Snappers’ sanctum destroyed
In May last year Fairfax Media photographers were stunned to be told the company wanted to get rid of 30 staff photographers and outsource photos to Getty Images, effectively abolishing the award-winning department. But they fought back with a strike and a petition and kept more snappers than the bean counters had wanted.
A year on, and they have a small staff of 14 and are surviving alongside the Getty contractors. That was, until the weekend, when workmen came in unannounced and tore down their office to build a new conference room for the Australian Financial Review’s editor-in-chief Michael Stutchbury. The Fin has been relocated and now shares a floor with the Sydney Morning Herald in Pyrmont.
The photographers are gutted. They say the photographers’ room was a place where they met to collaborate and plan assignments and talk to journos – and where they stored their heavy and expensive equipment.
One photographer told the Weekly Beast there was no consultation, only an email announcing the demolition would take place on Saturday, the day of the NSW election.
Some photographers came in on Monday to find their room had disappeared. But management insists the room was often empty as the photographers were out on the road. The “inner sanctum” has been replaced by two desks in an open-plan office, sources said. The move has been interpreted as a bad omen for the future of the great photography tradition of the Herald.
Social media censure
A small regional Victorian newspaper, the Moorabool News, has made history by becoming the first publication to have breached Australian Press Council standards by not deleting offensive Facebook comments made by readers. After a fatal car accident in the area, some offensive comments were posted on the paper’s Facebook page.
The victim’s family said the publication refused family members’ requests to remove these comments. The press council said that its standards of practice apply to its members’ Facebook and other social media platforms.
“If a publication establishes a Facebook page, it is a publisher of that page even if Facebook may also be regarded as a publisher,” the adjudication said. “Accordingly, it must take reasonable steps to monitor readers’ comments and delete them if they breach the council’s standards … In this case, the publication noticed and deleted some comments, but not those that the driver’s family understandably found to be very offensive. Indeed, it did not delete them even when asked to do so by the family. The fact that by then the report and comments may already have been read widely does not justify failing to delete them. Accordingly, this aspect of the complaint is upheld.”
A press council spokesman told the Beast: “It is not the first time that an adjudication is taking into account material published on a newspaper’s Facebook page. But it is the first adjudication where council found a breach of its standards of practice based exclusively on material found on the newspaper’s Facebook page.”
SBS’s ratings focus
We revealed on Monday that SBS management was urging its reporters to come up with “quirky” stories to entice viewers to stay with the hour-long news from 7pm.
“The focus group research showing Middle East, Indigenous, asylum yarns are of less interest to viewers would also indicate moving them out of that time period,” a leaked internal email said. “In the lead up to the bridge, great picture stories, quirky (how could that have happened) yarns are preferable.”
A spokeswoman insisted this was not a new editorial direction for SBS World News but just a strategy to increase retention in the second half of the program through story placement and promotion.
However, Beast understands SBS does place a greater emphasis on ratings performance than ever before. In what is believed to be a first for a public broadcaster, SBS journalists now have a specific ratings benchmark in their performance reviews. In order for them to receive a positive review the program they work for must reach a certain ratings number. Tough when you’re the fifth-placed free-to-air network. A union official told Beast it was highly unusual for an ordinary reporter to be responsible for a show’s ratings. In commercial TV only the highest paid on-air talent would have a ratings element in their contracts.
A spokeswoman for SBS said ratings was “just one of many important measures for SBS in ensuring the effective delivery of our charter”.
“There is no single ratings benchmark applied to all SBS employees,” she said. “Just like other organisations, SBS sets goals with its employees which are specific to their role and area, but consistent with the overall business objectives. This can, but doesn’t always, include ratings, and other key performance measures. This ensures all teams are working together to deliver the best outcomes for Australian audiences.”
Freelancers’ fortunes
Speaking of contracts, some Fairfax Media columnists have received new contracts to sign which haven’t pleased them one bit. If you are a contributor you have to agree not to write for a long list of publications, deemed by Fairfax to be direct competition. This makes it hard for freelancers who rely on more than one media company to make a living.
But there is another clause which surprised them even more. If you fail to meet a deadline you will be financially penalised. Journalists are notorious for not meeting deadlines, so that one will be interesting.
Pryor v Latham
Late last year the Australian Financial Review published an extraordinary attack by Mark Latham on journalist Lisa Pryor and she has been trying to get an apology for the hurtful article and a resolution ever since.
This week she announced on Twitter she had failed to reach a resolution and was suing the former Labor leader and the Fin for the article.
Pryor had written in the Sydney Morning Herald about the difficulties of juggling motherhood while studying to be a doctor. “Though it may not win me admiration and a sponsored lifestyle blog, a little bit of neurochemical assistance helps me actually enjoy the glorious disaster of raising two small children while studying medicine full time.”
Latham was outraged at her admission and said she must have a psychoneurotic disorder. “This is why people in the suburbs, especially women, distrust the likes of Pryor,” the former Labor leader wrote. “Their political agenda is seen as unrepresentative and self-serving. At a personal level, it’s also cowardly: popping pills as an easy way out, instead of facing up to the responsibilities of adulthood.”
Friday night’s plight
It looks like plans for a special entertainment-based Friday night edition of 7.30 to replace the eight local editions of the program have been shelved.
Remember how a light-hearted The Project-style show was being considered as a replacement for the ABC’s state-based shows? Well, since executive producer Sally Neighbour left to take over Four Corners and new EP Jo Puccini was appointed, the idea appears to have been dropped.
Fridays are usually hosted by Steve Cannane and are the same as the rest of the week in content. Perhaps management was put off by the idea of mixing news with nature by the disastrous Putin “shirtfront” sketch commissioned by Neighbour to give the show a younger edge last year.
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