Some of the most senior journalists at the ABC who report on our money are vocally lobbying to get more of it.
The public broadcaster’s staff are currently in the midst of a nine-day vote, closing on Wednesday, over an ABC pay offer of 9 per cent over three years (front-loaded with 3.5 per cent in year one, 3 per cent in year two and 2.5 per cent in year three), plus a $750 one-off payment to staff. But the media union, the MEAA, has been lobbying for a 6 per cent a year rise: 18 per cent over three years.
Vocal critics of the offer have included senior ABC business reporters Dan Ziffer, Peter Ryan and Michael Janda, who have taken to Twitter to urge their fellow ABC staff members to reject the offer – posting various images visually illustrating their strong preference for a “NO” vote.
With attached photos of Play School characters Big Ted, Humpty and Jemima wearing “I’M VOTING NO” stickers, Ziffer tweeted: “Over-worked staff are increasingly stretched, a small group of dedicated people doing more across a greater number of services. We’re taking this action BECAUSE we love the ABC and working on behalf of Australians”.
Ryan, the ABC’s senior business correspondent, tweeted a photo of himself holding an “I’M VOTING NO” sign, asking his followers whether the offer was “fair and respectful”.
Meanwhile, Janda posted a snap of a number of ABC staff in the broadcaster’s Ultimo lobby in a human “NO” formation – claiming that the ABC had made its staff a “massively sub-inflation pay offer”, disregarding “concerns about working hours, career progression, diversity and pay equity”.
Ziffer even critiqued a speech last week by Reserve Bank governor Philip Lowe, who suggested that inflation-beating pay rises may not be the best thing for the economy. “Last night RBA governor Philip Lowe told workers they had to wear big cuts to their real wages, otherwise inflation would get worse,” he tweeted. “Not everyone buys that argument.”
For its part, the ABC is believed to be sticking to its guns ahead of the vote’s closure on Wednesday that its current offer is “generous”.
Staff reps have also been told that if the push continues for larger pay rises, the ABC will have no choice but to find savings elsewhere, through measures such as staff and travel freezes, efficiency audits, or worse, job losses.
Ten's dilemma: What to do with Lisa Wilkinson?
What exactly do you do with a very highly paid current affairs host – with lots of time to run on her contract – when she departs your network’s only current affairs program?
The Ten Network is confronting that very dilemma, after Lisa Wilkinson’s high-profile departure from The Project a week ago.
The big problem for Ten is that Wilkinson, one of the country’s highest paid TV stars, has a watertight seven-figure contract with Ten that Diary understands lasts well beyond next year. She signed a multi-year contract extension with the network around the middle of 2021.
Wilkinson’s smart negotiating skills mean that Ten is locked into shelling out millions as part of her lucrative pay packet into the future. So while Wilkinson may not be on The Project any more, the pressure is on Ten to quickly work out a role in which it can extract value out of the big money it is contractually bound to pay her.
In the nicest possible way, Beverley McGarvey, chief content officer for Ten’s owner Paramount, underlined that Wilkinson was still on its books, when she noted that she looked forward “to continuing our strong relationship with Lisa into 2023 and beyond”.
But that vague statement doesn’t give much insight into what Wilkinson will actually do at a network known primarily for its reality shows: notably tentpole programs like MasterChef, The Bachelor, I’m a Celebrity, Survivor, The Amazing Race and Hunted.
One source close to Wilkinson wryly noted her lack of reality experience: “She definitely won’t be the host of The Bachelor”. We’re also told the Walkley Award nominee also won’t be showing up any time soon to introduce advertorials on Studio 10, the former home of Sarah Harris, who has just vacated the chair at that show to join The Project.
So the mystery about Wilkinson’s future continues.
Ten noted in a statement at the time of her announcement that it was “no surprise audiences have continued to welcome her into their loungerooms and on to their screens.”
But as research by Diary noted last week, the numbers for Wilkinson and Hamish Macdonald’s Friday and Sunday night versions of The Project in 2022 have been well below those of the Monday to Wednesday editions headed up by Carrie Bickmore and Waleed Aly.
That point would most likely not have been missed at Ten’s highest levels.
However, McGarvey and Ten won’t have to decide too soon about what to do with Wilkinson.
Normally, Wilkinson has hosted the main weekday edition of The Project over summer while Carrie Bickmore has taken a break. But a Ten spokesman said at the time of her departure: “Lisa feels it is the right time for her to take a break.”
Indeed, in the wake of a gruelling year for the former Sunday Project host, Diary hears that Wilkinson will be taking a long break, and may not be seen on our screens until well into 2023.
It is the second big break for Wilkinson in 2022.
Earlier this year, Wilkinson took nearly two months off hosting duties on The Project in the wake of her controversial June 19 Logies speech which delayed the Bruce Lehrmann rape trial in Canberra. In announcing her Project departure,
Wilkinson pointedly blamed “relentless targeted toxicity” from sections of the media which had “taken a toll” in the wake of her headline-making speech.
Neil Mitchell: Andrews will freeze me out
Melbourne’s morning radio king, 3AW’s Neil Mitchell, has spent more than an entire term of parliament bashing Dan Andrews for boycotting his radio show.
Day after day over four years, Mitchell has delivered unflattering assessments of everything from Andrews’s handling of the pandemic, to his decision to bypass the mainstream media by making announcements through his own social media sites.
But in the wake of the weekend’s election victory for Andrews, Mitchell freely admits that the now triple election-winning Victorian Premier will be able to argue that the 3AW host’s relentless campaign against him has failed.
“Dan Andrews will be saying: ‘We won without talking to Mitchell. It hasn’t done us any harm over the last four years’,” the 3AW host, one of the Victorian Premier’s loudest critics, tells Diary.
“He’ll use it as a justification of all the lockdowns and of his social media policies where most of his announcements pop up on Twitter, and you don’t get any detail.”
Mitchell appears grimly resigned to the new reality of what that will mean for him during a third Andrews government.
“It means that he’ll totally freeze me out,” Mitchell admits candidly.
“I’ll never get an interview with the Premier. I haven’t had one minister on the show throughout the entire election campaign.”
There are other signs of the deep freeze. For Mitchell’s final show before Saturday’s election, he offered both Andrews and departing Liberal leader Matthew Guy a free hit, via a 60-to-90 second prerecorded final message to voters.
“There were no questions from me – it was just free publicity,” he told us. “Guy said yes, Andrews said no.”
Mitchell did win a now-redundant promise out of Guy: that if he won the election, he would appear on his show “every two weeks”.
He also presciently gave Guy a hard time last week ahead of his election loss: “What’s wrong with you?,” he asked him during an interview last week. “You should be walking it in.”
Mitchell’s prediction of a Labor deep freeze for him post-election seems accurate. When Diary asked a Victorian Labor source about Mitchell on Sunday, the response was brutal: “We don’t think about him at all.” Ouch.
Leigh Sales to follow Annabel Crabb ‘roadmap’
Amid much fanfare, the ABC announced last week that former 7.30 host Leigh Sales would return to screens next year as the presenter of Australian Story.
She will reprise the role of the late Caroline Jones, who introduced Australian Story from 1996 to 2016. Since then the show has been opened by people linked to each week’s episode.
But making an introduction of less than a minute each week is not a full-time job. So what else is the ABC planning to do with Sales?
ABC news boss Justin Stevens was vague, saying only he is “looking forward to exploring ideas” for Sales.
But ABC types suggest the plan is to fill her dance card, noting Sales’ Australian Story role is a “placeholder” that will allow her time to properly work out other duties.
The road map for Sales is likely to closely mirror what the ABC does for her great friend Annabel Crabb, who has built up a portfolio of shows, including Kitchen Cabinet, Ms Represented, Back in Time for Dinner, The House and Tomorrow Tonight.
Diary hears Sales could also be used for news specials.
Speaking of Australian Story, a special episode on Monday night is dedicated to ABC chair Ita Buttrose.
Diary hears the episode will look at Buttrose’s career renaissance at the ABC, including prime minister Scott Morrison’s “captain’s pick” to put her in charge of the public broadcaster.
We’re told the episode will take a look at her battles with Morrison’s government over the ABC’s political coverage.
It isn’t the first time Buttrose has appeared on Australian Story. She featured on the show in 2011 to coincide with the release of the ABC drama Paper Giants, which charted the roles of Buttrose and the late Kerry Packer in the birth of Cleo magazine.
Karl’s concerns about Today show ‘chemistry’
There is an intriguing backstory to Nine’s giant game of musical hosting chairs, highlighted by Allison Langdon’s big move from the Today show to host A Current Affair and Sarah Abo’s move to join Stefanovic on Today.
Diary is reliably informed that once it became clear that Langdon was on the move, Today’s remaining host, Karl Stefanovic, wanted his voice to be heard about what was required from Langdon’s replacement.
In recent weeks, as it became clearer that Langdon was in line to win the ACA job, the real intrigue surrounded who would join Stefanovic in co-hosting the Today show. Two key contenders emerged: 60 Minutes reporters Abo and Amelia Adams.
Both Abo and Adams stood in for Langdon on Today at various points this year, which gave key executives the opportunity to assess their on-air “chemistry” with Today’s male host, Karl Stefanovic.
But as bosses weighed up who was the most suitable candidate, we’re told Stefanovic spoke up about who Langdon’s replacement should be.
Insiders say his preference was for Langdon to stay because of their easy on-air chemistry. But he has told others at Nine that if Langdon had to go to ACA, any new partnership on Today had to be with someone who is in sync with his sense of humour.
Diary is told Stefanovic has a long memory about lack of chemistry in his on-air partnership with Georgie Gardner and even with Lisa Wilkinson in the latter part of their Today reign. Even to viewers, it was obvious at times that there was a disconnect between Stefanovic’s trademark larrikinism and the more serious approach of his on-air partners.
Reports at the time of his now-infamous “Ubergate” phone call with his brother Peter in March 2018 suggested Stefanovic had, to put it mildly, lamented his lack of on-air chemistry with Gardner.
But by the end of the same year, the worst of his career, it was Stefanovic who had been axed from hosting Today, days after his legendary Mexican wedding.
Does Southern Cross want Ray Hadley back?
Could radio giant Southern Cross Austereo be rethinking its decision back in June 2021 to dump 2GB’s Ray Hadley from a bunch of its Triple M regional radio stations in NSW and Queensland?
It’d be fair to say Southern Cross’s decision hasn’t been a raging success in some areas where Hadley used to be beamed in.
Radio surveys this year in the NSW Mid-North Coast and Riverina districts show a loss of one-third of listeners for Triple M Coffs Harbour, and 50 per cent of listeners for Triple M Riverina after they dumped Hadley. That’s not the sort of numbers advertisers would be overjoyed to see.
So our radio spies were intrigued by the sight of Southern Cross Media Group CEO Grant Blackley in animated conversation with Hadley, the very man he dumped less than 18 months ago, at last month’s Australian Commercial Radio Awards in Sydney.
Maybe it’s Diary’s wild imagination, but it wouldn’t be too much of a stretch to think the high-powered pair could have been nutting out a way to bring Hadley back to the regional NSW airwaves he once dominated.
Ex-Ten colleagues reunite on the outside
There have, of course, been some big on-air announcements at Ten in the last week about the futures of some of its best-known stars.
Meanwhile, off-camera, one Ten executive has quietly headed to an operation helmed by another ex-Ten honcho, Neil Shoebridge.
Sarah Johnson, who until recently was Ten’s head of publicity, will start work this week for leading strategic communications consultancy Shoebridge Knowles Media Group, which Shoebridge runs with co-founder Andrew Knowles.
What makes Johnson’s departure from Ten interesting is that Shoebridge is now the senior media spinner for the rival Seven TV network, where he is the trusted spokesman for James Warburton, who is Ten’s former CEO.
Both Shoebridge and Johnson have plenty of history with Ten.
For nearly four years, Johnson ran publicity across the main Ten free-to-air network, along with MTV, Nickelodeon, Paramount+, 10 Bold, 10 Peach, 10 Shake, and 10 Play. Meanwhile, Shoebridge spent six years as the network’s head of corporate communications.
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