AAP receives fresh government funds

By Jonas Lopez in Media News on Tuesday, 22nd September 2020 at 11:28am

AAP logo The Australian Associated Press (AAP) has received a new cash grant from the federal government, totaling $5m.

AAP CEO Emma Cowdroy said the money, allotted under the Public Interest News Gathering program, is programmed to support the company’s operations, especially with uncertainties under the pandemic. The cash grant is covered under a funding agreement enacted with the AAP’s acquisition by an impact investment team led by Peter Tonagh.

At the time of the announcement, the AAP was running a GoFundMe campaign with around $120K raised so far and aiming for $500K.

“The Covid-19 pandemic has triggered unprecedented challenges for Australia’s regional media sector, with severe declines in advertising revenue threatening the sustainability of many news outlets. The AAP newswire provides services to more than 250 regional news mastheads across Australia, covering public interest content on national, state and regional news. This allows regional mastheads to concentrate on local news stories important for their communities,” explained Comms Minister Paul Fletcher.

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Gilbert hosts new Friday night show

By Jonas Lopez in Media News on Monday, 26th October 2020 at 11:57am

Tim Gilbert has premiered a new Friday show over 2GB, 3AW and 4BC, called Your Weekend with Tim Gilbert.

Airing at 7PM to 8PM, the show is aimed at preparing Nine Radio audiences for fun things to do over the weekend, especially during the NRL/AFL off-season.

Your Weekend is Gilbert’s first outing at Nine since leaving The Today Show early last year. His radio experience comes from years at 2GN and 2UE.

"I'm excited returning to my first love, radio, three decades after my first gig in Goulburn. In a very heavy news cycle, we'll be taking you down the bright side of the road for an hour each Friday night and exploring everything that’s good in the world. I can't wait to work with some of my great mates again and chat with the Nine Radio listeners," said Gilbert.

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Canales makes a splash in Canberra

By Elliott Richardson in Media News on Friday, 23rd October 2020 at 10:49am

After more than 12 months under the Pedestrian umbrella writing for Gizmodo and Lifehacker, Sarah Basford Canales has swapped the hustle and bustle of Sydney for the relative quiet of Canberra.

Moving to the Canberra Times, Canales is now a politics and public sector reporter, something she says has always been an interest of hers.

“Political reporting is something I've always been interested in doing. Back when I was an idealistic uni student, my plan was to become an investigative reporter in the political space. While my ambitions of travelling to Russia to uncover deep-seated corruption have waned considerably - I'm sure my mum's happy about it too - it's still something I'm passionate about,” she says.

Known for her tech coverage at Pedestrian, Canales says she is looking at how she can combine her experience in tech with her political coverage.

“I'm not fully abandoning that field (tech) though — I

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Miraudo to run RTRFM

By Jonas Lopez in Media News on Thursday, 22nd October 2020 at 4:40pm

Simon Miraudo is the GM-designate for WA radio station RTRFM, effective 16 November, reported Radioinfo.

He will take over from Chris Wheeldon, who had been interim GM after Karen Lee left earlier this year.

Miraudo has been with the station for almost ten years, starting out as a volunteer then later co-hosted the Movie Squad review show.

Tune in to Miraudo on LinkedIn.

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Towell runs economics beat

By Jonas Lopez in Media News on Thursday, 22nd October 2020 at 3:29pm

Noel Towell has moved to become The Age’s new economics editor.

He previously handled the paper’s state politics desk.

Follow Towell on Twitter @NoelTowell.

Jennifer Dudley-Nicholson makes a winning run on ABC’s Hard Quiz

By Seamus Byrne in Media News on Friday, 23rd October 2020 at 9:45am

News Corp’s national technology editor, Jennifer Dudley-Nicholson, is a well-known quiz fiend, and this week she made an appearance on Tom Gleeson’s Hard Quiz over at the ABC. And don’t worry, Gleeson doesn’t let the News Corp journalist thing slide past without comment. Jen had the last laugh though!

You can catch all the action over at ABC iView, but we’ve also caught up with Dudley-Nicholson for the behind the scenes scoop and her future plans for quiz show domination.

What's your TV quiz history now, for those not playing along at home?

Well, I'm no Angus Kidman but I had appeared on Temptation and Million-Dollar Minute previously. My goal is always to avoid total embarrassment, which made Hard Quiz a bit harder than most!

How long have you been waiting for that to air?

It's been almost a year, which is a very long embargo in tech terms! I visited the Hard Quiz studio in Melbourne last November,

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Lizzies 2020: Final Tickets Available

By Mike Woodcock in Media News on Thursday, 22nd October 2020 at 10:58am

There are just 4 weeks to go until the 2020 Samsung Australian IT Journalism Awards.

With our COVID plan ensuring safety for all attendees, numbers are very strictly limited, however some tickets are still available.
Please note:

Dress code is Black Tie formal
The Watterson Best-Dressed Journo Awards Theming is 'Country'
Event-exclusive pre-dinner rides from 6pm to 7pm
Doors open at 6.45pm
To ensure the safety of our guests, there will be no official After-Party this year.

Because numbers are strictly limited, we will be closing ticket sales early this year, so if you do plan on coming, please secure your tickets and RSVP as soon as possible.

For our guests that have already RSVP'd, thank you for your early response - we look forward to seeing you Nov 6th.

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The email problem

By Seamus Byrne in Media News on Thursday, 22nd October 2020 at 10:39am

It's easy to send an email. At scale it gets trickier, and no doubt most PR uses dedicated tools to manage bursts of press releases or other information when sent to many journalists in one quick go. We've touched on the issues of list management in the past, but it's also important to remember where the real effort lies in the email relationship.

Once upon a time, there was a cost to sending every single message you wanted to send out into the world. By post, it was both money and time. By fax, it was money (and the hope it would be legible at the other end). In both instances, there wasn't a bona fide expectation that the recipient would definitely see what was sent to them.

In the email era, there is no cost to send and practically instant delivery. This means exponential scale messaging has become the norm. You write it once, you send it to thousands. Dust your hands, it's a job well done.

Of course, this places the greatest emphasis on t

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