Forthcoming subscription news service Scire is on the hunt for technology journalists, with the tech beat being named as one of the key planks of its launch. Scire is headed by Chris Janz (pictured), who most recently was Nine’s chief digital and publishing office, but Janz’ roots were in technology media. He very quickly became News.com.au’s technology editor, before becoming managing director at Allure Media, which brought the likes of Gizmodo, Life Hacker and Kotaku into the Australian market. Declaring itself upon its reveal yesterday, not so humbly, as a “generational company with Australian journalism at its core”, Scire has declared tech as one of its key areas of coverage as business, politics, power and technology. Recently, the AFR speculated that John McDuling had become one of Scire’s first editorial hires. McDuling who last month posted to LinkedIn upon his departure from Nine, wrote “as for what comes next - stay tuned!”. His profile has him working a

The Australian media sector is set for its biggest shake-up since The Guardian took aim at setting up an antipodean outpost, with the launch of a new subscription news service, founded by two very senior media executives and with strong financial backing. Yesterday, former Nine executives Chris Janz and David Eisman declared it was hiring editors and journalists across the business, politics, power and technology beats. It follows speculation that John McDuling, the SMH and Age’s former national business editor was headed to Scire. The Scire website at scire.au was unveiled yesterday, declaring it was “build a generational company with Australian journalism as its core”. “Our journalism will be built for 2023, delivering value to our readers through insightful and original reporting that is free from agendas and corporate conflicts,” the site said. Janz, who was formerly the chief digital and publishing officer at Nine, is Scire’s Chief Executive Officer. Janz was a c

Nine’s lifestyle brand Good Food has relaunched digitally with new editorial content and refreshed tech and product features.  Good Food is fully integrated into The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, Brisbane Times, and WAtoday websites, with new tech and product features, local restaurant reviews, regular columns, and new editorial features such as cooking tips, eating-out guides, and trends. Tory Maguire, executive editor of The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, Brisbane Times, and WAToday said the digital content offering on the masthead’s websites is to provide Good Food readers a “bigger, brighter and more delicious food experience. “Good Food is Australia’s most prestigious publisher of news, reviews, and recipes and is one of the most-loved sections of The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age,” said Maguire.  Jo Clasby, director of sales Total Publishing said Good Food is the “most trusted food media brand” in Australia. “A credible and much-loved brand like G

Broadsheet Media has announced the expansion of the senior leadership team with four new appointments across product, people and culture, and the commercial team, reporting to the general manager, Sian Whitaker. Cameron Ross joins the team as its first head of product and Charlotte Miller as people and culture manager. Simone Crick is promoted to director of operations and Christina Voss to studio and strategy director.  Sian Whitaker welcomed Ross and Miller to the team saying it is exciting to have attracted such “high-calibre talent”.  “I am so proud of our incredible leadership team and am thrilled to expand and strengthen it with our new hires. We have spent the past 12 months redefining our product and strategy, and Cameron was the standout candidate throughout the recruitment process. He understood the purpose and value of Broadsheet and is passionate about driving local and international growth for the business. We have experienced significant growth over the past t

Sky News Australia has unveiled the launch of a new 24/7 channel, Sky News Now, in partnership with Samsung TV Plus, to bring the network’s news, opinion, and documentary to Australians.  Sky News Now brings together content from Sky News, Sky News Weather, and Sky News Extra to create a new channel for Samsung TV Plus Australian viewers. Paul Whittaker, Sky News Australia's chief executive officer said the launch of Sky News Now on Samsung TV Plus is a great addition to the digital content offering.  “As Australia’s most engaging digital news brand, we have seen rapid audience growth as more Australians access our unique local content offering of live breaking news, thought-leading opinion programs, and topical documentaries, in more ways than ever before. “We look forward to bringing the Samsung TV watcher our exclusive line-up of Australia’s best commentators such as Peta Credlin, Andrew Bolt, Chris Kenny, Paul Murray, and the latest addition to our primetime sche

ANZ’s largest youth-focused publishing group, Pedestrian Group has announced the appointment of Dane Robertson to lead the company’s sales department in Melbourne by developing agency and client partnerships as well as driving new business relationships in the market. Pedestrian Group's chief commercial officer, Rachel Tikey welcomed Robertson on board and said that the team is excited to see the impact he will make.  "Dane is a highly respected sales leader in the Melbourne market and comes to our business with glowing client reviews, we couldn't be more thrilled to have him join the Pedestrian Group team as our Head of Partnerships in Victoria," Tikey said. Dane Robertson said he is “incredibly excited” to join the team.  “I’ve always admired the network from afar and now have the opportunity to help contribute by leading the Victorian Partnership’s team to new heights,” Robertson said.  The appointment comes as Pedestrian Group continues to grow and expand i

Influencing CEO Phil Sim has spent much of the last couple of years, thinking about, experimenting with, and building software employing AI in media applications. Now that AI has exploded, Sim will write a weekly column appearing Friday that explores issues, directions and conundrums that the rise of AI brings to media and communications. When we revealed out Influencing Interview tool to the journalist community at our 2023 Kickoff event, I mentioned we were contemplating an auto-write button that would convert an interview into a story at the press of a button. That comment was met by a sound that was somewhere between an ‘ooh’ and a ‘boo’. Whatever sounds it was, it was definitely disapproving. This was just a month ago. Since then, many more people have spent time with ChatGPT, and come to understand both its power and limitations. And increasingly, journalists are - maybe reluctantly conceding that it would be stupid, not to employ AI in some respects. The tide has tur