Features
Media Mayhem: Anthony De Ceglie – ‘There’s never been a better time to be a journalist’
These are interesting times, and the challenges faced by Australian marketing and media are frequently diabolical. There is always opportunity in crisis, but rarely a single solution that is easy to see. In this new weekly column, Mumbrella will interview industry leaders to understand their insights and learn how they handle the challenges and structure for the future. We kick off this new series with the director of news and current affairs and editor-in-chief at Seven West Media, Anthony De Ceglie.
How is the operating environment impacting your team, clients and partners?
I think it’s an it’s an interesting period in media, obviously, with everything that’s going on in things like AI and Social Media, but I also think there’s like a lot of opportunities for us at the moment. I think, at the end of the day, the opportunity in particular for someone like Seven is to just reassert ourselves.
We are the biggest media company in the country. We have a mass media audience and I think sometimes it’s just about reminding everyone of that.
What changes are you seeing in consumer behaviour and preferences?
The number one change is obviously that they’re just not getting their news from one medium, right?
So they might be getting it from the 6 p.m. bulletin and Sunrise, or they might be getting it from 7NEWS.com.au or they might be getting it from YouTube or 7Plus. So the challenge for us – but also, again, it’s an opportunity – is to ensure we are delivering our news to all the different places where eyeballs are.
But it’s a really good opportunity because we’re very good at doing video and very good at doing journalism and it’s pretty easy to chop it up and send it to different places.
How are you using technology to your advantage?
We like to think that we are in all the spaces, all the time. We’re trying to be as innovative as possible. We’re really proud of how innovative we’ve been in particular the last couple of months in spaces where we haven’t traditionally played.
How are you using generative artificial intelligence?
It’s a good question. There are some really good examples. So my take on AI is that it’s a really interesting way to be more efficient. I don’t think AI is ever going to take away the most important aspect of our craft, which is knocking on doors and asking questions.
But what it can do is make our lives a bit easier. And so, whether that’s transcription services like Otter, or I always use the example of at the West Australian, we implemented an AI tool called Sophie to help us decide what stories to lock and what stories to unlock for the paywall.
And so AI tools like that, what they do is they just free up part of your life to do the most important part of the job, which is journalism.
When you lift your eyes from the screen to the media and marketing horizon, how are you planning?
I think the main thing for me is just always thinking about where audiences are going digitally. I think we all know that they are moving into digital spaces. The speed at which they move is fascinating. There’s still a huge, huge audience on linear broadcast TV, but the audience for 7Plus is growing every day, right?
The audiences on YouTube are growing every day. The audiences on 7NEWS.com.au are almost exponential. So it’s just about always ensuring that we’re watching where eyeballs are going and that we’re meeting where they most want to be found.
What proposals for legislative change would you prioritise?
Obviously there’s the media, the media bargaining code, which I think is really important. I think anyone who thinks that people don’t go to Facebook for news, which I think we all know is wrong.
So I think that’s fascinating. The other thing I would say is, you know, getting out of, I mean, this talk at the moment about banning gambling advertising. I think it’s always a little bit dangerous when you start using the term ‘ban’ in a free market. But then, on the flip side, I think anti-siphoning is super important, too.
I don’t think anyone wants to wake up in a world where Australians have to pay to watch sports. We just had the Olympics. We’re a very, very proud sporting country and there’s a real possibility that five-ten years from now that Australians will have to pay to watch Aussie rules.
What opportunities do you see, and how are you positioning your organisation to exploit them?
I’ll be honest with you. I see opportunities everywhere. I always say to people there’s never been a better time to be a journalist. It’s never been easier to tell stories.
You’re not just a print journalist; you’re a print journalist, plus a video journalist, plus an audio journalist. You can communicate directly to your audiences, you can build fan bases. If a document gets leaked off the back of a truck, suddenly you can put the entire document online and people can read it in a searchable fashion.
So I think, realistically, we’re storytellers at heart and there’s never been a better time to be a storyteller. The only thing holding you back is your imagination, right? So for me, it’s never been a more exciting time to do the craft of journalism.
De Ceglie will join this Friday’s episode of Mumbrella’s one-on-one podcast.
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Neil Griffiths is the Managing Editor of Mumbrella. He joined the company in October 2023.
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That was a very glossy take on many situations at Seven…
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This is pure spin…
…and I work in PR.
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“We are the biggest media company in the country”, or “we are the biggest company that also owns media in the country”
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Well said Tabloid Tony. If you read your own horoscope on tonights news, you would be well in front of what is going to happen tomorrow.
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Loving these parody pieces!
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I do think there is genuinely a place for journalists in the world. Unfortunately, the word has been corrupted by ‘activists’ pretending to be such and PR hacks who write about meaningless things
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Good to get insights from a mover shaking up a staid format
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Some might say that the truth goes to a place like 7 West to die?
It is exciting times for journalism: there is a very real and probable move to independent journalists, who are not influenced by billionaires, who unite and create a very powerful co-op of sorts and hold the old media baron’s and their mega wealthy tax avoiding enablers to account. For our democracy, it would be a great thing.
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