New chief for REA

NEWS Corp’s online advertising juggernaut REA is today expected to announce its new CEO.

NEWS Corp’s online advertising juggernaut REA is today expected to announce its new CEO.

It is understood the operator of realestate.com.au will announce a female executive in the role, replacing interim CEO Peter Tonagh, who will remain on the board.

Tonagh has successfully managed to juggle his REA duties with his role as chief operating officer of News Corp Australia.

Boland, Pell’s new war

FORMER Wake Up executive producer Adam Boland has told Sunrise EP Michael Pell he is “cruel” and “heartless” in an argument over Seven’s failure to rehire producers made redundant by Ten.

The bitter feud between the TV executives reignited with a series of angry text messages flying back and forth over staff who have lost their jobs.

Boland attempted to get Pell to rehire at least four producers and editors who made the unfortunate defection from Seven’s ratings juggernaut to Ten’s flop.

Boland, who left Ten shortly after the show’s launch after suffering a mental breakdown, reached out to Pell, asking him to rehire the staff or give them freelance work.

Pell has already rehired one senior producer who saw the writing on the wall three months ago, and is currently looking for ways to help some others left unemployed by Boland’s costly Manly Beach experiment.

But he was less than impressed about being told what to do by Boland, who has badmouthed him around town, and continues to take full credit for Sunrise’s success — a sentiment that frustrates almost every senior executive at the Seven Network.

The dispute culminated with a text from Boland accusing Pell of being “cruel” and “heartless”. It’s understood he has vowed never to speak to his former friend again.

Caught in the middle are Sunrise’s high-profile presenters whom Boland is eager to interview for the book he is working on. They have not decided yet whether or not to co-operate, fearful of upsetting Pell, and not wanting to be portrayed in print in a negative light by Boland.

Leckie’s back

LEGENDARY TV executive David Leckie is going to have a greater role in Seven’s news division, with an office in the Martin Place news headquarters.

There is some dispute over which office space he will occupy, with senior executive producer, Sarah Stinson understood to be rather unhappy with talk Leckie will move into her much-loved office. Melbourne’s news performance will be top priority for Leckie, with Simon Pristel failing to raise the ratings since his move from The Herald Sun’s editor’s chair in July, 2012. Leckie has a good relationship with director of network news Rob Raschke and Sydney’s news director Chris Willis.

Leckie’s elevated role at Seven has already begun. He attended a meeting with Seven proprietor Kerry Stokes last week to discuss strategy. The meeting was chaired by Seven CEO Tim Worner and attended by just about everyone at the top of the network. Those present in the room included Bruce McWilliam, Kurt Burnette, Michael Pell, Saul Shtein, Nick Chan, Adam Elliot, Brad Lyons, Raschkeand Mark Llewellyn. Onlookers were surprised to see Leckie and Stokes present. Leckie looked slim and fit. It was the first time many in the room had seen him since his recent hospital stay. Nine talked a big game last week, telling investors it would grab a 40 per cent commercial revenue share by the end of 2015, with the gains coming from Seven. In the last 12 months, Seven’s share price has fallen, with the rate accelerating since the Nine float.

Master Lunch-a-lot

The Australian Financial Review’s daily restaurant-booking diary column, Rear Window, has given celebrity chef Neil Perry publicity worth almost a quarter of a million dollars in the past nine months alone.

According to media monitoring firm, iSentia, ‘‘Neil Perry’’ or ‘‘Rockpool’’ have been mentioned 186 times since last July in the AFR — and that’s not including columnist Joe Aston’s references to “global HQ” or “global headquarters”.

Experienced publicist Prue McSween ran the numbers for Diary and calculated the column inches are worth $243,652 in ad dollars terms.

If you included the mentions of Rockpool in the TV segments Aston does for Nine Network, the figure would be significantly higher.

With this level of free publicity, it’s little wonder Perry, a Fairfax columnist, does not need to pay for advertising.

“Essentially for 25 years as the Rockpool brand and group, our complete focus has been on whatever we get through editorial. That’s how we advertise,” he said.

And Fairfax wonders why its ad revenues are going down the gurgler.

Perry said Aston didn’t get free drinks or meals but did admit: “He’s a very regular customer, so he gets the treatment all special customers get.”

It may be good publicity for Perry, but Diary understands some of the city’s most well connected businessmen have moved on to other lunch locations, put off by the prospect of a mention in Aston’s lunch-a-lot column.

Sexism at Fairfax

MEANWHILE, Ten boss Hamish McLennan has described an item written by Aston on Ten’s sales executive Louise Barrett as “sexist and appalling”.

In a case of sexism much worse than Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s wink, Aston said Barrett, one of the few senior women in television, arrived at the TV Week Logies “in an outfit that successfully evoked a condom full of overripe strawberries”.

This type of sexist remark is far from amusing. It is nothing short of inappropriate and appalling, and was a new low for Aston’s column, which was forced to issue a factual correction and apology the next day over the item — something that is becoming an all too frequent occurrence.

Keneally joins Sky

FORMER NSW premier Kristina Keneally has joined Sky News as a political commentator.

Moving full-time into a television career, Keneally will jump between lighthearted hosting duties on Ten’s morning show, Studio 10, and Sky News political panels.

Sky News CEO Angelos Frangopoulos has also hired Kylie Merritt from News Corp to head the company’s digital strategy.

He said he was thrilled to expand his news services team, and was particularly pleased to hire two successful women. He said the company’s gender split was currently 46 per cent women and 54 per cent male.

“We’re really proud of this next step in the company’s development, and it’s an opportunity to celebrate two outstanding appointments, both of whom are women in an industry that does a poor job of celebrating executive women’s achievements,’’ he said.

Domain buyout tipped

SOURCES close to Fairfax Media executive Anthony Catalano say he could be about to attempt a management buyout of real estate classifieds business Domain.

Catalano, who recently contested two drink-driving charges in Melbourne Magistrates’ Court, got rich selling a half of his Metro Media Publishing business to Fairfax. Another option, which has been discussed by Fairfax board members, is to float the business in 2015. An interesting space to watch.

Meninga fury at Gleeso

QUEENSLAND Origin coach Mal Meninga has severed his ties with The Sunday Mail as a rugby league columnist. Meninga was unhappy with the way the Queensland paper reported a juicy front-page story on his brother Bevan, who was released last week after serving 21 years in jail for the murder of Sunshine Coast woman Sheree Richardson.

The Sunday Mail discovered that Bevan Meninga had a love tryst with a female warden in prison and she had a daughter, who is now 15. The teenage daughter wrote a heart-wrenching letter to the parole board to help get her father released. The Sunday Mail printed the letter, penned by Bevan Meninga’s daughter, under the page one headline: “How Love Set Him Free”. The kicker headline in smaller print said: The daughter’s note that helped free killer Bevan Meninga.

Sunday Mail editor Peter Gleeson said he was disappointed to lose Mal Meninga as a columnist. “Mal is a legend but this was an extraordinary story and I felt it had to be told and I think we did it with great sensitivity,’’ he said.

Gleeson said he was hopeful Meninga would reconsider. “I respect his decision and he’s welcome back any time,’’ Gleeson said.

Shepherd’s flock

TONY Shepherd is a man of many hats including chairman of the Australian Subscription Television and Radio Association. One of the most remarkable rooms of politicians, business people, doyens of the arts and sports communities and media assembled on Friday night for a black-tie dinner to celebrate Sheppo’s 70th birthday at The Australian Club in Sydney. Those present included Joe Hockey (who delivered a terrific roast of his chairman of audit), Mike Baird, Business Council chief Jennifer Westacott, Virgin Australia boss John Borghetti, cricket legend Steve Waugh, AFL Commission head Mike Fitzpatrick, GWS Giants coach Leon Cameron, the Australian Chamber Orchestra conductor Richard Tognetti and many other notables. Reflecting Sheppo’s deep connections into the media landscape were Foxtel CEO Richard Freudenstein and his wife Jane, News Corp senior executive Brett Clegg and his wife Annabel Hepworth, Sky Television’s Angelo Frangopoulos and presenter David Speers and Seven personality Mel Doyle.