Cheek Media Co is looking to strengthen its commercial side, with CEO Hannah Ferguson saying a new partnerships manager will be key to helping the progressive media outlet grow without losing sight of its values.       After seeing Cheek Media Co was advertising for someone “to help take our indie media company to the next level”, Influencing contacted Ferguson to find out more about the role and Cheek’s future plans. “The most important thing for us, as we build our team, is creating a work culture that embodies our values,” she says. “The right person will need to bring in commercial skills and partnerships experience, but the right attitude and values alignment is equally important for us.” Ferguson stresses a lack of extensive experience shouldn’t stop anyone from applying. “We aren't just looking for someone who is a certain number of years into their career, or has a long list of professional experi

The Free Press Journal, in association with Care Edge, organised a jury meeting to shortlist companies for the India’s Best Annual Report Awards 2025. The awards are in their fourth year, with a structured evaluation framework developed alongside Care Edge now in its third year. The jury was led by former SEBI Chairman M. Damodaran and included senior industry leaders such as P. D. Singh of Standard Chartered Bank (India), Abizer Diwanji of NeoStrat & Advisors LLP, Seshagiri Rao MVS of JSW Group, Vishakha Mulye of Aditya Birla Capital, R. Mukundan of Tata Chemicals, and Padmini Khare of B. K. Khare & Co. According to a LinkedIn post, the panel held detailed discussions to review methodology and parameters. The process involved thorough analysis and debate to ensure fairness, credibility, and consistency. Annual reports of top listed companies were assessed across ten sectors, including capital markets, defence and aerospace, electrical equipment, IT/ITeS, manufacturi

    There is a peculiar irony baked into every cash-for-votes scandal: the person who gets threatened is rarely the one who took the money. In Palakkad this week, MediaOne reporter Sajid Ajmal published footage showing a BJP candidate's associate allegedly distributing cash to voters during the silent campaign period. His reward? Police protection, after the Kerala DGP received intelligence flagging threats from BJP-RSS circles against him. Let that sink in for a moment. A journalist does his job, films evidence, verifies it, publishes it, and the machinery that swings into motion isn't aimed at the accused. It's aimed at the journalist holding the camera. This is not an accident. It is a playbook. The threats against Ajmal are textbook influence suppression: make the cost of reporting so viscerally personal that the next reporter hesitates before pressing record. Welfare Party state president Razak Paleri called for public vigilance against moves by BJP-RSS circles targeting jo

Eilidh Sproul-Mellis has been appointed News Corp’s national technology reporter, the company’s first dedicated tech journalist since former national tech editor Jennifer Dudley-Nicholson was made redundant in September 2022. Sproul-Mellis started in late March and will cover technology across News Corp’s metro mastheads, including The Daily Telegraph, The Courier-Mail and The Herald Sun. She said her brief spans the tech sector, with a focus on its impact on Australians, from artificial intelligence to consumer technology. “If AI is coming to replace your job, which jobs is it actually replacing? How can you upskill? How can you manage that transition?” Sproul-Mellis told Influencing.  She said the new role was “an incredible opportunity that will have so many different permutations”.  “I'm really looking forward to getting to know some of the makers and shakers who are going to develop the new technology that's

Winning the Lizzie for Best Short Form Content was a heartening acknowledgement that ABC Gamer’s work mattered, Gemma Driscoll says. Driscoll was one of the key members of the ABC Gamer team before it was shut down at the end of 2025. ABC Gamer’s winning entries included: “The Missing Category At The Game Awards”, “Microsoft Is Distracting You From Layoffs”, “The Minds Behind Indie Symphony 2” and “Schrödinger's Cat Burglar Dev Talks Mischief”.  Driscoll was proud of those entries, especially given they were created under time pressure. “We were focusing on very recent events within the games industry – any gaming news that we thought we needed to highlight, any thoughts and opinions we felt were worthy of sharing about current events,” she told Influencing.  “They were scripts that we were particularly proud of because we wrote everything [quickly] and sent it to our team to verify.  “The [videos] were the result of a team's effort to create n

IMF flags recession risk and warns against inflation-fuelling budget giveaways The IMF has cautioned Treasurer Jim Chalmers against broad cost-of-living handouts that could entrench war-driven inflation, urging any relief be tightly targeted and properly funded as global recession risks rise. The story lands as confidence weakens and governments weigh how to respond to higher oil prices without blowing out the budget. Covered by: The Age, Sydney Morning Herald, The Australian, Australian Financial Review, The West Australian. Fuel shock hits the real economy: truckies warn of closures and councils brace for higher costs With diesel and supply-chain pressure rising amid Middle East instability, the trucking industry is warning many operators could shut within months, arguing electrification timelines don’t match commercial reality. Flow-on impacts are spreading, with councils flagging higher waste-collection charges and broader cost pressures feeding into househo