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TV’s million-dollar journos · The Front

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: From The Australian. Here's what's on the front. I'm Claire Harvey.
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: It's Monday, May twenty six, twenty twenty five. One of
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: the AFL's most memorable players, Warick Kappa, says he's concerned
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  Speaker 1: about his cognitive decline and believes the CODE didn't do
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: enough to protect him and other players from head trauma.
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: That's an exclusive live today at the Australian dot com
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  Speaker 1: dot au. Business leaders want to slow the introduction of
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: Fair Work Commission pay rises for health and childcare workers,
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: saying it's too much for employers to come up with
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  Speaker 1: wage increases of up to twenty eight percent immediately. That'll
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  Speaker 1: blow up into a dispute with unions. Who's the highest
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  Speaker 1: earner on TV and who earns six hundred grand for
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: two hours work? Today the top salaries on Free to
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  Speaker 1: Wear TV and why the glory days of superstar salaries
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  Speaker 1: are coming to an end. Steve Jackson is The Australian's
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  Speaker 1: media writer, and today he's publishing the inaugural Media Rich List. JACKO,
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  Speaker 1: this list should be making both you and I feel
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  Speaker 1: a bit angry.
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  Speaker 2: I think yes and no angry that we aren't on
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  Speaker 2: this sort of money. But it's good to know that
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  Speaker 2: there are people out there on this sort of cash.
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  Speaker 2: And if we work hard and get the right brakes,
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  Speaker 2: we too will know ever to earn this amount because
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  Speaker 2: it's going to be gone very soon. But it's nice
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  Speaker 2: to know some people are raking it in while we're
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: the good times last, who's.
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  Speaker 1: The Ginna Reinhardt of Australian media.
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  Speaker 2: Karl Stefanovic.
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  Speaker 1: Just keep it at real people.
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  Speaker 2: Karl has long been the highest paid person on Australian television.
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  Speaker 2: In fact, he's the highest paid person involved in television
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  Speaker 2: except for the people who own the networks. He was
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: made a millionaire by Dave Ginjel back when David Lecky
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: tried to poach him across to seven. Lecky never forgot that.
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: I met with him for lunch a couple of weeks
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  Speaker 2: before he passed and he was still talking about how
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: Carl had dudded him after agreeing to switch networks. But
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: basically Ginjel put him on this multimillion dollar deal to
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: keep him there and then he's been on it ever since.
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  Speaker 2: Hugh Marx, when he was the chief of Channel nine,
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: did manage to bring it down. He was bringing it
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: all the pays back in line with something that was
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  Speaker 2: probably a more feasible amount. But then after Hu Marx left,
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: Sneezey bumped Carl back up to two point eight million
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  Speaker 2: a year.
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  Speaker 1: David Ginjel, who you mentioned, was the favored sign of
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  Speaker 1: the Packers. He was the boss of Channel nine in
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: the tail end of the glory days. Really is Carl
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: and his salary the last remnant of those Packer glory
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  Speaker 1: days when salaries were huge and personalities were also huge.
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's that thing about television from an era where
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: everyone was tuning into it and you kind of had
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  Speaker 2: three options of what you're going to watch at night,
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  Speaker 2: and it really mattered if you had these stars on
• 3:13
  Speaker 2: your network.
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: Okay, Number two is not a journalist. It's Scott Cam,
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: who's a bit of an everyman. He won the Gold
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  Speaker 1: Logi a few years ago, famously hosts the.
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: Blog Look, I tell you what.
• 3:25
  Speaker 3: I haven't had a drink in a week, which I
• 3:28
  Speaker 3: haven't done a seventies.
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: I'll tell you what. I've gone to school. I am
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: going to strangle a few tonight. Let me tell you
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  Speaker 2: if I get it made get it?
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  Speaker 1: Why is Scott Cam earning two point four million dollars.
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: Scott Cam is the face of probably one of the
• 3:47
  Speaker 2: most important shows on Channel nine. The block has been
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: a staple of its line up since two thousand and nine,
• 3:54
  Speaker 2: I think, and what's so important about it is it
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  Speaker 2: makes heaps of money. It brings in product placement. The
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: sets actually effectively don't cost anything because they auction them
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  Speaker 2: off at the end of the show and recoup all
• 4:04
  Speaker 2: the outlays that they've spent buying them. Legend has it
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: Scott Cam was enjoying a beer at the local watering
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  Speaker 2: hole near nine and he was talent spotted, ended up
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  Speaker 2: working with Jamie Jury and then just becoming probably one
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  Speaker 2: of the most popular people on Australian TV. He's the
• 4:19
  Speaker 2: most loved trade in the country. You'd have to say the.
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: Next two also come from what you'd broadly call light entertainment.
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  Speaker 1: I guess Hamish Blake and then Larry MdeR earning two
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: million and one point six million dollars respectively. Hamish Blake
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: is really a self made personality, isn't he.
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  Speaker 2: He is, without a doubt one of the funniest men
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  Speaker 2: in the country. Everything he turns his hand to is
• 4:42
  Speaker 2: a success. The amazing thing about Hamish's last show, which
• 4:45
  Speaker 2: has now been going for four or five years, Lego
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  Speaker 2: Master's as I remember being at nine when it launched,
• 4:51
  Speaker 2: and the wisdom at television is you don't say what
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  Speaker 2: you think of the show until the ratings come in.
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  Speaker 2: So as it was being rolled out everything Lego, that's
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: going to be interesting the moment the numbers dropped and
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  Speaker 2: it was a huge hit. Always knew Lego was going
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  Speaker 2: to win, but the fact that Hamish Blake can make
• 5:09
  Speaker 2: a show about building stuff out of Lego into one
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  Speaker 2: of the most entertaining programs on television shows what his genius.
• 5:16
  Speaker 3: Is and the gold LOGI goes to Larry Emder for
• 5:23
  Speaker 3: The Chase Australia in the morning SHOWY seven Network.
• 5:29
  Speaker 4: On my very first day going to the Channel seven
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  Speaker 4: newsroom as a cub reporter, I said, Dad, what am
• 5:33
  Speaker 4: I doing there for my job? And he goes, may
• 5:35
  Speaker 4: just be nice to everyone, Just be nice to everyone.
• 5:39
  Speaker 4: But I came home after a couple of weeks and
• 5:41
  Speaker 4: Dad said, how's it going. I said, Dad, I'm trying
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  Speaker 4: with there's so many assholes in this business.
• 5:49
  Speaker 2: Larry actually started his career as a copyboy in a
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  Speaker 2: newspaper in Sydney. He dropped out of high school at
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  Speaker 2: fifteen to chance his luck at journalism, and he actually
• 6:00
  Speaker 2: ended up becoming, at the age of just nineteen, the
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  Speaker 2: youngest national news anchor in the country. While a lot
• 6:06
  Speaker 2: of people on the list are there for earning a
• 6:09
  Speaker 2: lot of money for one job, Larry's one of those
• 6:11
  Speaker 2: guys that fills in for people when they're off. He
• 6:14
  Speaker 2: hosts the Morning Show, which is incredibly important because of
• 6:17
  Speaker 2: the amount of money it brings in through advertorials and advertising,
• 6:20
  Speaker 2: and he also hosts a Dailey afternoon game show, which
• 6:24
  Speaker 2: again is critical to the six pm bulletins as it
• 6:27
  Speaker 2: gives a leading into the six pm news.
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: Now we get to number five before we encounter a woman.
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: That's Natalie bar Co, host of Sunrise on seven on
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  Speaker 1: one point three million dollars. She's a great example I
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  Speaker 1: reckon of tenacity. She started out as the newsreader on
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  Speaker 1: Sunrise when she was really quite young, having come there
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  Speaker 1: from being a news reporter. And she's just stuck with it,
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  Speaker 1: hasn't she. And now she's eclipsed the people who used
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: to be the hosts.
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  Speaker 2: It's interesting to see with matt Is when she replaced
• 6:57
  Speaker 2: Samantha Armitage as the full time co host of sun
• 7:00
  Speaker 2: People weren't quite sure. Samantha had this larger than life personality,
• 7:05
  Speaker 2: very much talked about in the media.
• 7:09
  Speaker 3: Coming to Alix Springs, it was just one thing that
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  Speaker 3: I wanted to do.
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: I wanted to drive a road train.
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: Natalie was a more straight, hard news journo and she's coming.
• 7:22
  Speaker 2: She's brought a completely different flavor to Sunrise and you'll
• 7:25
  Speaker 2: see it quite often being ridden up in the media
• 7:28
  Speaker 2: for hard hitting questions at breakfast and I hope that.
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: They pick up their game. Okay, look with respect, you
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: just haven't answered the question. We know what Pontus is doing.
• 7:38
  Speaker 2: I think she's really earned the respect of that audience
• 7:41
  Speaker 2: and probably deservedly her place at the top of the
• 7:44
  Speaker 2: country's highest paid female journalist.
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: Alison Langdon, the host of nine As a Current Affair,
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  Speaker 1: comes next on one point two million dollars. She's another
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  Speaker 1: Stayer and she's gone from news to pretty gritty reporting
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  Speaker 1: for sixty minutes over a decade. Now in Australia, hosting
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: a Current Affair and replacing the beloved longtime host Tracy Grimshaw.
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  Speaker 1: It's really hard to step into the shoes of someone
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  Speaker 1: like Tracy, isn't it, But she seems to have made
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  Speaker 1: a success of it.
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  Speaker 4: She has.
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  Speaker 2: And the thing that I think is interesting about Alison
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  Speaker 2: is she's one of those people who makes things look easy.
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  Speaker 2: I've had the opportunity to produce stories for her, working
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  Speaker 2: with her at sixty Minutes, and she's got this uncanny
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  Speaker 2: knack where it just looks like she's calm and relaxed
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  Speaker 2: and it's all very easy. But what you don't see
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  Speaker 2: is like a duck swimming on the water. She's paddling
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  Speaker 2: like that underneath, works incredibly hard, involved in every aspect
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  Speaker 2: of making the show, and I'm sure she'll be the
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  Speaker 2: same doing that in a current Affair. A Current Affair
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  Speaker 2: is a very exciting mix of light and bright, fun news,
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  Speaker 2: quirky stuff, but also hard hitting investigations. She's covered all
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  Speaker 2: that gamut and she's really at home introducing those stories,
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  Speaker 2: and I think everyone out there really likes her as well.
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: It's eight years now since Lisa Wilkinson quit the Today
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  Speaker 1: Show in a fury at the fact that she just
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: could not negotiate a wage as high as Karl Stefanovic's
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: looking at the wages of the women who are in
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: this top ten, the next to a Sonya Krueger at
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: one point two million and Kylie Gillies at one point
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  Speaker 1: one Did Lisa make a big mistake stepping away for
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: just a measly million dollars?
• 9:26
  Speaker 2: I think so. It's a difficult one with Lisa because
• 9:30
  Speaker 2: her pairing with Karl was fantastic. They were phenomenal together,
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  Speaker 2: great chemistry. I don't think anyone was expecting it to
• 9:39
  Speaker 2: go as far as it did and completely break down. Obviously,
• 9:42
  Speaker 2: hu Marx said no, we're not doing it, put his
• 9:46
  Speaker 2: foot down, and he had some valid reasons, but I
• 9:49
  Speaker 2: think that was very much the beginning of network chief
• 9:51
  Speaker 2: executives to say, hey, we've got a real this in
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  Speaker 2: because we just simply can't afford to pay insane salaries anymore.
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: There are two personalities at number nine and number ten.
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  Speaker 1: That's Peter Roverton and Tracy Grimshaw, both on roughly a
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: million dollars. Why is Tracy Grimshaw still earning a million dollars?
• 10:09
  Speaker 2: Well, it's a little bit deceptive. Tracy's not quite earning
• 10:12
  Speaker 2: a million dollars. She's on a year by year contract
• 10:15
  Speaker 2: and that may have been reduced to about half a
• 10:17
  Speaker 2: million dollars. It's one of those things that's being reviewed
• 10:20
  Speaker 2: at the moment because last year with this deal, she
• 10:24
  Speaker 2: did a four part series on blue zones around the
• 10:27
  Speaker 2: world and one interview with el McPherson for sixty minutes.
• 10:31
  Speaker 2: And unfortunately the days where networks could warehouse staff to
• 10:36
  Speaker 2: prevent them doing reports on rival networks are gone, so
• 10:40
  Speaker 2: the accountants really have to go, how can we justify this?
• 10:43
  Speaker 2: Is that value for money? The thing is that we
• 10:47
  Speaker 2: know that once you release a network talent and they're
• 10:51
  Speaker 2: well known with people, they will get picked up to
• 10:53
  Speaker 2: do stuff elsewhere. So we saw with Liz Hayes departing
• 10:57
  Speaker 2: Niner for forty four years earlier this year in February,
• 11:00
  Speaker 2: that within months she was doing a guest appearance on
• 11:03
  Speaker 2: Channel seven Spotlight. So it's one of those things that
• 11:05
  Speaker 2: Nine's developed. All these people, how do they retain them?
• 11:09
  Speaker 2: Traditionally they just pay them to only file the odd
• 11:12
  Speaker 2: report for nine. That's no longer feasible.
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: Coming up the journo who's paid six hundred grand for
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: two hours of TV a week. I think we can
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: accept that salaries in media are based on market forces.
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: It's not a meritocracy. You don't get the money because
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: you're better than everybody else. You get it because other
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: people potentially want you. Nowadays, in the present environment of television,
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: does that still apply? I mean, is anyone going to
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: offer Karl Stefanovic an equivalent salary to come to seven.
• 12:04
  Speaker 2: There is still network poaching, but the poachings at the
• 12:07
  Speaker 2: lower level. We saw Joel dry being poached from seven
• 12:11
  Speaker 2: to go anchor nine News in Brisbane, but we're talking
• 12:15
  Speaker 2: about twenty grand pay rises. Ten grand pay rises Joel
• 12:19
  Speaker 2: being poached to nine. That's for a quarter of a
• 12:21
  Speaker 2: million dollars. And I think what we've seen now is
• 12:24
  Speaker 2: with the generational change, it shows like sixty minutes, those
• 12:28
  Speaker 2: reporters aren't on anywhere near the same amount that their
• 12:31
  Speaker 2: predecessors were.
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: One name that stuck out to me on your list
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  Speaker 1: was number eighteen, Georgia Gardner from nine on six hundred
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: thousand dollars. This there's nine New with Georgia Gardner. Good evening.
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: We begin with breaking news and very sad news. I
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: don't see Georgie on TV that much pro rata.
• 12:53
  Speaker 2: Georgie is the best paid journalist in the country. And
• 12:57
  Speaker 2: it's a legacy from when she was brought in to
• 12:59
  Speaker 2: do the Today Show. She got a massive bump up
• 13:01
  Speaker 2: because she was the Today Show host. Again, that didn't
• 13:04
  Speaker 2: work out. The experiment was canned after a year, but
• 13:07
  Speaker 2: she remained on that salary because that contract was locked in.
• 13:11
  Speaker 2: Georgie is a hard working journalist, really well aliked and
• 13:14
  Speaker 2: known in Sydney. But she's on six hundred thousand to
• 13:17
  Speaker 2: present the news two nights a week in Sydney alone
• 13:21
  Speaker 2: and obviously filling for Peter when he's unavailable. But I mean,
• 13:24
  Speaker 2: it's not bad money. If you can get it, no
• 13:26
  Speaker 2: one can get it.
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: Steve Jackson is The Australian's media writer. His diary column
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: is onmissible. You can check it out right now at
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: the Australian dot com dot au