Cannings Strategic Communications

Riddle me this: What’s the latest growth segment for media companies? If you guessed puzzles, you’d be correct. Media outlets are increasingly getting into games and puzzles to grow their subscriber base. The Sydney Morning Herald’s Good Weekend Quiz is the first thing many think of on a Saturday morning and millions solve puzzles like The New York Times' Wordle every day. According to The New York Times, newspapers have included word games and brain teasers for more than a century, with The New York World publishing the first crossword on its “Fun” page in 1913. Puzzles can entice new subscribers and engage existing consumers long enough to try other products, like podcasts, sports and hard news. Read more here: https://lnkd.in/gZx7C_KK #CorporateCommunications #StrategicCommunications #Subscribers

Plenty of economists, including KPMG’s Dr Brendan Rynne, are warning Australia is a “heartbeat away from being in a recession” after the latest GDP figures showed economic growth was a meagre 0.1 per cent in the first three months of this year. Treasurer Jim Chalmers is playing down the prospect of a recession, insisting Australia is faring better than many other developed economies and that the cost-of-living measures in last month’s Budget will keep the economy ticking along. Time will tell who’s right – the economists or Dr Chalmers. In the meantime, consider what’s going on in the US, where commentators say there’s the “vibe” of a recession because Americans feel gloomy about the economy despite low unemployment, slowing inflation and the stock market rising. “Call it the vibecession,” The New York Times columnist Jeanna Smialek wrote. Read more here: https://lnkd.in/gxmhAUps #Recession #CorporateCommunications #StrategicCommunications

Last week, members of the Cannings team attended the Australasian Investor Relations Association (AIRA) Conference, which was all about navigating a changing economic and regulatory environment. The conference touched on the influence of Artificial Intelligence (AI), ESG, and small cap strategies. It was a great to hear first hand from ASIC and the Reserve Bank of Australia about their policy and regulatory priorities, and a fantastic opportunity to meet other investor relations professionals. #InvestorRelations #StrategicCommunications #AIRAConference

Cannings client, NRI Australia & New Zealand, recently announced a $94 million contract renewal with Airservices Australia, strengthening its partnership with the only Air traffic provider within the Australian aviation sector. Read the full announcement on their website here: https://lnkd.in/gT7NRSEJ #NRIAustralia

Entrenched gender stereotypes of men as the ‘breadwinner’ and women as the ‘primary caregiver’ mean men often feel unable to take as much leave, according to a new report by Parents at Work and UNICEF Australia. The 2024 National Working Families Report found that 56 per cent of working parents believe it is more acceptable for women to use paid parental leave than for men. Parents at Work chief executive Emma Walsh said employers should encourage more men to take parental leave by ensuring mums and dads have access to the same entitlements and by encouraging men in senior positions to take it. By getting more men to take time off, this would enable mums to return to work sooner and help lessen the risk of women missing out on promotions and return to the workforce in lower-paid roles. Read more and subscribe here: https://lnkd.in/gkaSxgJr #parentalleave #corporatecommunications

With Telstra’s surprise announcement about axing 2,800 jobs coming hot on the heels an uptick in unemployment to 4.1 per cent, questions are being asked about whether this is just the start of a spate of mass sackings. Telstra’s job cuts should “set alarm bells ringing loudly in Canberra” in case other big corporates are tempted to restructure to help rein in costs as the economy slows, The Australian’s associate editor Eric Johnston wrote in his analysis. Professor John Buchanan, from the University of Sydney’s business school, told the ABC the deep structural changes that have been going on under the surface in some sectors, such as tech, are now becoming more obvious given unemployment is rising. Meanwhile, the news isn’t looking bright for job hunters, with SEEK’s measure of job ads dropping nearly five per cent in April, with total ads down by 18.6 per cent in the past year. SEEK Australia-New Zealand managing director Kendra Banks told the SMH firms looking to hire now had more options, with the number of people applying for jobs up 8.6 per cent. Read more here: https://lnkd.in/g6UCv_sH #telstra #corporatecommunications #strategiccommunications

Crisis communications management 101: respond promptly, provide as much information as possible, be open (no spin), and be sorry. For an example, check out this video address from Singapore Airlines CEO @Goh Choon Phong, posted soon after the flight SQ321 incident which, sadly, resulted in one death and several injuries. #crisismanagement #nospin #mediarelations

It’s budget week and headlines like “Winners and Losers”, “Tax Break Calculators”, and “How the Budget Affects You”, are just some of the innovative ways that news outlets have found to break down a complex policy document that affects so many of our lives. This year, the AFR has found an innovative way to cover the Federal Budget. Instead of focusing exclusively on the big-ticket items like the energy rebate and the Stage 3 tax cuts, they’ve assigned a reporter to cover the smaller budget items that often get lost in the wash. For example, did you know that the federal government will be handing out a tax break for potatoes? That’s right: sweet potato’s 1.5% levy has been pealed down to 0.5 per cent. Australia will also be giving more than $23 million over four years to Uruguay to help share the costs of providing retirement income support to individuals working between the two countries. Read more here: https://lnkd.in/gJePrMwG #budget2024 #corporatecommunications

The morning after the Budget announcement brings an influx of political cartoons, headlines and photographs to Australian newspapers. Check out these front page highlights post-budget, collected by Luis M Garcia MAICD.

Australian listed companies appear to have some catching up to do when it comes to developing Responsible AI (RAI) policies, a report by national science agency CSIRO and fund manager Alphinity has found. The report analysed the AI practices of 28 Australian and globally listed companies and found while companies were actively exploring AI opportunities, fewer than half had internal RAI policies or at least one board director with suitable knowledge and expertise in AI. The analysis also found that globally listed companies had extensive AI resourcing, yet many of their Australian peers were only just beginning to consider the opportunities the technology could deliver. Read more here: https://lnkd.in/eCdtJtC5 #artificialintelligence #ai #corporatecommunications