Media Diary: Will the ABC prove to be a happy hunting ground for Hugh Marks?
Hugh Marks arrives at the front desk of ABC’s inner-Sydney HQ on Monday to become just the ninth managing director since the position was established in 1984. It’s a tough job.
When new boy Hugh Marks arrives at the front desk of ABC’s inner-Sydney HQ on Monday morning to collect his ID pass, he will become just the ninth managing director of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation since the position was established in 1984. As it so happens, that’s the same number of prime ministers Australia has had over the same period. No pressure!
Aside from that statistical quirk, the one thing that those nine PMs and nine ABC MDs seem to have in common is messy exits – generally, their tenures never end well.
Indeed, the last public appearance by the ABC’s most recent managing director, David Anderson, was an awkward stroll outside the Federal Court last month when he was pursued by a throng of press photographers after he’d fumbled his way through an unconvincing stint in the witness box, having given evidence in an unlawful termination case brought against the public broadcaster by fill-in presenter Antoinette Lattouf.
What a sad way to go out for Ando!
So, will the ABC prove to be a happy hunting ground for Marks?
The 58-year-old looks impressive in the form guide, having successfully piloted Nine Entertainment to a strong financial position during his six-year reign at the commercial giant.
But, of course, running the ABC isn’t the same as captaining Nine, and comes with very different KPIs. It remains to be seen if Marks can rise to meet his biggest challenge: how to make the public broadcaster once again relevant to mainstream Australia.
It’s a hurdle that’s been too high for Marks’ recent predecessors.
Marks will face other battles, too. Playing nice with ABC chairman Kim Williams – a man who likes to lead, and for others to follow – won’t be easy, but at least it will be fun to watch.
And what about Marks’ previously aired views on some of the key issues facing the ABC? Do they give us an indication of how he might shake things up at Aunty?
At a Senate hearing in 2016, Marks – who was CEO of Nine at the time – made the not-that-outlandish claim that his commercial network was 30 per cent more efficient than the ABC in terms of its use of its TV production budget.
“If I look at the amount of content that we (Nine) have to produce across our channels and the budget that we are able to do that with … and then if I look at the amount of content the ABC are required to do, and which they achieve with their budget … in the analysis that we had, that 30 per cent more efficient outcome was the number we landed on,” Marks told the hearing.
Thirty per cent?!
So, are efficiency dividends on the horizon at the ABC?
At the same 2016 hearing, discussing local content obligations as part of proposed changes to the media reform bill, Marks said: “Nine believe the ABC, as the public broadcaster, should be a mechanism for addressing what is a market failure.”
Again, Marks was talking sense. But now that he’s on the other side of the divide, will he walk the talk? Will his focus be on returning the ABC to its core business of providing services that can’t easily be provided by the private and community sectors?
If so, what does that mean, for example, for the reams of redundant “lifestyle” content produced by the ABC each year?
And here’s a thorny one – in 2020, Marks said the ABC should not be entitled to payments from the tech platforms, as part of the push to make Google and Meta compensate Australian media outlets for the use of their news content.
“The ABC should not be able to participate in a commercial sense in effectively a model designed to deal with commercial interruption,” Marks said.
That opinion is most definitely at odds with the views of Williams, and the ABC board.
Diary asked Marks on Friday if he wanted to discuss all things ABC in the lead-up to his start date, but he said he’d prefer to get his feet under his new desk before answering any curly questions from Diary, which is fair enough. We wish him well. It’s a tough job.
Nine set for CEO call
Like Bob Dylan’s Never Ending Tour, Nine’s search for a permanent chief executive goes on, and on. But unlike Bob, interim CEO Matt Stanton might not be blowin’ in the wind for too much longer. Diary has heard strong whispers that after six long months of looking in every corporate nook and cranny, both here and overseas, Nine is preparing to announce its new CEO before the end of the month.
And it’s not before time. Privately, senior figures within Nine are bewildered that, at a time of unprecedented upheaval at the media giant, uncertainty surrounding the company’s executive leadership has been allowed to linger.
Since Stanton took over as acting CEO in September, following the departure of his predecessor, Mike Sneesby, a lot has happened at Nine.
The damning report into the company’s workplace culture – revealing endemic bullying, harassment and exploitation of power imbalances across the media organisation – was released in October, prompting Stanton to commit to “accelerating change” within Nine.
In January, it was revealed that former Foxtel executive Amanda Laing had been appointed to a new role overseeing the company’s broadcast operations, as part of a wider restructure at Nine.
On February 20, a US real estate conglomerate lobbed a full-scale takeover bid for Nine’s most valuable asset, Domain – a seismic industry move, the consequences of which are still to be determined.
Days later, Stanton announced more than $100m in new cost-cutting measures across the company. So it’s fair to say Stanton has not been twiddling his thumbs during his six months as seat-warmer-in-chief.
But has he done enough to win over the Nine board, headed by Catherine West?
Stanton was in Las Vegas last week (along with every other well-connected Australian media executive) for the NRL’s opening round extravaganza, and those in the chairman’s room at Allegiant Stadium were bemused to see Nine’s interim CEO having what looked like a deep-and-meaningful chat with Sneesby, who was also invited to the Las Vegas event. For some reason.
What could they possibly have been discussing?
Singo says radio no-no
In other Nine news, keen media observers will have seen reports in recent weeks that one of Australia’s most colourful entrepreneurs, legendary ad-man John Singleton, is reportedly looking to buy Nine Radio, which comprises talkback stations 2GB, 3AW, 4BC and 6PR.
In 2019, Singo sold his 32.2 per cent stake in (what was then called) Macquarie Media for roughly $80m – not a bad deal given that it is currently valued at somewhere between $25m and $50m. Six years down the track, and with Nine Entertainment pretending that the sale of its radio assets is a second-order issue (it’s true, the joint does have bigger problems on its hands), rumours started flying that 83-year-old Singo was going to get back in the game, apparently with a bit of help from his mate Mike Sneesby (er, why?) and maybe a refreshed Ray Hadley (again, why?).
The speculation started in news.com.au, with the story based on what Singleton was allegedly telling “associates”.
Then the Daily Mail picked it up, reporting that Singo is “apparently intent on returning the radio network to its former glory”.
The online gossip title also reported that star 2GB presenter Ben Fordham has been assured by Singleton’s people that he would keep his job under the new ownership regime. Lucky Ben!
But Hadley’s newly appointed morning talkback host on 2GB, Mark Levy, will be out the door when Singleton buys back in, so as to “make way for the return of the king (Hadley)”.
Curiously, neither the news.com.au piece nor the Daily Mail article that followed were able to source a quote from Singo himself.
So Diary tried to reach the great man on Sunday and, wouldn’t you know it, he granted us an exclusive one-on-one chat!
The interview, conducted via text messages, went as follows:
Diary: “Hi John … just checking if the recent media reports suggesting that you’re interested in buying Nine’s radio assets are correct?”
Singleton: “No.”
End of story.
Basil brushed
The WA election certainly didn’t go to plan for the Liberal Party at the ballot box on Saturday, and its performance on the telly that night wasn’t great either.
Veteran WA upper house MP Steve Thomas got things off to a clumsy start when he wished his fellow panellists a “good morning” shortly after 6pm as ABC’s live election coverage kicked off, and worse was to follow over on Channel 7, where the party’s star candidate, Basil Zempilas, sought to digest the Liberals’ poor showing.
Zempilas, who is also the lord mayor of Perth, was needled on-air by Labor MPs John Carey and Amber-Jade Sanderson over his lack of electoral appeal, especially with women, and he responded to that suggestion by … repeatedly talking over a woman.
The eye-opening exchange began with Sanderson, the WA Health Minister, raising Zempilas’ controversial mayoral decision in 2023 to shut a women’s refuge in East Perth.
“Our view is that you are a polarising figure, particularly around women. You have closed a women’s shelter, we are …,” Sanderson began. But Baz was having none of it.
“It is impossible for a mayor to do anything on their own. And, Amber-Jade, that women’s shelter is opening and operating and supported by the City of Perth … it closed at one location to open at another,” countered Zempilas, who said facts pertaining to the women’s shelter had been “twisted and weaponised” against him by the ALP.
Sanderson decided on another approach, bringing up female representation of the respective parties in the WA parliament.
Zempilas came over the top of Sanderson again. It was hard to watch.
Latest counting has Zempilas winning the state’s most marginal seat, Churchlands. Whether he will be appointed WA opposition leader remains to be seen.
Seb moves on
The two crew members from A Current Affair who were stood down alongside reporter Seb Costello after the trio chased a Melbourne businessman into a women-only bathroom have returned to work.
News of the cameraman and sound recordist’s re-entry to Nine’s broadcast division comes just days after Costello resigned after a 13-year stint at the network.
“After more than a decade at Nine, I have resigned from my role to seek a fresh challenge. I would like to thank Nine and wish them all the best,” he said on Friday.
Costello, who is the son of former Nine chairman Peter Costello, has been off-air since November, when he and his two colleagues were working on a story about Melbourne-based finance executive Mo Ahmed, who was the subject of legal action brought by corporate regulator ASIC.
The three Nine employees followed Mr Ahmed into a women’s bathroom at the InterContinental Hotel on Melbourne’s Collins Street, in a bid to ask him questions about his business conduct.
Costello and his two colleagues were subsequently stood down while an internal investigation into the incident was carried out.
But it’s understood the review was never completed as Costello’s decision to resign from Nine to pursue other opportunities obviated the need for the investigation.
On Saturday, Melbourne’s Herald Sun reported that Costello had been “seen in talks with good friend and former mentor Eddie McGuire”.
Costello could not be reached for comment on Sunday.
Gone to the dogs
If you don’t succeed, try and try again.
That’s clearly the motto at Seven News, where despite failed experiments with a comedy segment at the end of Friday night’s bulletin, and astrology readings elsewhere during the news service, they are still looking for ideas outside the box.
So what’s the latest addition to Seven News?
Pet of the Week!
It kicked off on Saturday during Seven’s 6pm bulletin in Melbourne, hosted by Mike Amor and Karina Carvalho.
Weather presenter Tyra Stowers introduced six-year-old staffordshire terrier Luna, who is up for adoption via the RSPCA.
“She’s a playful and energetic girl who loves her food and would do just about anything for a tasty reward. She loves walks but her enthusiasm can get the better of her so will need a family with patience,” Stowers warned.
“She’s best suited to an only-pet home where she can have all the attention.”
Anyone who has ever owned a dog will recognise those dog euphemisms – “enthusiastic”, “playful”, “attention-loving”, etc. Clearly, Luna is a troubled hound. And no amount of prime-time promotion is going to change that.
Obviously, we wish Luna all the best, but we digress.
What we really want to know is why the hell is Seven focusing on random stuff like comedy, stargazing and re-homing dogs, instead of the core business of the news game, which is breaking stories?
Diary asked Chris Salter, the director of Seven News Melbourne, why his news bulletin has gone to the dogs.
“I reckon a few news outlets have had a variation of this over the years,” Salter told us. “This one has come about after being pitched by our new weekend weather presenter Tyra Stowers, who has done a lot of work with the RSPCA and the cause.”
OK, so now we feel bad that we’re questioning this segment. Clearly Stowers is a kind person who cares deeply for animals, and that’s to be admired.
But we’re still not convinced that the tail-end (sorry) of a 6pm news bulletin is the most appropriate forum to parade parent-less pooches.
Or is it just us?
At this stage, Pet of the Week will just be a feature of Seven’s Melbourne bulletin on Saturday evenings, and won’t be seen on the network’s other states-based news services. But never say never.
Double standards
The Guardian Australia has a proud history of lecturing its dedicated readers about who is righteous (themselves) and who should be condemned to eternal, godless damnation (News Corp staff, and the company’s millions of subscribers).
And the tradition continues.
Last Friday, under a headline that read “Kick in the guts for AFL fans”, a Guardian columnist observed that AFL fans in Victoria, Tasmania and the NT wouldn’t be able to watch live footy on Saturdays unless they “stump up” $25 a month for sports streaming platform Kayo, or have a Foxtel subscription.
The columnist quoted Foxtel chief Patrick Delany saying Australians “see as normal paying for content these days … $25 a month is so cheap for a family to be entertained”. And then this piece of Guardi-torialising: “Somehow we think not everyone will agree with him.” It’s true. Having to pay for stuff is a real drag. Why can’t everything be for free?
Curiously though, directly under the Guardian’s whinge about having to pay for content sat a desperate plea from Guardian editor Lenore Taylor for readers to – you guessed it – pay for content. Take it away, Comrade Taylor: “I hope you appreciated this article. Before you move on, I wonder if you would consider supporting the Guardian’s work as we prepare for a pivotal, uncertain year ahead.
“Americans have voted to install a president with no respect for democratic norms, nor the facts that once formed the guardrails of public debate.
“In this uncertain time, fair, fact-based journalism is more important than ever – to record and understand events, to scrutinise the powerful, to give context, and to counter rampant misinformation and falsehoods. We are here to serve and listen to you, our readers, and we rely on your support to power our work.
“If you’re in a position to do so, please consider supporting our work today. It has never mattered more. Thank you.”
For $20 a month, readers can get the full suite of Guardian extras, including an “exclusive weekly newsletter for supporters”. But you only get it if you “stump up” the cash!
Good value? Somehow we think not everyone will agree.
Nick Tabakoff is on leave.
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