Best of the Week: ADMA intrigue; the Press Council farce; and podcast procrastination

[View web version]( BEST OF THE WEEK And another thing... One of the benefits of leaving the writing of Best of the Week until the last moment is being able to include stuff that happens on a Friday night. And one of the worst things about such procrastination is that it doesn’t half mess up the start to the weekend. So welcome to Best of the Week. Written at the last moment, as usual. Today’s soundtrack - and I know that it’s basically auditory onanism - The Mumbrellacast. More on that later. And I didn’t really notice this week’s trend til late in the day. It’s been a week of awkward departures. ADMA lost its new MD Ben Sharp after a fortnight. The Australian Press Council is about to lose its only Indigenous member Carla McGrath in farcical circumstances; and Seven West Media has said goodbye to the boss of its West Australian operation John Driscoll after just eight months. Sharp exit First then to Sharpie. It was a shock when AdRoll decided to scale back their local operation late last year, axing most of their team including Ben. So it seemed like a good move by ADMA, the Association for Data-Driven Marketing & Advertising, when they snapped him up as boss, replacing the hard-driving Jodie Sangster, who went to IBM. However, it also seemed like an unusual move, given his strengths in fast-moving startups rather than the stodgier world of industry associations. But it was still a surprise when he resigned a fortnight later. The truth is I don’t really know what happened. Nobody’s talking. But the word beginning to emerge from the wreckage is the board tried to persuade him to stay. Which suggests one of two things: there was a either a cultural, political or personnel issue he realised he wouldn’t be able to overcome, or a financial problem once he looked under the bonnet. Given the apparent strength of ADMA compared to many other industry bodies, I suspect it wasn’t the finances. Looking back, an announcement ADMA made last year that passed me by at the time is worth thinking about some more. Already a growing empire under Sangster (they took over the husk of AIMIA for instance), ADMA announced a restructure that saw it split into four separate associations under the new banner of the Australian Alliance for Data Leadership. Sangster stepped up from ADMA CEO to AADL CEO. A few months later, Steve Sinha joined as chief operating officer of AADL. And when Sangster departed, Sinha became acting CEO of AADL, while Sharpie was appointed to the arguably less senior title of managing director of ADMA. And then, [as quickly as he started, he was gone](. It’s a pattern we’ve previously seen at other industry bodies like the PR Institute of Australia, which had a management revolving door for a while. Ditto Publishers Australia. Most of the story will probably come out in time - it usually does. And it does raise once again the question of what purpose industry associations actually serve these days. It’s something Telstra Media has been asking. As my colleague Zoe Samios revealed this week, [Telstra has resigned its membership of the board of the Interactive Advertising Bureau](. That leaves a $150,000 hole in the association’s revenues, with other members also considering where they stand. In the IAB’s case, the organisation’s decision making is driven by its big-end-of-town members, who pay equally big membership fees for that board privilege. This is in contrast to IABs in some other parts of the world which have a lower membership price, open elections and arguably speak for a much broader base of the industry. Which is perhaps the real point of an industry body - to be the central organising point of the community it seeks to serve. It’s struck me recently there are a number of longer established industry bodies that if they did not already exist, would not have any need to do so. Their activities became more about the need to raise funds through awards and training to continue their own existence as an organisation, with serving their community an afterthought. I suspect we’re only part way into a correction that will see far fewer industry bodies at the end of the process. Press Council woes Speaking of industry body departures, we then come on to The Australian Press Council, which has got itself in a complete pickle over Carla McGrath. Late on Friday, the situation got worse again. For context, Mumbrella is a member of the APC. I strongly believe that there must be an independent press watchdog. If a reader has a complaint about Mumbrella and we can’t resolve it, they can get an independent hearing from the APC, which has the power to rule on whether we were in the right or wrong. In part we’re members of the APC because that seems like fair play. But just as much at stake is self interest. In my view it’s better for the press to be voluntarily regulated by a standards organisation like the APC than for there to be some form of government legislation to control the press. So the APC is better than the alternative. But of course, being funded by media owners - and disproportionately so by the big end of town; we pay a tiny amount compared to the likes of News Corp or Fairfax - creates a balancing act for the APC. It has to regulate the very people who fund it. Yet it also needs to maintain the confidence of the public and government by being credibly independent. That included last year’s appointment to the council of Carla McGrath, which quickly became a comedy of errors for the Press Council. It proudly announced in a press release last May McGrath was “the first Aboriginal or Torres Straits Islander person to join the Council”. She was joining for a three year period, the council said. From the start, it mentioned in the release that she had “a strong record of engagement in advocacy”, including with left-leaning activist organisation GetUp. The first cock-up was relatively minor. The next day came a correction. In fact, the APC had previously had at least two Indigenous members. And the shit was hitting the fan at News Corp. Association with the anti-News Corp GetUp meant that McGrath was conflicted. The Australian said it would boycott all adjudications involving McGrath. The APC stood its ground, with yet another press release, arguing “the sort of people that are likely to be appointed as Public Members will probably have been active in their professions and in their communities, so there is always the potential for a real or perceived conflict of interest to arise.” It revealed: “The issue was canvassed at length at the May meeting of Council. Following that discussion, the overwhelming majority of the Council Members was satisfied that any potential conflicts of interest could be successfully managed, and Ms McGrath's appointment was made.” And another the next day, with yet more clarification: “Following discussion at the May meeting of Council, the overwhelming majority of the Council Members were satisfied that Ms McGrath was eminently appointable and that any potential conflicts of interest would be successfully managed. The Press Council can confirm that after a full and frank discussion, the Council voted to appoint Ms McGrath by 14-1, with one abstention.” Three days later there was another clarification. It was actually 14-2. It got worse. A fortnight later the APC announced the resignation of its chair, David Weisbrot after just two years. It said: “Professor Weisbrot said the reason for leaving was ‘persistent personal attacks’ and a campaign of ‘misinformation’ over the Council's appointment of public member Carla McGrath, made after a "fair and open process" and a convincing vote by the full Council,” said the APC. A lot can change in a few months, particularly under new chair Neville Stevens. We learned yesterday afternoon [the APC has come around to News Corp’s point of view and now wants McGrath out - but she is declining to resign before her three years is up](. The APC said in yesterday’s statement: “As part of the new policy and procedures, the Council examined written declarations submitted by all Council members as to their affiliations and decided that Carla McGrath’s position as Deputy Chair of GetUp! is incompatible with her continued role as a public member of Council. In a resolution passed by Council, Ms McGrath was asked to resign. However, Ms McGrath said she did not believe her resignation was necessary.” Ouch. What a mess. It went on: “Council will now take the necessary steps to remove Ms McGrath as a public member of Council in accordance with the Constitution, a process which should be completed at the next Council meeting in August.” So the council’s only Indignenous member - who is accused of no wrongdoing, and who was transparent about her affiliations from the start - is going to be kicked out. I’m not proud of our Press Council membership today. Gone west By contrast to the above exits, [John Driscoll’s abrupt departure from running Seven West Media’s WA operation]( after just eight months looks relatively uncontroversial. It looks to me like SWM went out of its way to give Driscoll a generous exit, with its torturous but not entirely plausible, explanation that being asked to take on extra duties made him decide to leave altogether. I don’t completely buy the argument that you can take up a key role in Kerry Stokes’ empire, then quickly be asked by him to do more and quit as a result. I don’t think there’s a scandal by the way; I just think it didn’t work out. And I don’t think it will tarnish Driscoll’s reputation, which speaks for itself having previously built Marketforce into the powerhouse agency it became under him. Mumbrellacast I mentioned procrastination earlier on. That’s the only explanation I can offer for why it’s taken us six years to restart Mumbrella’s podcast. Frankly, I’m baffled why it took us so long to bring it back. Recording it was always my favourite thing to do every week, and indeed it was my favourite thing I did this week too (although The Killers in Adelaide was a pretty close second). When the inestimable Tony Faure advised us, he pushed me on an agenda of precisely two things: Redesign the website and restart the podcast. Now I’ve ticked both of them off, I feel I can once again look him in the eye. Please do give our first new Mumbrellacast a listen - perhaps subscribe too - and tell me what you think. You’ll find it via this link. And you’ll find me at tim@mumbrella.com.au. Meanwhile, you’ll find my colleague Zoe Samios opining on the podcast and also running our newsdesk across this weekend. You can reach her at zoe@mumbrella.com.au. Have a splendid weekend. Toodlepip... Tim Burrowes Content director - Mumbrella Mumbrella | 46-48 Balfour Street Chippendale NSW 2008 Australia [Unsubscribe](| [Manage Subscriptions]( [Facebook]( [LinkedIn]( [Twitter](