Welcome to the Mumbrellacast, the only podcast to win the Pulitzer, the Nobel Peace Prize, and a bronze Logie. This week, Nine has lost two of its biggest decision-makers in the space of 12-or-so hours. On Thursday morning, Nine's TV boss Amanda Laing, who headed up Nine's recently integrated television, streaming television, and streaming subscription television division (TV boss, in other words) was made redundant, with CEO Matt Stanton choosing not to fill the role and instead moonlight as the division's kinda-maybe-boss-for-now-yeah?, helping out and maintaining "business as usual" at Nine, to quote his official statement on the matter. This news dropped the morning after AFR's editor-in-chief James Chessell quit to join his former charge Joe Aston's Rampart publication, seemingly without invoking a non-compete, a notice period, or the ghost of Graham Kennedy. What's going on at Nine? We ask and attempt to answer this question. Also, we hear from comedian and rabble-rouser Dan Illic, who was this week appointed CEO of activist group Get Up. If the name of that organisation sounds a faint bell in the recesses of your memory, it may be because they were recently responsible for a fun stunt, where they unfurled a banner (via remote control) behind Pauline Hanson that said “I opposed a pay rise for workers”. With Illic at the helm, can we expect more shenanigans from the Get Up organisation? During a keynote at the Meta Connect conference hosted in San Francisco (just hours before the podcast recording, 'cos we keep things fresh) Mark Zuckerberg unveiled the Meta Muse Charm, a new gadget that looks like a Tamagotchi but stings like an AI agent. It's basically a way to use Meta's smart-glasses without having to wear what have widely been dubbed "pervert glasses" (or other, more offensive variations on the theme). We also attended the Media Federation of Australia's conference in Sydney -- also a few hours before the podcast record -- which saw industry leaders warn media agencies that they will need to think carefully about which AI tools they use, as the technology increasingly becomes out of financial reach. There is also the problem of agencies pitching with unrealistic budgets in order to win clients. As Aimee Buchanan, CEO of WPP Media ANZ, warned: "I think when we undercut each other, we're eroding not only our own individual contribution, but we're eroding the industry, and there's way too much of that happening.” Happy listening! Get the latest episodes here. Podcast edit by Abe’s Audio. For more about how News Australia is thinking about the future of mobile news in Australia, click here.
