Helen McCabe: ‘Audiences are alive to the sanitised, talent-approved version of events’
Journalism’s adversarial approach to content and journalist’s lack of respect or trust in each other is leading to a “crisis of trust” in the profession amongst audiences, according to Helen McCabe.
McCabe: ‘the proliferation of native advertising poses a threat.’
Presenting the annual Andrew Olle lecture in honour of the iconic ABC broadcaster Andrew Olle, the editor-in-chief of Australian Women’s Weekly also took aim at the “proliferation of native advertising”, warning that the audience had “lost interest in celebrity profiles”.
“The proliferation of native advertising – i.e. product placement – poses the same threats,” said McCabe.
Seriously?! McCabe says the Gillard cover “accidentally hit newsstands at the start of the 2010 election” . . . c’mon, “accidentally”?! And she wonders why the current crop of hacks that pass for “journalists” these days have zero credibility.
There was a time – about 30 years ago – when the AWW could put a cover photo on an issue just a few days before it went on sale. Now it takes about a month. More than enough time for an election to be called after the cover is well into production. Sorry chucky, but you have that one wrong. A book could be written about how the AWW stuffed it with square binding and other production changes. It could be called “Going Backwards into the future”.
C’mon, Lindsay, seriously?! So you’re going to completely ignore the fact that Australian federal elections are cyclic, and everyone has at least a general idea when the next one will be held, so the timing was right? So you’re going to completely ignore the fact that Gillard would have had the inside scoop on specifically when it would be called, and the timing of the cover shoot would have been negotiated Gillard’s people and the AWW for weeks (if not months) before the actual shoot, to achieve maximum benefit for both parties? Seriously?!
She is spot on.
Not only are audiences awake up to the tricks of ad placement, they also avoid ads by clicking, zapping or ignoring.
For instance who watches or listens to 5 minute ad breaks on TV or radio anymore?
A massive problem for the industry to deal with and it’s time to stop pretending audiences can be fooled.
Does Mumbrella employ subs? So many grammatical mistakes in this piece, it distracted from the content.
Hi ToWhom,
Thanks for the comment. We’re in the process of hiring at the moment – unfortunately posting on weekends can sometimes lead to things that wouldn’t ordinarily slipping through with a small team.
But thanks for flagging, it’s fixed up now.
Alex – editor, Mumbrella
chucky, it is more than reasonable to suggest Gillard would have a good idea when she would call an election, but it is totally unreasonable to suggest the editor of the AWW would have anything other than a general idea. Even when elections are cyclical there can be a difference of some months between when an election must be called by and when it is. I doubt anyone would seriously suggest the PM would tell the editor of one of the biggest magazines in the country when an election was to be called months before the GG had been asked to approve the date.
C’mon, Lindsay, seriously?! Could you possibly be more naive?!
As if the timing wasn’t deliberately prearranged between all parties involved! Especially considering all parties involved stood to gain from the arrangement.
No editor puts anything on the cover of a magazine unless they think the magazine will benefit from it. But that is vastly different from the editor and the prime minister conspiring months a head of when an election was to be called, to put the the PM on the cover. Especially when the election date is a very closely guarded secret. It would require about 20 people to be in on the secret. While it is possible McCabe would have been willing, it is hard to imagine any political party would risk such a venture for what would be very little gain. If that was not the case there would be magazines all over the country with photos of the PM coinsiding with election announcements at every election. Whats more it would have been far easier to do it 30 years ago than now.
Once again. C’mon, Lindsay, seriously?! Could you possibly be more naive?!
The whole thing was blatanty advertorial, yet you really don’t think that timing was also part of the plan?!
Sounds like a great speech, is there a YouTube link to it somewhere?
The shoot would have been organised well in advance (the scheduling and back and forward that happens with a shoot like that takes forever), but the editor can choose to run the shoot and story in the next issue or hold it for a month or so depending on the way the political wind is blowing. And as a well-connected journo, I’m sure Helen would have heard whispers about the election date in enough time to decide when it was best to publish.
Sorry chucky, I’ve been writing about magazine production needs and political reality. I’ve been on about political fantasias. Obviously two totally different things.
Yes, LM you have it right. But given it was a scoop and Gillard was PM, I bet McCabe put the story on the cover as fast as she could.