The ABC chief addresses the Australian’s forum and refrains from naming the broadcaster’s chief critic, while the Daily Telegraph refuses to back down over Harriet Wran
One of the things Michelle Guthrie has brought from Google to the top job at the ABC is digital jargon, saying she has been doing ‘deep data dives’ since arriving three months ago.
Photograph: Mike Bowers for the Guardian
Michelle Guthrie chose a good week to enter the lion’s den and address a forum organised by the Australian newspaper, a constant critic of the national broadcaster that repeatedly called for her predecessor Mark Scott to resign.
Surprisingly, the ABC managing director didn’t mention it in her speech but the ABC is flying high this week. Not only did ABC News deliver two huge scoops – the NT detention scandal and the allegations of sexual abuse against George Pell – but ABC Online reported record figures.
June was the first month the ABC News website ranked No 2 overall, pushing smh.com.au into third place with a reach of five million people. While the ABC had its best month, news.com.au, the category leader, recorded its lowest audience this year. Insiders believe the drop in audience for smh.com.au and news.com.au and the rise in ABC audiences can be attributed to an appetite for news about the federal election and Brexit. In fourth place is Daily Mail Australia, followed by Yahoo7, Guardian Australia, the BBC, ninemsn, the Daily Telegraph and the Herald Sun.
Meanwhile the Tele is celebrating “powering” into the top 10 for the first time. Editor Chris Dore: “No other website delivers for its city the way dailytelegraph.com.au does.”
At the Australian’s forum the only reference Guthrie made to the elephant in the room (chief ABC critic Chris Kenny was the MC) was to how “most people have a very strong opinion on the ABC”. “Indeed, some of the people in this room are renowned for opining at great length on the national broadcaster,” she said. “This is great. Mostly.”
One of the things Guthrie brought to the job at Aunty from Google was the digital jargon. She has been, she told the Melbourne audience, doing “deep data dives” into the ABC since she arrived three months ago. The questions she asked in these “diving” sessions include: “Do we have the workforce equipped for the task ahead? Are we making the right recruitment decisions and doing our best to keep young, talented staff? Do unconscious biases lurk in our corridors?”
She didn’t say what she had found at the bottom of the ocean.
Harriet Wran is led to a waiting prison services vehicle at the NSW supreme court in Sydney on Tuesday. Photograph: David Moir/AAP
The Daily Telegraph’s response to the unprecedented attack on its reporting by the judge in the Harriet Wran case has been to dodge the accusation of misreporting and to say the daughter of the former Labor premier Neville Wran brought it all on herself. Calling Justice Harrison’s scathing remarks “odd”, the paper said the Daily Telegraph and sister publication the Sunday Telegraph “suddenly found themselves on trial”.
“We stand by our reporting and the presentation of that reporting and … we do not believe it is the court’s role to consider questions of media taste.” On Thursday the paper hit back at Harrison in a front-page story that accused him of being soft on criminals and sentencing: “Wran judge says crims ‘suffer too much’”. Harrison had told a conference – in 2008 – that most sentences judges were bound to impose, with rare exceptions, were too long.
Offensive lyrics on Classic FM
The ABC’s audience and consumer affairs department has to deal with significant complaints – like the recent one about Catalyst, which resulted in an episode being removed – and others that are less important but significant enough for someone to lodge a complaint.
You may not have noticed it but the ABC broadcast offensive lyrics on ABC Classic FM when it put to air a version of As Some Day it May Happen from the Mikado. Written in 1885, the Gilbert and Sullivan song has some words that are offensive by today’s standards – including a particularly nasty racial epithet. Modern versions often replace some of the more offensive words as they may distract the audience.
“The ABC acknowledged that the broadcast was not in keeping with its editorial standards for harm and offence; there was no editorial justification to play this version of the song. The ABC apologised to the listener for any offence caused.”
The former Victorian premier Denis Napthine has landed a radio gig. Photograph: Julian Smith/AAP
While Jeff Kennett has made a name for himself as the chairman of Beyondblue, another former Victorian premier is set to try his hand at broadcasting. Denis Napthine, who led the state in 2013 and 2014, has landed himself a gig hosting an hour-long weekly current affairs spot on his local radio station, Warrnambool-based 3YB. We wish him all the best when he begins his new career next week.
Journalists feel the pinch
It’s not just readers who have been affected by the huge changes in the media industry. As journalists have lost their jobs in print and picked up jobs in new digital outfits, their workplace conditions have not always kept up.
Later this year the Fair Work Commission is holding a review into the award that covers digital journalists after the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance raised concerns. Wages are lower than they were in legacy media, where a $200,000 salary for a senior newspaper journalist was not rare, and the working conditions journalists have traditionally enjoyed have not always been replicated in the digital-only space. Ahead of the review the union wants digital-only journalists to take this survey.
Oz’s wind claim deflated
The Australian’s front page “exclusive” attack on wind energy on 20 July was convincing. “Business blows ups as turbines suck more energy than they generate” suggested that South Australia’s wind turbines were drawing electricity from the grid just as the state was experiencing a shortage.
But as Renew Economy pointed out the figures were wildly inaccurate. It took a few days but the Oz admitted its figures were way off the mark. “Figures provided to the Australian by a third party were wrongly adjusted. On 7 July all wind farms in South Australia were producing 189.72MW between 6am and 7am, not 5780MW, and by mid-afternoon energy generation by all wind farms was minus 2MW not minus-50MW.”
Michelle Guthrie chose a good week to enter the lion’s den and address a forum organised by the Australian newspaper, a constant critic of the national broadcaster that repeatedly called for her predecessor Mark Scott to resign.
Surprisingly, the ABC managing director didn’t mention it in her speech but the ABC is flying high this week. Not only did ABC News deliver two huge scoops – the NT detention scandal and the allegations of sexual abuse against George Pell – but ABC Online reported record figures.
June was the first month the ABC News website ranked No 2 overall, pushing smh.com.au into third place with a reach of five million people. While the ABC had its best month, news.com.au, the category leader, recorded its lowest audience this year. Insiders believe the drop in audience for smh.com.au and news.com.au and the rise in ABC audiences can be attributed to an appetite for news about the federal election and Brexit. In fourth place is Daily Mail Australia, followed by Yahoo7, Guardian Australia, the BBC, ninemsn, the Daily Telegraph and the Herald Sun.
Meanwhile the Tele is celebrating “powering” into the top 10 for the first time. Editor Chris Dore: “No other website delivers for its city the way dailytelegraph.com.au does.”
At the Australian’s forum the only reference Guthrie made to the elephant in the room (chief ABC critic Chris Kenny was the MC) was to how “most people have a very strong opinion on the ABC”. “Indeed, some of the people in this room are renowned for opining at great length on the national broadcaster,” she said. “This is great. Mostly.”
One of the things Guthrie brought to the job at Aunty from Google was the digital jargon. She has been, she told the Melbourne audience, doing “deep data dives” into the ABC since she arrived three months ago. The questions she asked in these “diving” sessions include: “Do we have the workforce equipped for the task ahead? Are we making the right recruitment decisions and doing our best to keep young, talented staff? Do unconscious biases lurk in our corridors?”
She didn’t say what she had found at the bottom of the ocean.
Tele fights back against judge
The Daily Telegraph’s response to the unprecedented attack on its reporting by the judge in the Harriet Wran case has been to dodge the accusation of misreporting and to say the daughter of the former Labor premier Neville Wran brought it all on herself. Calling Justice Harrison’s scathing remarks “odd”, the paper said the Daily Telegraph and sister publication the Sunday Telegraph “suddenly found themselves on trial”.
“We stand by our reporting and the presentation of that reporting and … we do not believe it is the court’s role to consider questions of media taste.” On Thursday the paper hit back at Harrison in a front-page story that accused him of being soft on criminals and sentencing: “Wran judge says crims ‘suffer too much’”. Harrison had told a conference – in 2008 – that most sentences judges were bound to impose, with rare exceptions, were too long.
Offensive lyrics on Classic FM
The ABC’s audience and consumer affairs department has to deal with significant complaints – like the recent one about Catalyst, which resulted in an episode being removed – and others that are less important but significant enough for someone to lodge a complaint.
You may not have noticed it but the ABC broadcast offensive lyrics on ABC Classic FM when it put to air a version of As Some Day it May Happen from the Mikado. Written in 1885, the Gilbert and Sullivan song has some words that are offensive by today’s standards – including a particularly nasty racial epithet. Modern versions often replace some of the more offensive words as they may distract the audience.
“The ABC acknowledged that the broadcast was not in keeping with its editorial standards for harm and offence; there was no editorial justification to play this version of the song. The ABC apologised to the listener for any offence caused.”
Denis Napthine making waves
While Jeff Kennett has made a name for himself as the chairman of Beyondblue, another former Victorian premier is set to try his hand at broadcasting. Denis Napthine, who led the state in 2013 and 2014, has landed himself a gig hosting an hour-long weekly current affairs spot on his local radio station, Warrnambool-based 3YB. We wish him all the best when he begins his new career next week.
Journalists feel the pinch
It’s not just readers who have been affected by the huge changes in the media industry. As journalists have lost their jobs in print and picked up jobs in new digital outfits, their workplace conditions have not always kept up.
Later this year the Fair Work Commission is holding a review into the award that covers digital journalists after the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance raised concerns. Wages are lower than they were in legacy media, where a $200,000 salary for a senior newspaper journalist was not rare, and the working conditions journalists have traditionally enjoyed have not always been replicated in the digital-only space. Ahead of the review the union wants digital-only journalists to take this survey.
Oz’s wind claim deflated
The Australian’s front page “exclusive” attack on wind energy on 20 July was convincing. “Business blows ups as turbines suck more energy than they generate” suggested that South Australia’s wind turbines were drawing electricity from the grid just as the state was experiencing a shortage.
But as Renew Economy pointed out the figures were wildly inaccurate. It took a few days but the Oz admitted its figures were way off the mark. “Figures provided to the Australian by a third party were wrongly adjusted. On 7 July all wind farms in South Australia were producing 189.72MW between 6am and 7am, not 5780MW, and by mid-afternoon energy generation by all wind farms was minus 2MW not minus-50MW.”
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