Facebook's backflip, Hugh Marks' final results for Nine, plus Antoinette Lattouf on media diversity

This week, Facebook backtracked on its decision to pull news sharing from Australian users and, with some amendments, the News Media Bargaining Code passed the senate. Everyone seems to have come out a winner... except the small publishers. It's hardly the end of this saga, so what's next?

The media and marketing industry is in the throes of financial reporting season; first up on the podcast is Nine, which reported $1.2 billion in revenue and net profit up 79% to $182 million. It's the last results for outgoing CEO Hugh Marks, so the Mumbrellacast team dives into which parts of Nine were the most successful in the first half of the year, and speculate on who will take the chief executive crown.

It was also a full-year report from WPP AUNZ, and despite a decline in sales and EBIT, the group was heartened by its results being on-par with market projections. COVID-19 cost cutting and the implementation of CEO Jens Monees' transformation plan saw the group also manage to significantly lower costs. With a potential takeover from WPP plc in the works, the team looks ahead to what's next for WPP AUNZ.

And also in the news was the senate hearing into media diversity, triggered by a petition by former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, which received 500,000 signatures. Joining the Mumbrellacast to chat through the issue was Media Diversity Australia's Antoinette Lattouf.