INSIDE MEDIA: Nine executive sacked after Christmas party PLUS why Elon Musk is wrong about journalism on X

In our column that takes you inside the world of media we explain why Elon Musk is wrong over his comments about journalism on X | Nine executive sacked after Christmas party | 7NEWS facing big changes in 2025

*A video version of this column is available in the player above

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IS THE FUTURE OF JOURNALISM SOCIAL MEDIA?

There’s many people on social media who love to trash ‘old’ media and proclaim “I don’t watch TV news, don’t read news websites, I get everything off social media”.

It’s a narrative many are trying to push, including X owner Elon Musk.

FILE - Elon Musk speaks at a campaign rally, Oct. 27, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File) Credit: Evan Vucci/AP

In the early hours of November 6, after Donald Trump had won the election, Musk posted a simple message to his 207 million followers: “You are the media now.”

The problem with that statement is that if traditional/mainstream media was to vanish overnight, where do the stories come from that lead to conversations on social media? Some people might not watch the news or read a paper, but the stories from those outlets are posted everywhere and talked about. While social media is a terrific tool for posting breaking news (usually by journalists working for media outlets), it can’t replace the investigations by journalists who truly break stories.

Back in November Axios CEO Jim VandeHei took issue with the narrative from Musk when he was being honoured with the National Press Club’s Fourth Estate Award.

“I hate this damn debate about, like, ‘Oh, we don’t need the media,’” VandeHei angrily told the crowd, as reported by Fox News.

“Elon Musk sits on Twitter every day, or X today, saying, like, ‘We are the media! You are the media!’ My message to Elon Musk is: ‘Bulls---. You’re not the media.’” he said to applause.

“You having a blue checkmark, a Twitter handle, and 300 words of cleverness doesn’t make you a reporter any more than me looking at your head and seeing that you have a brain and telling you I have an awesome set of tools makes me a damn neurosurgeon, right? Like, what we do, what journalists do, what you did in Mississippi, what Al Jazeera does in the Middle East,” he said, referencing other award winners in the room.

Maybe I’m out of touch but I absolutely agree with him. I love social media and I get a LOT of my news from social media, but the idea that it is a replacement for quality journalism is laughable in my eyes.

MORE TROUBLES AT NINE AS ANOTHER LEADER IS SACKED

There had been rumours that something was going down at Nine today and those rumours proved to be true with the Daily Mail reporting David ‘Sluggo’ Richardson has been sacked.

David Richardson has been sacked by Nine. Credit: Seven

Richardson was running Nine’s Darwin newsroom after a long career as a journalist, most notably for Today Tonight.

According to the story, Richardson was axed by the network on Monday after Nine received a formal complaint after its Christmas party.

Sluggo is an eccentric and very likable but times have changed. It’s an interesting time in the industry in a changing world.

Nine declined to comment.

BIG CHANGES TO NEWS AT SEVEN

This week staff at 7NEWS were called to a town hall meeting to hear from senior leaders and ask questions. INSIDE MEDIA was in attendance as news boss Anthony De Ceglie shared some of his plans for 2025.

Expect big changes for the 4pm news and new midday news bulletin next year. De Ceglie says he sees an opportunity to try our different ideas and formats in these timeslots.

I’ve heard various format options are currently under consideration with an inclusion of more discussion about topics of the day.

That style of show could work very well with a daytime audience.

Meanwhile, the subject of a night time show was discussed (which pleases me to no end). While nothing has been commissioned at this stage, it’s obvious De Ceglie is keen to do something with news and chat. An alignment with Seven’s digital paper The Nightly would make sense, but don’t consider that a foregone conclusion.

Until then The Latest will continue to be hosted from Perth.

SUNRISE STAFF THRILLED WITH NEW HOST

David Woiwod has been announced as the new co-host of Weekend Sunrise Credit: SWM

Seven announced today David Woiwod would be replacing Matt Doran as the co-host of Weekend Sunrise.

INSIDE MEDIA understands the news has gone down extremely well with staff on the morning program who like Woiwod. In fact, cheers could be heard across level 5 at Seven’s Sydney headquarters when Woiwod popped up to the Sunrise office after the on-air announcement.

Woiwod takes up his new role this weekend alongside Monique Wright.

Congratulations David!

GOODBYE CLIVE

Some sad news today with the passing of former Seven News host Clive Robertson. The national icon succumbed to cancer at the age of 78 and had previously been married to A Country Practice star Penny Cook.

From the mid 80s Clive turned TV news on its head — and became a national ratings hit — with his unique style.

I was fortunate to be interviewed by Clive on radio a few years back and it was an absolute joy. He kept across news and media and even contacted me to offer some advice about the way we were formatting headlines on TV Blackbox.

He was a bloody legend!

STORY OF THE WEEK

How THE NIGHTLY reported the story of Anthony Albanese plkaying tennis in Perth Credit: SWM

The story of the week has to be Anthony Albanese’s bizarre decision to play tennis a day after a Melbourne synagogue was firebombed. Plenty of criticism has been levelled at the PM over his delay in called it a terrorist attack.

The photos were on every news website, but the best headline has to go to The Nightly who went with TENNIS ALBO. That same headline then appeared on several publications the day after. We can’t say for sure they were inspired by the ever-growing Seven publication, but at the very least great minds think alike.

INSIDE MEDIA is published every Monday and Thursday evening.

Rob McKnight is the co-owner of TV Blackbox and you can contact him via email at rmcknight@seven.com.au