Latest news with #newsreader
News.com.au
24-05-2025
- Entertainment
- News.com.au
Nine star Sylvia Jeffreys opens up about ‘challenging' job losses
She was let go from her role as a newsreader on the Today show in 2018–- not long after her brother-in-law Karl Stefanovic was stood down from his role as co-host–- and eight years on, Sylvia Jeffreys still acknowledges it wasn't an easy time. Not long after her departure, Jeffreys' husband Peter Stefanovic also parted ways with Nine Network. In February, Karl also spoke with Stellar about the fallout from their mass exodus, revealing that he 'genuinely felt it was my fault'. Now, in a new interview with the Stellar podcast Something To Talk About, Jeffreys – who currently co-hosts Today Extra alongside David Campbell – has responded to his take. 'It's really sweet of Karl to acknowledge how hard that was for everyone,' the 39-year-old told Stellar. 'He is a big softie and he feels it. We've had our own private conversations about that. And I know how he feels because it was hard for everyone; we all had jobs that we loved then. 'But this is the gig. It's public and sometimes that means that there are some really weird forces at play when it comes to decisions around what we do and where we are and who we work with. It was really challenging, but I always look for the silver linings and this is how I survive things. And the silver lining was that I had amazing support from Pete. We were an amazing team through that.' Still, Jeffreys says it was a 'very weird thing to be under the microscope' and that it was an intense period for them both professionally and personally. 'I was also trying to have a baby back then and it wasn't working. So that was kind of compounding those emotions as well. There was a lot going on for us.' Listen to the full interview with Sylvia Jeffreys on Something To Talk About below: The TV presenter has also had to contend with ongoing speculation that she and her former colleague Lisa Wilkinson–- who worked with Jeffreys on the Today show until mid-2017 – were constantly at odds behind the scenes. 'I often like to imagine the meeting rooms when [people are] coming up with these headlines. Like they have two photos of me and Lisa [Wilkinson] and they're what, seven gin and tonics deep, seeing who can come up with the most creative headline about what's going on between the two of us,' she told Something To Talk About. 'I don't know how it works. It's wild to me, but if anyone understands why it happens, then give us a holler. Because we'd love to know.'
Forbes
23-05-2025
- Business
- Forbes
Apple News+: The Good, The Bad, And Where It Goes From Here
As Elon Musk's X has grown toxic in recent years, news consumers like me have migrated to other destinations around the web — to services ranging from Bluesky to Substack — in order to keep up to speed with current events. I've certainly cycled through a number of those apps over the last few years, before ultimately deciding that one of the most reliable alternatives to X (for a news consumer, at least) is Apple News+, thanks to everything from its clean aesthetic to its easily scannable user interface that more or less replicates the X experience. Minus the chaos and drama. Having said that, the app is certainly not for everyone. In this post, I'm going to explain why I use it and why I think it (mostly) does a good job of providing a news reader experience. Bear in mind, this is coming from someone who's worked as a professional journalist since before iPhones existed, so my perspective is not only colored by my experience as a writer but also from having tried out a slew of different apps in an effort to find an X replacement. For $12.99 a month, Apple News+ subscribers get access to hundreds of magazines and paywalled newspapers, a list that includes The New Yorker, The Wall Street Journal, and The Atlantic, and all of it wrapped up in a package that features Apple's signature design polish. For what it's worth, there's also a lot for news publishers to like, since the app gives them access to Apple's tens of millions of users. And then there are the human editors who help curate the product, a rare commodity in an era when Google's algorithms routinely give and take away traffic. In terms of usage, Apple hasn't disclosed updated user figures since confirming the app had a combined free and paid usage of 125 million monthly active users in 2020 (the year after the subscription service launched). However, Consumer Intelligence Research Partners estimated back in the fall that the Apple News+ subscription growth rate had increased from 15% to 24% between 2020 and 2024. For comparison, that's a rate of growth four times faster than major news sites like The New York Times and The Washington Post saw during that same period. Now, let's take a closer look at what Apple News+ gets right, where it still feels lacking, and what the future looks like for the app. I should add, this is also coming from someone who's used the product pretty much every day since its launch in early 2019. As noted above, there's a lot that Apple News+ gets right. One reason I particularly love the app is its inclusion of The Wall Street Journal for $12.99 a month. Subscribe directly to the WSJ, and you're looking at a normal yearly price of above $200 after the initial discounts go away. Apple News+ also gets high marks from me for glanceability — the app makes good use of screen space to place a lot of content in front of you before you even need to scroll. And as you do begin to scroll, the design makes it comfortable to consume (or quickly ignore) plenty of content. The tweet by tweet nature of X always used to trip me up in that regard, meaning it's easy to get sucked into one post after another there, making the whole time start to feel like a time suck. And speaking of scrolling — I prefer Apple News+ to Flipboard for this very reason. The core mechanic of Flipboard, of course, is right there in the name; with Flipboard, users 'flip' stories one at a time, like turning the pages of a magazine. By default, that means you're spending more time in the app getting caught up than you would using something like Apple News+. Among other things Apple gets right, the app's human editors routinely surface important stories. Users can also fine-tune what they want to see more or less of. Now, the cons. I can imagine a scenario where the elegant interface I've described might actually overwhelm an Apple News+ user who's not actively curating and fine-tuning their preferences as they go (by 'liking' stories, for example, or adding topics to your list of favorites). That's because this is Apple we're talking about. The app tries to walk a fine line between reflecting a user's interests but also not invading their privacy. Meaning, if you're not regularly making your preferences known, you'll see content from time to time that makes you scratch your head and wonder, 'What's this doing here?' That's to be expected from Apple, which has built a respect for its users' privacy into the company's brand. But still. Another important limitation to note: Not every partner publication makes all of its content available to Apple News+. Some keep their most popular pieces behind a paywall, and you'll figure out who does that and for which pieces as you go. The app does have a free tier, but I've found that you'll regularly bump up against paywalls if you use it. As for the app's future, what I'd personally like to see more of comes in the realm of personalization. It would be nice to see more collections curated by the app's editors, as well as less guesswork involved in what a user might want to see (based on their activity in the app, such as by liking stories). If I've shown no interest whatsoever in sports and am following no sports publications, for example, it feels like it should be a given that I don't want a lot of sports in my feed. Nevertheless, I run into this kind of situation often while using the app. I'd also like to see the app expand its audio stories, which can be an increasingly useful alternative to news consumers who don't want to listen to a long-form podcast. To that end, Apple has built a team of narrators and producers who offer daily readings of top feature stories from a small selection of outlets like Time. To expand its reach, I'm sure the app will also lean even more into its non-core news offering (including games, plus live sports scores and its burgeoning food/recipes section). For now, Apple News+ remains a more than adequate news app for a consumer like me, someone who appreciates clean design and doesn't want the distracting cruft of social media drama. In short, it feels like an app built for readers, as opposed to advertisers.
Telegraph
18-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
BBC was warned about Huw Edwards as early as 2012
The BBC was warned about Huw Edwards in the aftermath of the Jimmy Savile scandal in 2012, internal emails show. A former BBC employee sent an email to Tim Davie, the broadcaster's director-general, an hour before Edwards' sentencing last autumn alleging that a complaint had been made about the disgraced presenter more than a decade earlier. The correspondence, shared with The Sunday Times following freedom of information requests, revealed the former BBC employee flagged the claim to Mr Davie on Sept 16 last year as 'an area of risk to the corporation that you may not be previously aware of'. Mr Davie reportedly replied three minutes later stating that he would pass the allegation on 'in confidence' and that the BBC had been investigating past complaints about Edwards. That same day, Edwards was given a six-month prison sentence, suspended for two years, after he admitted charges of making indecent images of children. The BBC has refused to say how many complaints it has received about Edwards over his four-decade career at the broadcaster, and has not yet published the findings of an internal inquiry into his behaviour. However, the dossier of internal emails suggests that senior BBC officials were aware of complaints about the former newsreader earlier than previously thought. In the email to Mr Davie on Sept 16, titled 'private and confidential', the ex-employee stressed that the complaint against Edwards was 'not necessarily a criminal allegation and I have no real specifics I can offer you – other than it exists'. The former BBC employee also claimed that the historical allegation regarding Edwards was 'most likely [listed] under the so-called 'C-List' if it's anywhere'. This is understood to refer to a spreadsheet of allegations against BBC presenters that was created after Savile's crimes were exposed a year after his death in 2011. It was previously thought that complaints made against Edwards to the BBC in 2021 were the earliest on record at the national news organisation. The Sun reported in June 2023 that an unnamed BBC star had paid a young drug addict who was also sending them explicit photos. Further allegations followed after Edwards' then wife, the TV producer Vicky Flind, publicly named him as the presenter in question in July 2023. It included claims that Edwards had sent 'creepy' messages to a teenager on social media, plus allegations against him made by two current and one former BBC employees. One alleged Edwards invited him back to his hotel room in Windsor on the eve of Prince Philip's funeral in April 2021. The Sunday Times later reported that Edwards' BBC bosses had warned him about unprofessional conduct online on two separate occasions, first in 2021 and then in 2022. The tranche of emails also shows that Edwards agreed to pay back part of his salary after his arrest in November 2023, although he is still yet to do so. Deborah Turness, the chief executive of BBC News, wrote to the former newsreader in August 2024 saying: 'I note you propose to repay part of your salary paid to you since your arrest last year and we would ask that you now do so without delay.' Edwards, who was on a salary of more than £475,000 before his departure from the BBC, has reportedly not paid back around £200,000 he earned from the organisation following his arrest. Another email in the dossier reveals that Ms Turness also advised colleagues to 'buckle up!' the night before the organisation announced Edwards' resignation in April 2023. Senior BBC staff also had codenames for Edwards and the allegations against him, called 'Finch' and 'Redstart', The Sunday Times reported. Edwards pleaded guilty last July to three counts of making indecent images of children. The former BBC news anchor had been sent 41 images of child sex abuse by paedophile Alex Williams. Police recovered a total of 377 sexual images sent to Edwards on WhatsApp, of which 41 were indecent images of children. The BBC said it did not comment on internal HR matters, but reiterated calls for Edwards to return his salary. A BBC spokesperson said: 'The BBC believes that Huw Edwards should return the money paid to him by the BBC, covering the period between his arrest and his resignation.'
Daily Mail
09-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
EXCLUSIVE Her long-distance marriage is the talk of TV land. Now Sunrise host Edwina Bartholomew confirms what many in the industry had long speculated - as she fetches a monster price for her Sydney unit
She may have one of the most high-profile jobs in TV, but Sunrise newsreader Edwina Bartholomew does more than just read the teleprompter. Not content with 3am starts, the 41-year-old has also thrown herself into a highly ambitious renovation project in a country town three-and-a-half hours outside Sydney.
