Today
Foxtel’s UK suitor calls in Bank of America for advice
The group, backed by billionaire Len Blavatnik, is understood to be working with BofA’s telecommunications and media team.
- Sarah Thompson, Kanika Sood and Emma Rapaport
- Updated
- Murdoch family case
Rupert Murdoch loses bid to cement Lachlan’s control over News Corp
The billionaire business mogul, 93, had asked a Nevada court to change a family trust to have his eldest son oversee the media empire after his death.
- Sam Buckingham-Jones
- Opinion
- Streaming
Bugger Spotify, I’m going to make my own playlist
Even by the internet’s grim standards, Spotify Wrapped is a wretched gimmick.
- Tom Gatti
Omnicom to buy Interpublic in $20.6b deal
The merger of the two companies will create the world’s largest advertising company, taking that title from London-based WPP.
- Fareed Sahloul and Mark Bergen
This Month
Exits, cuts and Smooth FM: Nine mulls future of 2GB, 3AW, 4BC and 6PR
While it has shelved plans to replace its Perth radio station with a music feed from Nova, there are plenty of challenges at the company’s radio division.
- Sam Buckingham-Jones
Guardian owner pushes through sale of The Observer despite strike
A “slow news” start-up has bought the 233-year-old Sunday paper for $49 million, amid a slew of deals that are shifting Britain’s media landscape.
- Hans van Leeuwen
‘Five minutes with god’: Rupert holds court at Murdoch Christmas bash
With the 93-year-old in town, dozens of the nation’s most powerful political, sporting and media executives were drawn to Lachlan and Sarah Murdoch’s annual party.
- Sam Buckingham-Jones
Rupert Murdoch makes surprise Australian homecoming
The “retired” media mogul has made his first trip Down Under in many years.
- Mark Di Stefano
UK journalists strike over planned sale of Observer
Reporters at The Guardian have begun a 48-hour walkout, the first in 50 years for the outlet, over a proposal to sell its sister paper to a digital media start-up.
- Eshe Nelson
Shameless end to a very Kerry Stokes political coup
The media proprietor’s employee Basil Zempilas still insists he knew nothing of his campaign manager’s polling that almost rolled the WA Liberal leader.
- Mark Di Stefano
Why Emirates dropped F1, Melbourne Cup to go all in on tennis
Emirates will sponsor the Australian Open for another five years at least in a deal thought to be worth $35 million, as the airline’s head of marketing reveals the real reason it dropped other sporting fixtures.
- Patrick Durkin
Nine’s Airlie Walsh sues network amid workplace culture fallout
The well-known television personality had worked on the Today breakfast program and as a political reporter for more than a decade.
- Max Mason and Sam Buckingham-Jones
Next year, broadcasters are going all in on ‘bit dirty’ reality TV
Some of the biggest franchises of the genre have languished for years, with audiences fading. Now major networks are hoping for a big revival.
- Sam Buckingham-Jones
David Rowe wins cartoonist of the year award for record 10th time
The Australian Financial Review’s editorial cartoonist has won his 10th Australian Cartoonists Association’s Gold Stanley for best cartoonist of the year.
November
Murdoch’s Fox News, ‘bro’ podcasts the big winners from Trump victory
Liberal audiences are tuning out while the media baron’s channel attracts record numbers in the United States.
- Anna Nicolaou
News Corp’s REA sues Domain for allegedly scraping listings data
Domain has rubbished the claims, arguing that REA’s lawsuit is a bid to exert market influence.
- Campbell Kwan
The father-son rift that prefaced the break-up of an empire
A boardroom coup at John Fairfax Limited helped pave the way for the family to lose control of Australia’s oldest newspaper company.
- Alexander Edward Gilly
Peter Costello’s journalist son back in the spotlight
A Current Affair’s Seb Costello had an ugly interaction with a person involved with Oak Capital this week.
- Mark Di Stefano
- Opinion
- Podcasts
Memo to Kim Williams and the ABC: This is the age of ‘bro’ podcasts
Men are tired of the superficiality and bias in so much of the mainstream media. They’re going to alternative platforms to get what they want.
- John Anderson
ABC chairman cops ‘watch out’ messages after Joe Rogan criticism
Asked what the ABC could learn from Joe Rogan, the most popular podcast presenter on Spotify, ABC chairman Kim Williams didn’t hold back.
- Sam Buckingham-Jones
Labor vowed to ban sports gambling ads (18 months ago)
Nothing has happened. The prime minister has gone from blasting gambling advertising around sport as “reprehensible” to admitting he hasn’t been able to see it through.
- Sam Buckingham-Jones
- Sponsored
- TFM Digital
Local marketing and niche audiences boost revenue in a data-driven world
Australian brands have become skilled at using major platforms such as Google and Meta to reach their audiences. But, with so many enterprises flocking to these spaces, their impact is starting to wane. Which is why more firms are going back to a local approach to media.
Sponsored
by TFM Digital
Google reviews ruined Ed’s company. Now he’s making $15m fighting back
Ed Butcher and Ed Godfrey set up a no win, no fee online review removal company called RepSpert in 2020. It’s grown by 300 per cent each year.
- Sam Buckingham-Jones
How the world’s most popular TV show is made
Hwang Dong-hyuk wrote Squid Game, the biggest Netflix series ever, in the depths of despair. He’s back for season two. What can we learn from its success?
- Sam Buckingham-Jones
‘Punitive regime’: X warns social media ban won’t work
Elon Musk’s social media platform says the government’s moves to stop under-16s using social media is likely unlawful and technological ineffective.
- Tom McIlroy and Sam Buckingham-Jones
