Nicole Sheffield joins magazine merry-go-round

A major shake-up of the magazine industry is on the cards in what has already been a merry-go-round year.

NewsLifeMedia CEO Nicole Sheffield and Vogue Australia editor Edwina McCann.

A major shake-up of the magazine industry is on the cards in what has already been a merry-go-round year. Highly regarded NewsLifeMedia CEO Nicole Sheffield is understood to be in the frame for a new role at News Corp Australia after 4½ years running the publisher of Vogue Australia, GQ and a group of lifestyle brands. The former Foxtel channels boss has been coveting a new challenge for some time. The timing is right after News realigned advertising sales by combining magazines and metropolitan newspapers into one unit under chief commercial officer Sharb Farjami. The well-advanced move comes hot on the heels of publisher Bauer Media Group bringing in former Seven executive and Pacific Magazines boss Nick Chan to head its Australian and New Zealand operations. As Chan takes an axe to his management team, Diary hears that across town, his mate and successor Peter Zavecz is on the brink of leaving Seven West Media’s Pacific to join ... ahem ... News Corp. While a spokesman for News declined to comment, speculation has it that Zav will join the company’s Melbourne operations in an as-yet unspecified role outside magazines. The move could write another extraordinary chapter for Zav, who was born in an immigration centre in rural Victoria’s Bonegilla. It also marks something of a return to his roots as Zav sold ads for News Corp’s The Herald and Weekly Times in the early 1990s. After working for Rupert Murdoch, the late Kerry Packer, his son James Packer and more recently Kerry Stokes, Zav has worked for more moguls than you can shake a stick at.

Voelte v ABC

Former Seven West Media boss Don Voelte may have retired from Kerry Stokes’s empire, heading back to the US to spend more time with his family, but it seems he has some unfinished business on local shores. The Nebraskan-born executive is suing the public broadcaster for defamation, claiming that a report by one of its programs, The Business, implied he had breached his duty to Nexus Energy and its investors. A court hearing is set for this morning. It could be one for the ages and law students, with two legal titans set to face off. Prominent defamation barrister Bruce McClintock is representing Voelte, while the ABC will be defended by barrister Stuart Littlemore, a former journalist and TV presenter. Curious timing, with a review into the ABC’s business coverage set to ­finally emerge from behind closed doors this week. Conducted by media consultant and journalist Kerry Blackburn with input from former ANZ chief Mike Smith, the findings will be presented to a meeting of the ABC board in ­Melbourne this week, Diary ­understands. The report has been some time in the making after an initial expectation of a three-month time frame. Work began in February and has taken almost six months to bring reviews and ­submissions together. The report is said to include considerations of matters including thin coverage of business issues beyond the high-profile reporting of the likes of Alan Kohler, Phillip Lasker, and Ian Verrender.

McCabe’s Nine debut

Nine CEO Hugh Marks’s newest recruit Helen McCabe steps into her new office at the broadcaster this morning as part of head of digital Alex Parsons’s reinvigoration of the group’s online offering. It’s been a little over a fortnight since Parsons, in Nine’s digital driver’s seat for almost two years, relaunched Nine’s web presence from ninemsn to nine.com.au. The overhaul is the last piece in Nine’s broader digital brand ­jigsaw, with the redesign enacted by Parsons’s internal team rather than external consultants. Already Parsons says the changes have driven a rise in the site’s commercial metrics, including more clicks on advertising and more ad impressions. Engagement with content has improved too, he says, but adds that it’s too early for numbers. Former Australian Women’s Weekly editor McCabe, who left the mag’s publisher Bauer in January, will report to Parsons, looking after the lifestyle digital offering, taking in 9 Honey (beauty), 9 Homes, 9 Kitchen (cooking), 9 Coach (health and fitness) and 9 Elsewhere (travel) brands. Meanwhile, freed 60 Minutes reporter Tara Brown, who has been working from home rather than at the Willoughby bunker, is poised to return to TV within weeks.

Reason to celebrate

McCabe gathered a posse of pals at her Sydney eastern suburbs apartment last Wednesday night to celebrate her new appointment. She joins Nine on staff as an employee, not as a consultant; despite that she has been active in recent weeks structuring her affairs. McCabe, 48, has established three new corporate vehicles: McCabe Media and Future Women on her own and another, HLM Enterprises, with her South Australian-based brother Adrian. Pals at the media exec’s home for the ­midweek soiree included Ben ­Naparstek, the former Good Weekend boy wonder who left to run SBS’s online operations, Nine spin doctor Victoria ­Buchan and ­several current AWW staffers. It will be up to McCabe now to build out her digital lifestyle team to supplement those already on board, suggesting her replacement at AWW, Kim Wilson, may be advised to watch her talent. On Thursday, 60 Minutes presenter Liz Hayes celebrated 35 years at Nine at an intimate dinner with colleagues, including boss Hugh Marks. Today host Lisa Wilkinson commented: “So many laughs, so much love for a woman so many of us simply adore.

Corbett’s pyre of shame

Self-appointed gender police ­person Bryce Corbett arrested himself last week. Corbett — who was previously McCabe’s right-hand man at The Australian Women’s Weekly — used his outlet in the AFR to denounce his former employer Bauer Media for employing Tim Addington, a man, as their new head of the company’s digital division. Only they hadn’t. ­Addington handles Bauer’s PR. It was the latest stuff-up for a ­journalist dubbed by trade publication Mumbrella on Friday as “Bryce ‘Pyre of Shame’ Corbett”. Fortunately for him, the Brisbane-based Pyre of Shame had just passed his three-month probation at ­Michael Stutchbury’s AFR.

Fairfax slashes pages

Amid persistent speculation Fairfax will axe weekday print editions of The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age next year, a disappearing act is already taking place on its Sunday pages. Pages in the main book for The Sun-Herald and The Age amounted to just 48 and 36 respectively yesterday. By comparison Mick ­Carroll’s The Sunday Telegraph had an impressive 144 pages, while Nick Papps’ Sunday Herald Sun also made a mighty thud with 96. Also absent is the total lack of ­interest by certain parts of the media that Fairfax is using false economic arguments to wind down two venerable mastheads. If Fairfax takes the tragic step of closing Monday-to-Friday print editions, it’s less a reflection of the state of the industry, and more ­because they produce increasingly irrelevant products by slashing pagination.

Hinch to headline

Not long now till broadcaster Derryn Hinch takes his Senate seat in Canberra — and by all accounts the Human Headline can’t wait. On Friday afternoon Hinch — founder of the Justice Party — was at Sydney’s Lindt cafe, in Martin Place, and was overheard interviewing potential staffers. It will be interesting to see who gets the gig. Fellow high-profile crossbench senator Pauline Hanson has former radio broadcaster James Ashby (of Slippergate fame) working for her. Hinch is unlikely to stock up on more broadcasting muscle. The former 3AW radio host is the latest in a noble line of broadcasters who have dropped their microphone to go into parliament. The most successful is John Tingle (father of Australian Financial Review political editor Laura Tingle). After a long lunch in 1992 with the former NSW police minister Ted Pickering, Tingle founded the Shooters party (now known as the Shooters and Fishers Party). The former ABC broadcaster Tingle went on to be a dignified representative for gun owners in the NSW upper house until he resigned in 2006. Journalist-turned-premier Bob Carr was among his many fans. Rival ­Sydney broadcaster Alan Jones attempted to gain Liberal Party preselection. Despite a CV that ­included a stint as Malcolm ­Fraser’s speechwriter, Jones was repeatedly unsuccessful — a rare encounter with failure in the 2GB breakfast announcer’s mostly winning life.

SBS nutmegs Optus

SBS have released their English Premier League schedule for the first six weeks of the forthcoming season, and new rights holder Optus can’t be too happy. ­After stumping up an eye-watering $189 million, arguably the biggest and most anticipated match of the season will be available live on SBS — the Manchester derby. To add injury to insult, the largest supported teams Liverpool and Manchester United will feature in the first six live games in the early time slots given to SBS. When purchasing TV sports rights, savvy bidders know a hefty premium usually comes with the capacity to influence a schedule to maintain exclusivity and the ability to monetise matches. With the mighty Spurs also scheduled to appear on SBS early doors, it’s increasingly looking like a bum deal for the ambitious telco.