The line between editorial and advertising is increasingly blurred at Fairfax. This week a news story in the popular Good Food section was not marked sponsored content but, on closer inspection, looked more like an ad than a genuine news story.
“‘Fast-casual’ the next dining trend of 2017” quoted a major Fairfax advertiser, the Urban Purveyor Group’s chief executive, Thomas Pash, at length about how the multinational was about to open “hundreds of fast-casual venues over the next two years” to add to its extensive line-up of eateries including Fratelli Fresh, “glam sushi emporium Sake” and the Bavarian Bier Cafe.
It was written by freelancer Franki Hobson, who declares on her website that she writes branded content for Urban Purveyor Group for Good Food among other clients including SMEG and ING Direct, and Fairfax.
The story carried a disclosure: “This story was written with the assistance of UPG.” So we asked the Sydney Morning Herald’s editor-in-chief, Darren Goodsir, to clarify if it was branded content.
“The story is not paid content or it would have been labelled as such; but for this story the journalist included industry insights provided by UPG and the disclosure acknowledges that,” a spokesman told Weekly Beast.
When we pointed out that journalists included industry insights as a matter of course, he added: “UPG is an advertiser with Fairfax. This story was not paid content but, given our relationship with UPG, the disclosure was added to be extra clear with our readers about the insights they provided. Despite this, we accept if we could have been clearer, we should have.”
Gray lady hits the town
The SMH can only hope that the visiting executives from the New York Times were unaware of the slip-up when they were in town discussing a possible joint venture with Fairfax. Following the establishment of an $US50m international division, NYT Global, in April, the NYT recently confirmed plans to expand to Canada and Australia, causing great excitement down under.
Weekly Beast hears that last week a posse made up of two senior editors and a user-experience executive were in Sydney talking with local media players about setting up a local office and how it might work with an Australian partner. One potential plan discussed by the senior vice-president of NYT Global, Paul Walborsky, and his deputy editorial director, Dan Wakin, while in town was teaming up with Sydney Morning Herald and Age journalists on joint investigations. Walborsky and Wakin were keen to know how Australian audiences might respond to a shared investigative project with the Australian publisher and whether such a project would drive subscriptions.
Scott’s first day of term
The former ABC managing director Mark Scott started his new non-media job on Thursday with a characteristic post on social media inviting people to follow his new career via Facebook and Twitter.
“When I first started at the ABC, I had never spent any time in broadcasting but was lucky to learn so much by working closely with staff and drawing from their experience and insights,” Scott wrote in his first update as secretary of the New South Wales education department. “They had all the great ideas. I hope to have the same opportunity here at the department. I am so looking forward to learning more about early childhood education and Aboriginal affairs and visiting schools to see firsthand how to best support teachers and principals to enable them to do their best. You can see some of the things I am thinking about on Facebook (@mark.scottfeedback) and Twitter (@mscott).”
Don’t follow leaders
Crikey is making a change to its daily Crikey Insider email that has been a regular feature since it was launched by Stephen Mayne in 2000. On Friday Crikey, now edited by Cassidy Knowlton, will publish its last ever daily editorial. Knowlton says it is an outdated newspaper concept and is best used sparingly when Crikey actually has something to say.
Twice high
The West Australian’s federal political editor Andrew Probyn has won the Federal Parliamentary Press Gallery journalist of the year award for the second year in a row. Last year he shared the award, handed down by the the National Press Club in Canberra, with his colleague Nick Butterly. The 2016 award recognises the political impact of Probyn’s series of stories about the Turnbull government’s plans to privatise the payments system for Medicare. The original story in February revealed that planning was well underway to outsource government payments for Medicare, pharmaceutical and aged-care benefits. Labor successfully capitalised on the outsourcing story to run a wider campaign to warn of changes to Medicare under a Coalition government, leading to the term “Mediscare”.
ABC’s election landslide
The ABC has risen to the top of the Australian digital news websites for the first time with its biggest ever audience – of 6.5m Australians – for the month of July. The result, recorded by Nielsen, was a bad sign for smh.com.au, which, after enjoying a time on top of the pile, has now dropped to third spot behind archrival news.com.au and the ABC. The only other News Corp website to make it into the top 10 was heraldsun.com.au in 10th spot. The ABC is planning on staying on top too after having its biggest cross-platform audience ever for the federal election week – 9m visitors to web, app and mobile sites.
The ABC’s news director, Gaven Morris, has formed a leadership group to take the ABC’s digital coverage “to the next level”. The former chief digital officer for the investigative journalism nonprofit The Centre for Public Integrity, Kimberley Porteous, has joined the corporation in the newly created role of senior manager, future audience and content strategy. An Australian, Porteous was the multimedia editor for the SMH before moving to Washington with her partner, Gerard Ryle, who is director of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists.
