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Crikey •

A star One Nation candidate said he was a criminal lawyer. There's no record of that

A key One Nation candidate in Victoria claims on campaign material and in multiple interviews to be a former criminal lawyer.


But when Crikey received a tip-off that, in fact, Mark Nicholson had never been formally admitted as a lawyer, a required step under Australian law to be able to call yourself a lawyer, we went digging in the complex maze of the Australian legal admission system.Nicholson, the party’s upper house candidate for the Northern Metropolitan region, uses his experience as a...
Crikey •

Firing, hiring, eating up youth culture: What is Vinyl Group up to?

When the rumours first began swirling earlier this year that Nine was considering selling Pedestrian — one of Australia’s homegrown youth media success stories — the immediate question in journalists’ group chats was “Who the hell would buy this?”


Only one company was consistently named: Vinyl Group. And for good reason. Over the past two and a half years, Vinyl has been slowly buying Australian digital media outlets, including Rolling Stone Australia, Concrete Playground and Time Out Austral...
Crikey •

Keeping it in the family: Australia’s modern media dynasties

The adage that it’s not what you know but who you know is rarely truer than in the Australian media sector. 


There are all sorts of ways to get into the industry, whether it be the likes of political reporter Thomas Henry parlaying a News Corp cadetship into a permanent role under his parents at The Australian, or Luca Lavigne becoming, at 28, the male CEO of a women’s media group founded by his mother.

The adage that it’s not what you know but who you know is rarely truer than in the Austra...
Crikey •

Seven to use AI to write news articles following mass redundancy fallout

Seven staff will use a new AI tool to write online news articles based off the broadcaster’s TV scripts, with bosses telling journalists they “need to start using it” and the system already being rolled out in its Sydney and Melbourne offices.


The move has sparked concern from staff who spoke to Crikey, with the broadcaster still reeling from a mass round of redundancies that has seen several high-profile journalists leave in recent weeks.The new AI tool in question has been dubbed “Clippy” (...
Crikey •

'Deeply disrespectful': 1,049 days after Peta Murphy's report on gambling reform, the Albanese government has responded

While the country’s political journalists were under lock and key at the budget lock-up all yesterday afternoon, the Albanese government formally responded to the 2023 You Win Some, You Lose More report into online gambling harms. 


Much has already been made of the prolonged timeline on which the Albanese government has been dragged, kicking and screaming, to any reforms in this sector — but it’s worth pressing the point again. What is known as the Murphy report, courtesy of being chaired by...
Crikey •

Talking points on US-Israel strikes on Iran prepared for Albanese and Wong reveal fears over legality questions

Talking points prepared for government ministers in response to airstrikes conducted by the United States and Israel on Iran reveal initial concern that questions would be raised over the legality of the strikes. 


Documents obtained by Crikey through freedom of information (FOI) mechanisms show how government ministers, including Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, were prepared by DFAT to face possible questions on the legality of the strikes by the Unite...
Crikey •

Dodging accountability on gambling reform is a government tradition

The Labor government’s long-awaited gambling advertising reforms have been widely criticised, be it for the fact they propose a partial ban when the government’s own reports say partial bans don’t work, the lack of a national regulator or simply the belated timing.


It has been well over 1,000 days since the government was first given the findings of the 2023 “You win some, you lose more” report, chaired by late Labor MP Peta Murphy. Now, the government’s proposed reforms would still not take...
Crikey •

2SER's chances of survival dim as major university rules out stepping in

2SER’s hopes of survival have taken a hit as one of the few potential replacement university partners has ruled out supplying the lost funding needed to run the beloved Sydney community radio station.


Nine first reported this week that 2SER could close as early as July after it failed to find another funder for the station, which has served as a training ground for countless Australian media and political figures over its near 50-years of operation.In October, one of 2SER’s two university bac...
Crikey •

Nine outlines AI 'vision' as it tells journalists to increase AI use

Nine editorial staff, including newspaper journalists at its flagship publications The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, have been told to increase their use of AI “to improve efficiency” in an all-staff meeting.


Managing director of publishing Tory Maguire told staff on April 8 that the company’s board expected everyone at Nine to be using AI, that Nine’s publishing division was underperforming in its utilisation of the technology, and that management would be monitoring staff usage of AI....
Crikey •

'Really disappointed', 'betrayal', 'bare minimum': The reaction to Albanese’s long-awaited gambling advertising reforms

Late last week the government announced long-awaited gambling advertising reforms, with the prime minister using an address to the National Press Club on Thursday to announce a suite of changes centred around a partial television advertising ban, aiming to be implemented from 2027. The announcement comes more than 1,000 days after the release of the government’s “You win some, you lose more” report, chaired by late Labor MP Peta Murphy, which recommended a complete phased ban on gambling adverti...
Crikey •

News Corp mastheads’ public spat over sexual abuse survivor’s story as one outlet campaigns against the other

This article contains descriptions of sexual assault and abuse of minors.


While the Murdoch family at the helm of News Corporation may not always be united, from a business perspective, the “firm” is usually ruthlessly loyal to its own entities and business affiliations. Many a former (and current) News Corp scribe has a story to tell about their plans being turned on their head because of the personal sensibilities of executives at a different masthead that have been thrashed out on the fif...
Crikey •

'Just not acceptable': On the ground at ABC staff's first strike in 20 years

ABC staff have walked off the job for the first time in two decades, striking over an unresolved pay dispute that threatens to drag on without resolution beyond the scheduled 24-hour period. 


Flagship programs like 7:30 did not air overnight, as some of the ABC’s highest-profile staff committed to putting down their tools until 11am, March 26. While national news headlines were read out on the radio by the likes of Sabra Lane (who stepped away from her full-time AM presenter role in December)...
Crikey •

Val Morgan staff learned of Vinyl Group acquisition from media reports

The staff of Val Morgan Digital learned of their $10.5 million acquisition by Vinyl Group from media reports in The Australian Financial Review, Crikey can reveal. 


News of the sale, from cinema giant Hoyts to the Richard White-backed Vinyl Group, was broken by the Financial Review’s Street Talk column on the afternoon of March 1, and was reported to be split across $7 million in cash and the remainder in shares. News of the acquisition was announced on the ASX at 8.18am

The staff of Val Mor...
Crikey •

'Damn lies': Meta and TikTok grilled at Senate misinformation committee

Meta and TikTok executives have fronted the Senate committee on climate misinformation in Canberra this week, where they defended their companies’ processes for handling misinformation against a barrage of criticism from senators across political lines. 


The committee also heard from National Party-linked think tank Page Research Centre, Dr Karl Kruszelnicki, and Human Rights commissioner Lorraine Finlay over the course of two days of hearings. For Meta, the company’s vice president of APAC p...
Crikey •

Foxtel schmoozes politicians in Parliament House and rails against anti-siphoning laws

During a busy week in Canberra — between the Liberal leadership spill, visits by heads of state, and Senate estimates — Foxtel put on one of the all-time great schmoozing efforts.


The TV giant, now owned by DAZN, booked out Parliament House’s Mural Hall for what it dubbed the 2026 Parliamentary Showcase, bringing with it an all-star cast of former athletes, executives and commentators to hang out with politicians, “highlight their contribution to Australian sport and screen”, and ask very nic...
Crikey •

Islamophobia monitor lodges complaint over Karl Stefanovic’s Muslim 'baiting' comments

The Islamophobia Register has lodged a formal complaint about comments made by Karl Stefanovic during an interview segment in which the Today host suggested praying Muslims who were dragged away by police in the street on Monday night may have been “baiting” police. 


NSW Premier Chris Minns fronted Nine’s flagship morning show on Tuesday morning after police turned on protesters in Sydney at a rally against the visit of Israeli President Isaac Herzog, and was asked by Stefanovic about scenes...
Crikey •

ABC secures television and radio rights for the VFL

In a move that will delight old-school football fans, the ABC has secured television and radio broadcast rights for the Victorian Football League for the first time since 2014, Crikey understands.


Top-flight sport on the national broadcaster has been an increasingly rare treat since the professionalisation of most major sporting codes in the late twentieth century, and its football coverage in particular has been confined to the state leagues for almost 40 years.The last time the ABC had righ...
Crikey •

A view from the ground: As police argued with MPs, Sydney's protest against Isaac Herzog descended into chaos

The Sydney protest for the official visit of Israeli President Isaac Herzog began quietly in Town Hall Square, a relative blank canvas of public space nestled between Sydney’s Town Hall itself and St Andrew’s Cathedral.


I arrive at 4:30pm, a full hour before the scheduled protest is set to begin. Herzog arrived early in the morning, greeted by Israeli ambassador Amir Maimon. The protest against his visit coincides with a legal appeal, held at the NSW Supreme Court across town, against the sta...
Crikey •

Leaked email shows SBS managing director asking own staff to suggest cost-saving ideas

SBS staff have been asked to suggest cuts to their own workforce to save money, as negotiations between bosses and workers over enterprise bargaining agreements remain in a deadlock.


In an email sent to staff, obtained by Crikey, SBS’ managing director Jane Palfreyman asked staff to put forward ideas to improve the broadcaster’s finances and better improve their own chances of a pay rise, explaining she wanted to be “upfront about the constraints we are working with”. “There is no additional...
Crikey •

Jacinda Ardern quits Adelaide Festival's Writers' Week in wake of growing boycott

Jacinda Ardern has withdrawn from the 2026 Adelaide Writers’ Week, joining the majority of the slated speakers who are boycotting the Adelaide Festival over the cancellation of Palestinian-Australian author Randa Abdel-Fattah. The boycott now encompasses around 90 scheduled participants, approximately 75% of the original programme.


The former New Zealand prime minister was set to be interviewed by the ABC’s Sarah Ferguson in a “conversation about women and power” at Bonython Hall on March 3 i...
Crikey •

Australian media’s movers and shakers on the best journalism of the year, and savviest industry move

This is the third 2025 instalment of an annual Crikey series, Movers and Shakers.



Please note that the 2025 Movers and Shakers survey was sent out and responses received before the horrific events of December 14 on Bondi Beach.This year in Australian media, we grappled with a federal election and who was allowed to tell political stories, grim scandals were manufactured, sales and mergers came and went, and Nick McKenzie continued doing Nick McKenzie things.

This is the third 2025 instalmen...
Crikey •

Australian media’s movers and shakers on what big yarns were missed, and what was way overdone

This is the second 2025 instalment of an annual Crikey series, Movers and Shakers.



Please note that the 2025 Movers and Shakers survey was sent out and responses received before the horrific events of December 14 on Bondi Beach.This year in Australian media, we grappled with a federal election and who was allowed to tell political stories, grim scandals were manufactured, sales and mergers came and went, and Nick McKenzie continued doing Nick McKenzie things.

This is the second 2025 instalm...
Crikey •

Australian media figures on AI, and which journos are the up-and-coming ones to watch

This is the first 2025 instalment of an annual Crikey series, Movers and Shakers.



Please note that the 2025 Movers and Shakers survey was sent out and responses received before the horrific events of December 14 on Bondi Beach.This year in Australian media, we grappled with a federal election and who was allowed to tell political stories, grim scandals were manufactured, sales and mergers came and went, and Nick McKenzie continued doing Nick McKenzie things.

This is the first 2025 instalmen...
Crikey •

How the false story of a second Bondi shooting spread via Channel 7 and social media

Amid the chaos of the antisemitic attack at Bondi Beach on Sunday night that saw 15 people killed by two gunmen, locals in Dover Heights were panicked by the unconfirmed report of a second shooting in the area. The claim started on social media and from rumours from people on the ground, with Channel Seven quickly repeating it while stressing it was unconfirmed.


At 6:47pm, the first reports of gunshots and casualties in Bondi were reported to emergency services, and Sydney scrambled to learn...
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