This was published 5 years ago
Opinion
Five things we learned from Australian media in 2018
John McDuling
National Business EditorFrom explosive, leaked emails, to the fall of the digital giants, there are plenty of lessons to be learned from the stories that dominated the media industry in 2018.
Here are five of the best of them:
Former ABC chair Justin Milne and MD Michelle Guthrie, who fell out spectacularly over email.Credit: Steven Siewert
Lesson one: emails are the gift that keeps on giving
Former Cricket Australia chairman, David Peever’s, leaked email to CBS executive, Armando Nuñez, admonishing Network Ten (which CBS owns) for its “appalling tactics” and for being “bottom feeders in this market” was a real jaw dropper.
Seven West Media commercial director Bruce McWilliam's missives to other senior executives at the network ("Harold swears we r [sic] safe") cited by the corporate regulator in its court action against ad-buyer Harold Mitchell also set tongues wagging.
But Justin Milne's "get rid of her" ABC emails were on another level entirely. To borrow from an internet meme, this was truly hold my beer (or in his case, glass of red wine) stuff.
The surfacing of the former ABC chair's emails about presenter Emma Alberici set off one of the biggest media scandals in years. It flipped the narrative of the sudden sacking of former managing director Michelle Guthrie on its head. It forced Milne to resign from the ABC, raised widespread concerns about political interference at the public broadcaster and sparked a government enquiry. Emails can come back to haunt you, people.
Lesson two: respect the law, even if you disagree with it
Arguably the biggest global media story to emanate from Australia this year was...not a story at all. At least inside this country, due to a suppression order preventing media outlets from reporting it.
Since then, the concept of the suppression order, less common overseas, has itself has become a story. Many global media outlets have questioned whether the legal manoeuvre is relevant and workable in the digital era.
There's an argument that this country's laws are, weirdly, hostile to journalism. Australia continues to be out of step with its Western democratic peers when it comes to defamation. Sydney in particular is regarded as a global capital for libel lawsuits.
Geoffrey Rush leaves the Supreme Court.Credit: Nick Moir
Of those have been some absolute doozies this year - with Oscar winning actor Geoffrey Rush’s case against The Daily Telegraph the most high profile of them.
Last week, politics was dominated by the debate over a Federal ICAC-style anti-corruption body. Less discussed were reforms to defamation laws, which could achieve similar aims.
Such reforms would make it easier for journalists and media publications to expose more malfeasance in the political and corporate worlds, without the fear of being slapped with expensive, resource draining legal action.
Antony Catalano made a last minute bid to scupper the Fairfax deal. Credit: Jesse Marlow
Lesson three: relevance deprivation syndrome isn’t limited to politics
The sad spectacle of former prime ministers unable to come to terms with no longer being in the spotlight was again on display this year.
But the media world itself was not immune from this affliction. Consider Antony Catalano, the former Domain CEO, and his eleventh hour, fifty ninth second of the fifty-ninth minute plan to try and scupper Fairfax Media’s merger with Nine Entertainment Co.
It was a massive longshot, and achieved very little, besides putting 'The Cat' back in the news for a little while.
Lesson four: government reviews are not always a waste of time
It’s never ideal when a government review suggests another review. Or when a regulator suggests creating another regulator. Australia’s competition watchdog did both of those things last week, but it can be excused this time.
It's hard to understate the significance of last week's interim report into digital platforms by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission. Media outlets have been complaining for years about the stranglehold Google and Facebook have over the digital advertising market (and a doff of the cap to Rupert Murdoch's News Corp for leading the charge on this front).
At times, these complaints have had a sour grapes vibe to them.
But, following an exhaustive, year long inquiry, the sober economists and lawyers at the ACCC found that Google and Facebook do in fact have substantial market power. And in exercising it, they are having an adverse impact on traditional media, which delivers a public good.
That alone was groundbreaking, let alone the regulator's suggested measures for how to fix the problem, which are certain to be heavily debated in the first half of next year.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg testifying before a US Senate inquiry in Washington in April. Credit: AP
Lesson five: what is old, is new again
The mogul era in Australian media may well be over. And the reign of the radio shock jock may be drawing to a close. But there has been a distinct back-to-the-future vibe to the media industry this year.
Print advertising and outdoor advertising both experienced a revival. In the US, Time Magazine's Person of the Year was a group of journalists. Meanwhile, the global corporate villain of the year, if such an award existed, would probably be Facebook and its CEO Mark Zuckerberg (who, it turns out, is also loose on email).
In the age of Trump, fake news and digital distraction, the pendulum has slowly swung back to traditional media, and trusted forms of advertising.
The question for 2019 and beyond is, how long will it last?