Mumbrellacast

This week, the Heated Debate returns with a question for the newshounds: should Australian media stand with the ABC and other banned outlets by boycotting One Nation press events? Reporter Zac Nikolovski and good friend of the Mumbrellacast Lauren Joyce enter a two-party contest of their own. Zac argues the affirmative, warning that allowing politicians to exclude journalists over critical coverage creates a dangerous incentive by making access conditional on favourable reporting. Lauren takes an audience-first view, arguing that a boycott would leave fewer journalists in the room to question and contextualise One Nation’s claims, ultimately giving the party greater control over its message and audiences less information on which to form their own views. As usual, things get pretty heated. Also this week: the team digs into the case of Australian niche publisher Digital Drummer, whose founder Allan Leibowitz discovered an Israeli AI news startup was allegedly republishing his journalism on an industrial scale. Is there a silver lining to publishing’s AI reckoning? Maybe. Ask ChatGPT again later. The team also unpacks proposed changes to Australia’s privacy laws that have marketers bracing for a new era of consent pop-up hell, before picking apart OpenAI’s apology to us, the Australian people, to decide whether the tech giant's sorry letter is actually worthy of our nation's forgiveness.

More than six months after KIIS lost its Melbourne breakfast show with the Kyle and Jackie O implosion, ARN has announced the full-time replacement:  Ash London, Isaac Smith and Elliot Garnaut. Tim Burrowes and Irene Hulme ponder whether the trio have what it takes to get out of the hole Kyle and Jackie O left behind.

Welcome to the Mumbrellacast, the only podcast to win the Pulitzer, the Nobel Peace Prize, and a bronze Logie. This week, Nine has lost two of its biggest decision-makers in the space of 12-or-so hours. On Thursday morning, Nine's TV boss Amanda Laing, who headed up Nine's recently integrated television, streaming television, and streaming subscription television division (TV boss, in other words) was made redundant, with CEO Matt Stanton choosing not to fill the role and instead moonlight as the division's kinda-maybe-boss-for-now-yeah?, helping out and maintaining "business as usual" at Nine, to quote his official statement on the matter. This news dropped the morning after AFR's editor-in-chief James Chessell quit to join his former charge Joe Aston's Rampart publication, seemingly without invoking a non-compete, a notice period, or the ghost of Graham Kennedy. What's going on at Nine? We ask and attempt to answer this question. Also, we hear from comedian and rabble-rouser Dan Illic, who was this week appointed CEO of activist group Get Up. If the name of that organisation sounds a faint bell in the recesses of your memory, it may be because they were recently responsible for a fun stunt, where they unfurled a banner (via remote control) behind Pauline Hanson that said “I opposed a pay rise for workers”. With Illic at the helm, can we expect more shenanigans from the Get Up organisation? During a keynote at the Meta Connect conference hosted in San Francisco (just hours before the podcast recording, 'cos we keep things fresh) Mark Zuckerberg unveiled the Meta Muse Charm, a new gadget that looks like a Tamagotchi but stings like an AI agent. It's basically a way to use Meta's smart-glasses without having to wear what have widely been dubbed "pervert glasses" (or other, more offensive variations on the theme). We also attended the Media Federation of Australia's conference in Sydney -- also a few hours before the podcast record -- which saw industry leaders warn media agencies that they will need to think carefully about which AI tools they use, as the technology increasingly becomes out of financial reach. There is also the problem of agencies pitching with unrealistic budgets in order to win clients. As Aimee Buchanan, CEO of WPP Media ANZ, warned: "I think when we undercut each other, we're eroding not only our own individual contribution, but we're eroding the industry, and there's way too much of that happening.” Happy listening! Get the latest episodes here. Podcast edit by Abe’s Audio. For more about how News Australia is thinking about the future of mobile news in Australia, ⁠click here⁠.

Sinead Boucher is the owner of Stuff, one of New Zealand's biggest media companies, and in this interview with Mumbrella editorial director Hal Crawford she recounts her journey from the newsdesk to the boardroom. Revelations in the discussion include details of the 2020 phone call from then-Nine CEO Hugh Marks that informed Boucher he was going to shut down her company. At that time, Nine owned Stuff as a kind of hangover from its merger with Fairfax in Australia, and Boucher was the CEO. "I just couldn't believe this decision to wind us up, which I think was really in preparation for something worse that was coming and trying to regroup resources back to Australia," she said. "I was shocked and stunned. I can't actually remember much of what I said in that phone call, but I know that I got off the phone and I just felt this sense of just huge rage, frustration, anger at this whole thing." The interview was recorded live at Mumbrella's Publish conference, at the NSW State Library in Sydney. For more about how News Australia is thinking about the future of mobile news in Australia, click here.

This morning, Ive Group has made an offer to buy publicly-listed out-of-home company Motio. The deal values Motio at around $20 million — 15% over their closing market cap — and finds Ive Group expanding from the world of printing and marketing into the ever-growing out-of-home market.In a release to the ASX, Ive Group said the acquisition would allow it to build out its retail marketing and media offering.Irene and Tim discuss what the deal means for Australian media and marketing.