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About

Roundup: AFR editor Michael Stutchbury steps down, Google keeping cookies, Brittany Higgins ‘forced to sell’ home

Kamala Harris fires up Hollywood brokers, Reddit deals, Abercrombie and Hollister, Harris memes explained, Joe Biden reactions, Andy Lee, TV and Presidential race, Barbie and Hollywood.

By Mediaweek AdminPublished Jul 23, 2024
7 min read
AFR Michael Stutchbury

Business of Media

AFR editor Michael Stutchbury to step down with James Chessell to take on top job

Nine Entertainment’s business publication The Australian Financial Review is set for a shake up after editor-in-chief Michael Stutchbury announced he would step down from his role after 13 years, reports News Corp's Sophie Elsworth.

Stutchbury, the longest-serving AFR editor or editor-in-chief in the paper’s seven decade history, informed staff on Monday about his plan to depart the role.

He will remain at the paper as editor-at-large in 2025.

The changes also come as Nine faces potential industrial action by staff this week after failing to strike a new enterprise bargaining agreement and recently announcing up to 200 job losses at the company.

Mediaweek
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Brittany Higgins ‘forced to sell’ French home to defend defamation case brought by Linda Reynolds

Brittany Higgins says she has been forced to sell her new home in France to defend a defamation action brought by Liberal senator Linda Reynolds which has already cost her more than $1m in legal fees, reports The Guardian's Amanda Meade.

The former defence minister is suing Higgins in the Western Australian supreme court for damages over a series of social media posts she says damaged her reputation.

Despite an apology from Higgins earlier this year, mediation has failed and Reynolds, Higgins’ former boss, is taking the case to trial.

[Read More]

Google Is keeping cookies in chrome after all

In a major reversal, Google is ending a plan to eliminate cookies in its Chrome browser after four years of efforts, delays and disagreements with the advertising industry, reports The Wall Street Journal's Patience Haggin.

The decision to keep the pervasive tracking technology known as “cookies” in Chrome comes after a series of setbacks, as both digital-advertising companies and regulators objected to the plan and to Google’s proposed replacement technologies.

Chrome users can already choose to block cookies in the browser’s settings. Now, instead of eliminating them, Google will present users with a prompt to decide whether to turn cookies on or off, said the UK privacy regulator, which has been overseeing Google’s plan to block cookies.

[Read More]

Kamala Harris fires up Hollywood’s power brokers

It’s hidden behind a fortress of foliage, so it’s hard to say what exactly it looks like. The other houses in this verdant patch of Brentwood, about a mile north of Sunset, vary in architectural styles from terra-cotta-topped Mediterranean casas to multimillion-dollar midcentury clapboards. But try to zero in on this gated, 35,000-square-foot, four-bedroom home by using Google Maps Street View, and all you’ll see is a blurry splotch. The property has been digitally obscured, by request, for privacy, reports The Hollywood Reporter's Benjamin Svetskey.

This is where Kamala Harris lives, at least when she isn’t camped out at the vice president’s residence at the Naval Observatory in Washington, D.C., about a 10-minute drive to the White House, potentially Harris’ next domicile.

[Read More]

Reddit strikes deals with sports leagues to attract more ad dollars

Reddit is bringing more sports content to its platform through deals with leagues, including the National Basketball Association and the National Football League, in a bid to attract more ad dollars, sending its shares up 4%, reports Reuters.

The deals – which also cover the Major League Baseball, the PGA Tour and National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing – could help Reddit capitalize on the loyal audience and star power sports commands to boost its revenue, the social media platform said in a blog post on Monday.

Reddit users will be able to access video highlights from games and tournaments, behind-the-scenes videos, its popular "Ask Me Anything" format and other content posted by the leagues.

[Read More]

 

Abercrombie won by leaving teens behind. Sibling brand Hollister is taking the opposite approach.

Abercrombie & Fitch Co. wowed Wall Street when it turned around its namesake brand, partly by shifting its focus from teenagers to adult women. Now the company will find out if it can give a similar boost to its Hollister brand as it sticks with high-schoolers, reports The Wall Street Journal's Katie Deighton.

Hollister for many years eclipsed the Abercrombie chain in revenue, but saw sales fall during Covid-19 in 2020 and again, postpandemic, in 2022. Abercrombie, meanwhile, has notched three consecutive years of sales growth, surpassing the Hollister chain last year for the first time since 2010. 

Hollister is tweaking its edges rather than its core to make itself more relevant to the notoriously mercurial teenage shopper, according to Carey Collins Krug, Abercrombie & Fitch’s chief marketing officer. 

[Read More]

Social Media

The Kamala Harris Memes, explained: From falling out of a coconut tree to Charli XCX’s ‘Brat’ branding

Kamala Harris is having a brat summer, reports The Hollywood Reporter's Chris Gardner.

President Joe Biden ended his re-election campaign on Sunday with a bombshell announcement made, as he said, “in the best interest of my party and the country.” Shortly after, Biden offered his “full support and endorsement” for Vice President Harris to be the Democratic nominee this year. In return, Harris sent out a statement of her own thanking Biden for “extraordinary leadership” as president and for his decades of service to the U.S., while also accepting his endorsement with an “intention to earn and win this nomination.”

The exchange set off a wave of endorsements across Capitol Hill and beyond. Hollywood added to the chorus, and the coffers filled with cash. Then came another green light, this one from a British pop star with a stranglehold on the cultural zeitgeist. “Kamala IS brat,” posted 31-year-old Charli XCX on the social media platform X.

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Mark Hamill, Kathy Griffin, Julia Louis-Dreyfus and more Hollywood reactions to President Biden’s decision to drop out

President Biden’s decision to step down from the 2024 presidential campaign has elicited a wave of support from Hollywood. Familiar faces from Biden’s campaign trail resurfaced to show their agreement with the President’s decision and reinforce their support of the Democratic party, reports The Brag's Meredith Woerner.

Many were exceedingly vocal about their desire for him to step aside and let a younger candidate take over, including the host of “Pod Save America,” Jon Favreau, who recently called out Biden’s decision to white-knuckle it through the campaign with Jon Stewart. 

After Biden made his announcement, former Obama speechwriter Favreau posted that the act was “courageous and selfless.”

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Television

One night of TV canceled a president

As soon as TV sets landed in American living rooms, media critics worried that television would dominate politics, and the medium wasted no time proving them right. Richard M. Nixon lost in 1960 to the glamorous John F. Kennedy after a shaky, sweaty debate that played better for him on the radio. After Ronald Reagan zingered his way to a second term in 1984, Neil Postman wrote that in the TV era, “debates were conceived as boxing matches.”, reports The New York Time's James Poniewozik.

But not until now had a president KO’ed himself in one round.

On Sunday, President Biden announced his withdrawal from the 2024 campaign, ending an astounding disintegration that began with Biden’s discombobulated debate against Donald J. Trump late in June. 

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Gold Logie nominee 2024: Andy Lee

Nine’s Andy Lee, host of The Hundred has his fourth nomination for the TV Week Gold Logie, reports TV Tonight's David Knox.

How does it feel to be a Gold Logie nominee for 2024?
AL: Deja vu. I think I’m up against Asher Keddie again, who beat me last time, I feel like St Kilda Football Club. I can get to the finals, but I never win anything.

What’s been the highlight of your TV work over the past year?
AL: Definitely, The Hundred. I just love doing the show. It’s so much fun having all my mates come on, different comedians and personalities, and then the fact that I get to hang out with 100 everyday Australians every time we do the show. It’s really special.

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Entertainment

‘Barbie’ was supposed to change Hollywood for women. Why didn’t it?

When Barbie was released in 2023, it quickly became a phenomenon. It was the top box office film of the year, earning $1.4 billion worldwide, and it became Warner Bros.’s highest-grossing film ever, outpacing both Dark Knight movies, “Wonder Woman” and every chapter in the Harry Potter franchise, reports The New York Times' Nicole Sperling.

It was a DayGlo-pink rebuttal to decades of conventional Hollywood thinking, and its success seemed to herald a new paradigm for the film industry. Movies written and directed by women and focused on female protagonists could attract enormous audiences to multiplexes around the world.

Yet in the 12 months since the movie’s release, little has changed in Hollywood. Buffeted by dual labor strikes that went on for months and a general retrenchment by entertainment companies trying to navigate the economics of the streaming era, the industry has retreated to its usual ways of doing business.

[Read More]

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Top Image: Michael Stutchbury

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