Newsfeed: More drivetime shuffles; Molan's TV downgrade; a new gig for Gaven Morris - already

Plus: A twist in the tale for Sex in the City fans and Are Media's boss finally speaks

Dec 12, 2021

Welcome to Unmade’s Monday newsfeed. Happy National Day of the Horse.

Today’s edition is a roundup of the key news from the mainstream press’s Monday media and marketing sections, along with breaking news from today and over the weekend.

Spoiler warning: A spoiler to the Sex and the City sequel, And Just Like That, appears towards the end of this email.

Gaven Morris in agency startup

The ABC’s former director of news Gaven Morris has quickly emerged in a commercial role.

Morris, who held one of the most senior roles in Australian journalism until stepping down at the beginning of this month, will be the CEO of new startup Bastion Transform, reports AdNews today. The consultancy, aligned to Jack Watt’s Bastion Group, will help organisations looking to navigate complex digital transformations.

Seven wins the ratings week

Supercars and the Ashes helped Seven win the ratings week in both the key advertising demographic of 25-54, and Total People. Nine was a close second, with last Sunday’s edition of Nine News the most viewed program of the week with 936,000 overnight metro viewers, according to OzTam data. Seven said that the opening test of The Ashes reached 5.56m viewers across its four days, including a peak audience of 1.17m.

The first test only made it to the fourth day | Pic: Getty Images

Erin Molan drops main TV commitment

Erin Molan, who co-presents 2Day FM’s struggling Sydney breakfast show alongside Ed Kavalee and Dave Hughes, has reduced her TV commitments to focus on her radio duties, reports The Australian. According to the newspaper’s Media Diary, Molan will no longer anchor Nine’s NRL coverage but continue to read the sports headlines on the network’s Friday and Saturday Nine News evening bulletins.

Sports Flicks

The wild story of the rise and fall of come-from-nowhere Australian streaming service Sports Flick will play out in court, the Sydney Morning Herald has revealed. Founder Dylan Azzopardi has alleged in legal documents that after winning the bidding for the UEFA Champions league rights, the company disintegrated with threats, broken promises and board manoeuvres involving shareholders.

More moves in drivetime radio

The ABC’s climate change specialist Andy Park is to take the helm of Radio National’s current affairs drivetime show, The Australian reports. The vacancy was created by the move of Patricia Karvelas to the breakfast slot vacated by Fran Kelly.

And in commercial radio, Southern Cross Austereo’s Triple M has announced Olympic medallist Leisel Jones will be joining the Brisbane drive team, alongside Ben ‘Dobbo’ Dobbin, and Liam Flanagan.

More OMD promotions

Australia’s most successful media agency OMD has today announced the promotion of Alison Costello to national head of digital and Marelle Salib to national head of investment. Costello was previously head of digital at OMD Brisbane. Salib was head of trading at OMD Sydney. Both will report in to OMD Australia’s chief investment officer, Melissa Hey. The promotions follow last month’s appointment of Laura Nice and Sian Whitnall as co-CEOs of the Omnicom company following the exit of Aimee Buchanan to lead WPP’s GroupM.

Are Media boss: Digital deal has created uneven playing field

Jane Huxley, the low profile CEO of Australia’s biggest magazine company Are Media has given a rare public comment to the Australian Financial Review, complaining that the aftermath of the News Media Bargaining Code negotiations has created an unfair outcome because Google and Facebook have not been designated under the code thanks to doing funding deals with several large publishers. Are Media is amongst those that missed out. Huxley told the Australian Financial Review: “The behaviour has not really been in the spirit of the media bargaining code so far and has unfortunately created an even more uneven playing field.”

SMH ditches columnist over failure to declare interest

The Sydney Morning Herald’s incoming new editor Bevan Shields has axed longstanding columnist Elizabeth Farrelly after learning that she had registered as a Labor Party candidate in local elections without telling her bosses, and had then written a piece criticising Liberal and independent councillors in the electorate.

Dr Spin: And just like that… he’s alive

A final spoiler warning for And Just Like That fans.

Dr Spin writes…

It was not necessarily the product placement the exercise tech brand Peloton was dreaming of, when the creators of the sequel to Sex and the City, And Just Like That killed off Carrie Bradshaw’s partner Big early in the series.

Dr Spin doffs his cap to Peloton for its response to being given the blame for giving Big a heart attack from over-exercising with his favourite instructor Allegra.

This morning sees a new ad, voiced by Ryan Reynolds and featuring Big actor Chris Noth, enjoying Christmas alongside his trainer, played by real life Peloton instructor Jess King.)