, Nine, and the radio network’s national EP, Michael Thompson, both had no comment.
ABC flies high as minister slums it
A fortnight ago, ABC boss David Anderson was crying poor at Senate estimates about how tough Aunty was doing it under Communications Minister Paul Fletcher’s funding regime, saying “tough choices” would have to be made at the ABC in the next few years.
But it seems the ABC boss isn’t doing it so tough after all. Who was Anderson spied running into on the 2pm Qantas flight QF 537 from Brisbane to Sydney on Thursday but — you guessed it — Paul Fletcher. And Diary hears that while the Communications Minister was slumming it in economy class, Anderson (an enthusiastic user of Qantas’s coveted Chairman’s Lounge) was seated in the far roomier and more luxurious surrounds of the first row of business.
Talk about awkward! It’s probably not the best look when you’re the “battling” ABC boss who claims that jobs will have to go because of government budget cuts — only to find out the minister who controls your purse strings is actually travelling more frugally than you.
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Fletcher also mightn’t be thrilled to know that virtually Aunty’s entire board travelled business class last week, in line with ABC policy, flying to and from a two-day board meeting in Townsville. The meeting doubled as a form of “listening tour” to find out what the peeps of far north Queensland think of Aunty.
We know about this because deputy chair Kirstin Ferguson gushed to her 1464 Instagram followers about the ABC board’s Townsville “meet the people” experience.
It was clearly a sweet gig. But while we’re sure the Townsville locals appreciated the visit, having nine ABC board members fly en masse to FNQ, the vast majority in business class, wasn’t the greatest look in tough times for Aunty, given the roughly $3000 cost of a Sydney-Townsville return flight up the front of the plane on Qantas.
You do the maths.
A couple of years back, the ABC board rejected out of hand a bid by then-managing director Michelle Guthrie for her fellow ABC directors to travel economy on domestic flights.
But as the ABC boss himself says, it’s time for “tough choices” now.
If things really are as tight as Aunty says, now could be a good time for Anderson and the rest of the ABC board to revisit that proposal.
Anderson might even be able to avoid sacking so many people.
Jones, Hadley lunches
Spare a thought for Hugh Marks.
In just a few days, the Nine boss will have all the headaches that go with being the new boss of some of the Australian radio industry’s biggest egos, after the Nine takeover of radio giant Macquarie Media is finally completed.
Mark down November 8 as the day that Nine will finally get the keys to the Macquarie kingdom, when Marks will officially add Alan Jones, Ray Hadley et al to his Nine stable of stars.
Meanwhile, Marks has wasted no time in getting himself used to the idea of becoming a radio tycoon. He has secretly commenced what Nine insiders have dubbed his own “listening tour” to build rapport with his biggest stars.
Diary is told Marks has already lunched the two most expensive employees in his new radio stable, Hadley and Jones. Marks has taken great care to host the lunches away from the prying eyes of paparazzi and gossip columnists, in the privacy of Nine’s Willoughby boardroom. The Jones lunch took place in the Nine boardroom last Monday. The word is that Marks gave his unequivocal backing to 2GB’s breakfast king, despite suggestions Jones was out of favour after the much-publicised advertiser backlash against the station in August.
Next week, Marks’s national radio listening tour heads south to Melbourne, ahead of lunches with 3AW’s two star morning broadcasters, Ross Stevenson and Neil Mitchell.
From all accounts, the Marks listening tour has so far been a relaxed affair. But will Australia’s newest radio tycoon be so laid back when he faces his first major advertiser backlash over some stray on-air comment by one of his highly-paid charges?
Today’s tomorrow
Nine’s looming decision to overhaul the Today show yet again looks set to come sooner rather than later. With the show’s ratings falling to a record low of 155,000 viewers on Friday, Nine has no choice.
As Diary revealed last week, a Karl Stefanovic/Alison Langdon combination continues to be favourite, if parties can agree terms. Langdon is set to take the female role, but a David Campbell/Langdon combo is also still possible. However, the prospect of Andy Lee moving to Today, floated by some internally, is definitely off.
The timing of the transition to Today 3.0 will be fascinating. The current line-up led by Deb Knight and Georgie Gardner was awkwardly launched on the first day of this year’s Australian Open tennis, one of Nine’s marquee sporting events, and it hurt the network. Viewers noticed the lack of chemistry straight away, with Today struggling to gain any ratings traction with viewers for the grand slam event’s two weeks. That rubbed off on Today throughout the year.
For the 2020 Australian Open, Nine will learn its lesson. This time, it will be keen to quarantine the event — which starts on January 20 — from yet another round of carnage at Today, a key platform for Nine to promote its coverage of the event.
Expect the new team for Today 3.0 to be announced this month.
MKR pooh-poohed
Seven’s marquee show created especially for Matt Preston and Gary Mehigan sure is having a lot of trouble with its name.
Word spread like wildfire around the Birdcage on the VRC’s Victoria Derby day on Saturday that its latest name, “My Kitchen Rules — Plate of Origin” has already been dumped.
That’s because the Plate of Origin part of the name has been reduced to its rather unfortunate acronym, POO.
The food on MKR can be a train wreck at times, we know, but surely not that bad!
Preston proved hard to catch when Diary tried to approach him in the Birdcage on Derby Day. But when we caught up with Kurt Burnette, Seven’s chief revenue officer, in the Lexus marquee, he admitted he had already made his executives aware of the unfortunate “POO” acronym.
Diary hears that’s set to mean a second name change in quick succession for “MKR — POO”, which was only unveiled just 12 days ago
The POO part, at least, won’t survive. Preston is apparently also adamant that it shouldn’t be called MKR either, despite the fact that is exactly how Seven has been marketing it to advertisers.
But even Preston would have to concede that the name MKR isn’t as on-the-nose as POO.
A bit Richo
As Diary predicted, there were as many Coalition as Labor identities attending Graham Richardson’s 70th birthday “roast” in Sydney on Saturday night.
PM Scott Morrison, Treasurer Josh Frydenberg, former Liberal leader Brendan Nelson, Peter Reith and Brian Loughnane were all present. From Labor, there was the new leadership duo of Anthony Albanese and Richard Marles, along with roasters-in-chief Bob Carr and Peter Barron.
But it was ScoMo who held pride of place next to Richo for much of the night, and even insisted on giving an impromptu speech: “I’m here tonight because I love Graham Richardson … he knows he’s not a perfect man, but what you see is what you get.”
Among the night’s quirky features was table names featuring themes from Richo’s life. There was even a “Love Boat” table!
But the biggest laughter came when Richo’s wife Amanda recounted the health scare that saw him nearly die three times in the operating theatre during extreme surgery back in 2016.
As Richo was wheeled into the operating theatre, Amanda asked him as he seemed to be breathing his last breaths: “Darling, just before you go in, is there actually a Swiss bank account?” — a reference to media reports more than a decade ago claiming this was the case.
“No,” Richo replied weakly.
“Darling, are you sure?”
“Yes, I’m sure.”
Satisfied, Amanda then gave her command to the surgeons: “Put him under!”
Bold Macdonald
Last Monday’s headline-making drought special on Q&A did nothing to hurt Hamish Macdonald’s status as hot favourite to be the ABC’s flagship show’s new host, replacing Tony Jones. But does he want the gig?
Macdonald was in demand everywhere last week, from commercial TV to ABC radio. Apart from Q&A, he hosted both the weekday editions of Fran Kelly’s breakfast show on Radio National and Ten’s The Project while Waleed Aly was overseas.
Word is that Macdonald may have to give up some of his other commitments, including his role as co-host of The Sunday Project.
So will that be a sticking point, and could Macdonald prove to be a commitment-phobe, if asked by the ABC to take on the Q&A gig?
Macdonald gave nothing away when Diary caught him last week: “I’d prefer not to engage if that’s OK with you.”
Fitzy’s career ender
Forget Karl Stefanovic: another Nine personality once had a shot at being the Today show’s co-host. Yes, the Bandanna Man, Peter FitzSimons, was once apparently in the mix for Australian TV’s most talked-about role. He was even given his chance to co-host Today on the day the Sydney Harbour Tunnel opened in 1992.
FitzSimons told the 450-strong audience during his Andrew Olle lecture on Friday night that at the time, he thought his hosting stint had gone “really well”.
Others disagreed. Nine’s legendary ex-news supremo, the late Ian Frykberg told FitzSimons: “That show just put your television career back by five years.”
BBC apologises to staff over Russell Brand sex complaints
Some employees had stayed silent about the behaviour of the comedian and actor because they believed he ‘would always get his way’, a BBC director said.
Questions about ABC platforming ‘radical fringe Jewish voice’
Jewish groups have questioned why the national broadcaster has chosen to platform and ‘mainstream’ a Jewish ‘radical fringe voice’, in its coverage of anti-Semitic events in Sydney.