Joe Aston’s double-dip duds The Australian Financial Review
Celebrated business columnist Joe Aston has struck a sweet deal for his return to The Australian Financial Review, although its owner Nine isn’t getting much bang for its buck.
In case you missed it, Joe Aston is returning to The Australian Financial Review!
Sort of. Not really.
One of the country’s best-known business columnists, Aston left the masthead in October 2023 after penning the Rear Window column for 12 years.
Aston’s comeback was announced in the AFR last month under the cheeky headline: “Win-win” for Aston as he returns to fold.
Why was it cheeky? Because while it may well be a (financial) win for Aston, the AFR – or at least its owners, Nine Entertainment – isn’t getting much bang for its buck.
Here’s the deal: Aston writes one column a month for the AFR. As in, one every 30 days, which is roughly the same timeline as a full moon, give or take.
In return, Nine is providing Aston with “pre and post publication legal support” for the content that he will produce for his soon-to-launch business newsletter Rampart – a start-up in which the AFR has no equity.
Providing Aston with “legal support” is potentially no small thing, if Aston’s rap sheet is anything to go by.
The AFR had to stump up large defamation payouts and eye-watering legal bills after Aston was found to have (separately) defamed media executive Kim Williams and businesswoman Elaine Stead during his time as Rear Window columnist.
Oh, and in addition, Aston’s Rampart will actively be trying to eat the AFR’s lunch – or at least, steal its audience.
“This is a product for Chifley Towers or 101 Collins Street,” Aston told Diary last week.
As it so happens, that’s the exact same suits that the AFR targets!
So, what’s a loyal reader to do? Cough up $65 a month for Aston’s newsletter – which is bound to be a rollicking read, covering the hot business issues two or three times a week – or stick with the virtually Aston-less AFR? After all, there’s only so many business columns you can read in a week, and brilliant ones don’t grow on trees.
Aston himself maintains everyone’s a winner, saying that his readers “will mostly not be paying for Rampart with their own money”.
“If they are paying with their own money they have shitloads of it. I feel there will be value for many, but some will feel it’s not worth it for them. It’s a premium product with a premium price,” he said.
“I want to remind AFR readers I am still around and give them a taste of my work. I also want to give them a reason to subscribe to Rampart.
“If I was writing every week there could be many people who thought once a week was enough of me for them.
“They might say, ‘Why would I pay extra to get him three times a week?’ ”
As to the chances of survival for a media start-up, Aston was honest. “Statistically there is little likelihood of survival,” he admitted.
“I’m absolutely at peace with the fact this could fail spectacularly. I really am.
“If I have to crawl back to a news organisation with my tail between my legs and beg for a job in six months’ time, I’ll do that.
“I won’t die wondering.”
New era dawns
After 11 years of Paul Barry, Media Watch viewers will get their first taste of the show’s new host, Linton Besser, on Monday night.
As the big day of his on-air debut approached, Besser told Diary that he was “excited and daunted” at the challenge ahead, partly because of his respect for the show’s previous hosts.
“There’s a very fine tradition at that program. It feels a bit like I’ve been handed a Ming dynasty vase and I’ve got soapy fingers,” Besser said.
Many in the media industry would argue that breaking the mould of the long-running show wouldn’t be a bad thing – particularly after more than a decade of Barry as host, who drew criticism for allowing his personal obsessions on certain issues such as climate change, and the origins of the coronavirus, to dominate.
But Besser, 47, is adamant the format of the 15-minute program will remain largely unchanged, at least to begin with.
“My ambition is to do the job well but … there’s no big shake-up planned,” he said.
During our brief chat, Diary asked Besser what motivated him to give up his highly successful journalism career with the ABC to instead pour shit on his colleagues. It’s a move that Diary just can’t comprehend.
“I’ve always been aware of the uncomfortable reality that this industry is just as full of malpractice as all the other industries I’ve reported on. We’re not angels,” Besser said.
“That fact always played on my mind.
“So when they asked me to go and screen-test for the job, I was a bit uncertain. It’s a pretty tough job and I’m dreading the day when I have to call someone I’m pretty friendly with.
“But I thought to myself, ‘Man up. Stand up and do the job. You’ve been given this great opportunity. Have a crack’.”
It’s hard to argue with that attitude.
Besser did concede that Media Watch can’t be the scrutineer of the entire media industry.
“There is way too much to monitor. We’ve got a very small team so you try your best. It’s more art than science.”
Fight knight
Nine’s interim CEO Matt Stanton is likely to shed the “interim” tag some time in the next fortnight in the lead up to the media company’s half-yearly results.
Stanton has made a good impression in the four months since taking over from Mike Sneesby, and has started to implement some necessary changes to Nine’s workplace following last year’s so-called Intersection report, which found the organisation was beset by a culture of harassment, bullying, discrimination and abuse of power.
Stanton’s appointment as Nine’s next CEO is a fait accompli, unless an irresistible international candidate emerges at the 11th hour, which is unlikely.
But aside from impressing all the right people and saying all the right things over the summer, Stanton has also been busy fighting crime.
On January 12, The Sydney Morning Herald led its website with the breaking news that Stanton was one of several people who had, the previous Monday, sought to come to the aid of a teenage boy who had been the victim of a brutal bashing at the hands of a 40-strong mob of youths at Manly Wharf, in Sydney’s north.
Stanton was dining with his wife nearby and ran to assist upon hearing the commotion.
As the SMH reported, Stanton and others helped keep members of the mob at bay by blocking the entrance to a restaurant where the boy had been taken by other good Samaritans.
It was a worthy story well told.
Stanton’s actions were undoubtedly brave and praiseworthy, and Diary is reliably informed that the interim CEO did not seek any media attention for his selflessness.
Fast forward to last Wednesday, and one of the alleged offenders in the attack on the boy at Manly Wharf fronted court.
The SMH began its report on the court hearing thus: “A teenager charged over an ugly brawl at Manly Wharf, that forced the intervention of Nine’s interim chief executive, Matt Stanton, has pleaded not guilty to riot and affray.”
Forced the intervention? This is where it gets a bit murky.
No one, including Stanton himself, thinks that his involvement was the central act in preventing the teenage victim from further harm.
So when a Nine-owned newspaper wrongly positions the company’s big dog as the hero of the day in an incident such as this, it strikes the wrong chord. And it certainly jars with the SMH’s oft-repeated claim of being “Independent. Always.”
To be blunt, it looks like the SMH is using its news pages to suck up to the boss.
SMH editor Bevan Shields thinks otherwise. “Any journo or editor worth their salt would consider the CEO of a major Australian media company intervening in a violent street brawl to be newsworthy,” he told us.
For his part, Stanton refused to comment on Sunday, but we’re told that he has been as surprised as anyone by the level of media coverage of his involvement.
And for the record, if Diary is ever at the bottom of an actual, real-life pile-on, we hope Stanton is in the vicinity.
Bill to dissect Albo
As the triennial media guessing game of the timing of the federal election gathers pace – April 12 or May 10 seem to be the most likely dates – Seven has scored an early poll night coup.
Positioning himself on Seven’s election night panel will be recently retired Labor MP Bill Shorten, who is well qualified to offer his take on political post-mortems, having stared into the abyss on the night of May 18, 2019, when he led the ALP to a shock loss to the Scott Morrison-led Coalition.
This time around, Shorten, who now earns a King’s ransom as the vice-chancellor and president of the University of Canberra, will be on the outside looking in on election night.
Alongside Shorten will be Labor Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek.
Neither Shorten nor Plibersek are best buddies with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.
Interesting.
Victorian Liberal senator Jane Hume – an election night TV specialist – will also be on Seven’s panel, as will former pollie Warren Mundine.
The line-up will be corralled by Michael Usher and Natalie Barr, while Seven’s political editor Mark Riley and newsdesk director Hugh Whitfield will also be in the thick of the action.
Nine declined to tell Diary who would be appearing on its election night panel, while the ABC, Sky News Australia and Ten were equally as coy.
But let’s face it, if you’re watching Channel 10 on election night you probably have zero interest in politics.
Lattouf showdown
The much-anticipated court showdown between sacked broadcaster Antoinette Lattouf and the ABC begins on Monday, with Lattouf set to tell her side of the story first up.
Lattouf, a Lebanese-Australian, was appointed as a five-day fill-in radio host for then mornings host Sarah Macdonald from December 18, 2023, but she was sacked after completing just three of her five shifts.
In her FWC claim, Lattouf alleges she was unlawfully terminated for breaching the ABC’s social media guidelines after sharing a post by Human Rights Watch about the war that read: “The Israeli government is using starvation of civilians as a weapon of war in Gaza.”
Across the five-day hearing this week, a who’s who of ABC management will be called as witnesses.
Outgoing managing director David Anderson is due to take the stand on Tuesday, with another departing ABC executive, former chief content officer Chris Oliver-Taylor, to follow on Wednesday.
ABC director of audio Ben Latimer, and other current and former ABC executives Elizabeth Green, Simon Melkman and Steve Ahern, are also expected to be called to give evidence.
Former ABC chair Ita Buttrose is expected in the witness box on Friday.
Lattouf has been rallying her supporters on social media for months. A GoFundMe account, established to help her cover her legal costs, has already raised $140,000 of the $180,000 target.
In a recent Instagram post, Lattouf told her 83,000 followers: “This has been a gruelling 14-month ordeal, but I’ve persisted despite the toll on my mental, physical and financial health and career prospects because this fight is much bigger and far more important than me.
“It’s about exposing abuses of power and addressing issues that have far-reaching consequences, especially at a time when so many are being harmed, and human rights atrocities are ongoing.
“Australians fund the ABC and deserve an ABC that is fair, independent and accountable.”
Pup bolts
The challenge AM radio faces to attract ratings was highlighted this week with ex-Test captain Michael Clarke’s exit from Sky Radio in Sydney.
Clarke had been a member of the station’s breakfast show Big Sports Breakfast for the past five years but he pulled the pin, on air, on Thursday.
“I will not miss the 4am alarm. But I will miss 9.01am Fridays when you know the week’s work is done,” the former cricketer told his co-hosts Laurie Daley and Gerard Middleton.
What Clarke will also miss is the fierce ratings battle with the other AM sports broadcaster, SEN 1170.
Big Sports Breakfast used to have a good lead over SEN in breakfast, until last year when the SEN breakfast show with Vossy (Andrew Voss) and Brandy (Greg Alexander) started to make inroads.
The share that both stations have is tiny compared to their competition on the FM dial, but bragging rights are still an important currency to take to clients.
Clarke hasn’t strolled too far from his media home, though.
He explained last week that his “major focus” now is his new podcast Forever23, sponsored by Sky Radio owner, TAB.
The podcast covers the latest news in cricket with former Hockeyroo Georgie Parker co-hosting with Clarke.
The first radio ratings for 2025 will be released in March.
Daley and Middleton will keep serving up the Big Sports Breakfast without Clarke.
Paper rounds
Antony Catalano’s Australian Community Media (ACM) has sold three of its smaller titles – Wimmera Mail-Times, Stawell Times-News and Ararat Advertiser – to a consortium of local businesspeople.
ACM is also rolling out new publishing days for most of its NSW non-dailies across February. The new sale day will be Saturdays, after the company achieved good growth from some markets where it trialled Saturday publishing.
Elsewhere in Victoria, the independently published 165-year-old Hamilton Spectator has been saved from extinction by SA Today, the regional press specialist that is a subsidiary of the family-owned Star News Group, led by Paul Thomas.
Last November, the Hamilton Spectator ran a page four ad explaining the newspaper in Victoria’s Western District was for sale. Owner Richard Beks told readers “the principal reason for closure is that the Spectator Publishing Group’s business model is no longer fit for purpose”.
Plans were revealed for the final editions of the group newspapers to be published by the then owners. Other titles in the Spectator group were Portland Observer, Western District Farmer and Casterton News.
In a Christmas Eve post online, outgoing editor Mark Rabich recounted his short time in charge, and noted the importance of the paper to locals: “Newspapers still matter out in the sticks.”
Late last month, Star, which owns newspapers in Victoria, South Australia, Queensland and Northern Territory, assumed control of the Spectator.
SA Today previously expanded its portfolio after buying 12 South Australian titles from ACM two years ago. Two other Queensland titles were included in that transaction.
In a note to readers in the first editions of the newspapers under new ownership on Friday, Thomas said: “The Hamilton Spectator and Portland Observer are two of the most iconic mastheads in regional Victoria, and the team at SA Today is proud to become the new custodians of these historic publications. Local newspapers play a critical role in upholding democracy, holding the powerful to account, and giving communities a voice on issues that matter to them.”
Nick Tabakoff is on leave
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