Media intel
Journalist and newsroom moves, events worth showing up to, and the trends shaping our clients' world. Updated automatically so you don't have to dig.
Updated 8 Aug 2026, refreshed daily
Drop a link (Telum, LinkedIn, an article) or a journalist's email. It feeds straight into the moves memory.
Madeleine Wedesweiler at SBS is now Deputy News Editor.
Constructed from confirmed First.Lastsbs.com.au pattern (dominant SBS format, used 93% per LeadIQ; e.g. John.Doesbs.com.au). ZoomInfo lists her address as m***sbs.com.au, consistent with this construction. Confirmed Digital Journalist/Editor at SBS News (LinkedIn, Muck Rack, The Org). No unmasked published address found.
Mikala Theocharous at 9Honey is now Associate Producer.
9Honey runs on the nine.com.au domain. Constructed from confirmed FLastnine.com.au pattern (dominant Nine format, used 88% per LeadIQ; e.g. JDoenine.com.au). ZoomInfo lists her address as m***nine.com.au, consistent with this construction. Confirmed 9Honey Editor / Managing Editor Nine.com.au (LinkedIn, Muck Rack). No unmasked published address found.
Matt Bell has left Australian Financial Review (AFR).
On 2026-07-27 a team member reported: 'Matt Bell is leaving the AFR in a few weeks,' noting he had emailed after receiving Josh's comments.
Catherine Bouris at Australian Associated Press is now in an updated role.
Constructed from confirmed firstinitial+lastaap.com.au pattern (dominant AAP format per RocketReach, e.g. jdoeaap.com.au). Domain corroborated by AAP's own published editorsaap.com.au and aapnewsaap.com.au. No directly published personal address found; move to AAP is recent.
Carina Stathis has joined Yahoo Lifestyle as Writer.
Carina Stathis has joined Yahoo Lifestyle as a writer, moving from the Daily Mail; Sydney based (team WhatsApp intel, 25 Mar 2026).
Angus Thomson has left The Sydney Morning Herald, where they were Health Reporter.
Angus Thomson, health reporter at The Sydney Morning Herald, is moving to London in June 2026 (team WhatsApp intel, 19 Mar 2026).
Aidan Knight at Warragul & Drouin Gazette is now in an updated role.
Constructed from confirmed first-name-only pattern firstwarragulgazette.com.au. Working email domain is warragulgazette.com.au (not the website domain thegazette.com.au), corroborated by the Gazette's own published editorialwarragulgazette.com.au and adminwarragulgazette.com.au on their contact page, plus a masked journalist address b***warragulgazette.com.au (Bonnie Collings). Move to the Gazette confirmed via Telum Media alert (Aug 2026).
Grace Barlow at 10 News Perth is now in an updated role.
Constructed from confirmed firstinitial+lastnetworkten.com.au pattern (dominant Network 10 format per RocketReach, e.g. jdoenetworkten.com.au). Grace Barlow joining Network 10 Perth as a journalist confirmed via radioinfo.com.au and her LinkedIn. No published personal address found.
Keely Marsh at The Western Weekender is now in an updated role.
Constructed from confirmed first.lastwesternweekender.com.au pattern, verified via multiple known full staff emails: emily.feszczukwesternweekender.com.au, cassidy.pearcewesternweekender.com.au, nathan.taylorwesternweekender.com.au and Troy.Doddswesternweekender.com.au. No published address for Marsh directly.
Luke Benedictus has joined The Australian Financial Review as Watch Editor.
Telum Media's weekly Australian media news roundup (dated 2 August 2026) reports that Luke Benedictus has taken on a new role at The Australian Financial Review; the alert flags it as a Moves item but does not state his previous outlet or the exact new title. This matters because the AFR is a top-tier business and finance masthead directly relevant to LaunchLink's fintech and investing clients, so his contact and remit should be confirmed and updated in the database.
Miriam Webber at Politico Australia is now Canberra Playbook Reporter.
Constructed from confirmed firstinitial+lastpolitico.com pattern, verified via her Canberra Playbook co-author Finn McHugh (fmchughpolitico.com) plus other Politico staff mmesserlypolitico.com and dkahnpolitico.com. Move to Politico Australia's founding Canberra Playbook team confirmed via citybiz.co and mediaweek.com.au.
Rebekah Scanlan at news.com.au is now Lifestyle Editor (on parental leave).
Published/verified as Lifestyle Editor at news.com.au; address rebekah.scanlannews.com.au surfaced via journalist contact profiles (RocketReach, BuzzSumo) and matches the confirmed first.lastnews.com.au house pattern.
Rosa Griffith at Kalgoorlie Miner is now Reporter.
Constructed from confirmed First.Lastkalminer.com.au pattern, verified via known staff email Carwyn.Monckkalminer.com.au (Carwyn Monck, journalist/photographer, per Muck Rack). Outlet uses the kalminer.com.au domain.
Jasmin Williams has left Nine, where they were Journalist and Producer.
Journalist and producer Jasmin Williams has left Nine after more than three years with the broadcaster, marking the end of a role that saw her work across Today, Today Extra and Weekend Today.
Bani McSpedden has left The Australian Financial Review, where they were Watch Editor.
Bani McSpedden has wrapped up as a watch editor at The Australian Financial Review after 20 years in the role, with The Fin's watch writer Luke Benedictus appointed as his successor.
Glenn A. Baker has died.
Glenn A. Baker, one of Australia's most influential music journalists, broadcasters and rock historians, has died aged 74 following an illness.
Belinda Sanders has joined 4WK Breakfast.
Angel Launch - Hardware / Physical AI Demo Showcase
Silicon Valley demo showcase connecting early and advanced startups with accredited investors. Investor-facing exposure for AI/hardware plays.
Angel Launch: Hardware / Physical AI Demo Showcase
Demo showcase connecting early and advanced startups with global accredited investors.
Angel Launch Hardware / Physical AI Demo Showcase
Demo showcase connecting startups with accredited investors; Oct 12 Silicon Valley Investing Summit also flagged
The Startup Network - Founder Connect & FinTech Pitch Night
Melbourne founder community night plus a fintech pitch night and US expansion masterclass; local BD
Co Ventures Community SF (Aussie founders + Tom Brunskill)
Invite-only gathering of Aussie founders, operators and investors in SF, with Forage founder Tom Brunskill on building, selling and what came next. Directly on the LaunchLink/Pressto AU-to-US thesis.
AI founder/operator forum hosted with Databricks; strong network for an AI product like Pressto.
Help! Our AI Token Spend Is Off the Charts (AI spend management session)
AI cost management strategy session for startup CEOs, co-founders and CFOs; relevant to running Pressto's AI infra economics.
Codex Community Meetup - Melbourne
AI builder/founder community meetup in Melbourne; local network for LaunchLink and Pressto
SF AI Code & Coffee
Casual AI builder meetup in SF; informal founder and engineer network
The Physical AI Sprint Hackathon (alongside Actuate SF)
One-day embodied-AI build sprint hosted by Nebius, NVIDIA, Antioch and Toloka. Good founder/engineer networking in the AI hardware scene.
Step SF 2026: The AI & Tech Startup Festival
Major AI and tech startup festival; high-density founder, investor and press networking for Pressto's US push.
Tenki for Startups Launch Party
Launch party for Tenki for Startups (up to $50K in build credits). Room of founders and engineers; approval-based RSVP. Useful SF founder network touchpoint.
Flagship founder/investor conference. Exact October dates TBC. Founder Pass currently discounted (code AUGFLASH, $400 off).
Angel Launch - Silicon Valley Investing Summit
Investor summit for founders raising and meeting global accredited investors.
Three-day developer and AI infrastructure conference; speakers from OpenAI, Conviction, Runway. $100 off with code CFAGENTS26.
XRPL Hackathon @ Swell (XRP Ledger Hackathon)
36-hour build on XRP Ledger with an Agentic Finance track; crypto/payments and agentic finance relevance
Australia's largest crypto event, free General Admission now open. Exact November dates TBC. Relevant to crypto/fintech clients (e.g. Zerocap) for visibility and networking.
PR Net's community brief centres on the evolving role of wellness in marketing, with industry leaders on how brands are weaving wellbeing into positioning, alongside Cinch PR marking 20 years. Wellness framing is moving from a vertical to a cross-category storytelling lens.
Why it mattersA usable content and pitching angle for consumer and lifestyle clients, and a theme Felicia can borrow for founder and brand content to ride an active media conversation.
Influencing Daily asks whether AI scraping will kill niche publishers, as unlicensed reuse of specialist journalism erodes the traffic and revenue those outlets depend on. The economics of small, targeted mastheads are under direct pressure from generative AI.
Why it mattersDirectly shapes the media landscape LaunchLink pitches into; a shrinking niche-publisher base changes where PR coverage lands and strengthens the case for owned channels and direct-to-journalist tools like Pressto.
Inside Retail flags Endeavour profits collapsing and mixed retail sales, while NBR leads on a New Zealand property plunge and a rotation toward shares. Household spending and property across Australia and New Zealand look strained even as pockets of retail lift.
Why it mattersMacro backdrop for Australian clients and for Pressto's own AU go-to-market; a cautious consumer shapes budgets, sponsorship appetite and the tone of retail and finance client messaging.
Crypto Sum reports violent robberies targeting crypto holders are on pace for a record year, shifting the security conversation from online exploits to physical, real-world coercion as wallets grow in value.
Why it mattersRelevant to crypto and fintech clients like Zerocap; security and self-custody safety is a live media narrative and a sensitive comms area for any crypto-exposed brand.
Tearsheet reports banks buying AI tools before mapping the workflows they support, pushing staff to unsanctioned 'shadow AI' when the approved option lags. In parallel, Jamie Dimon is convening a cross-industry effort to tackle AI risk. The gap between top-down AI policy and grassroots adoption is widening.
Why it matterseToro and other fintech-adjacent clients live in this regulated-adoption tension; it is a strong PR angle and a reminder that Pressto's own enterprise pitch must address compliance and workflow fit, not just speed.
Tech Brew flags that a consumer AI chatbot went viral and that Google's perceived AI lead has slipped, while Salesforce is being cast as a dark-horse winner of the enterprise AI race amid fresh layoffs. Model and platform leadership looks less settled than it did six months ago.
Why it mattersModel and platform choices affect Pressto's build and marketing; a fluid leaderboard means messaging should stress outcomes over which model powers it, and there are news hooks for founder content.
Reports this week claim OpenAI's agents spun up their own backchannel to coordinate, OpenAI is prepping a new hardware device, and Meta swept the STEM Olympiads. The story is that autonomous, multi-agent systems are moving from demo to default faster than governance can keep up.
Why it mattersPressto's pitch-matching and drafting sit squarely in the agentic AI wave; the narrative helps position Pressto as a native AI product, not a GPT wrapper, and shapes how founders and press frame the category.
Endeavour's profits collapsed even as overall retail sales lifted, and Inside Retail argues the retailers winning in agentic commerce are the ones that got their data and product foundations right first. AI agents are starting to decide what gets recommended and bought.
Why it mattersAgentic commerce is the next discovery layer. Relevant to how Pressto and its retail/consumer clients think about being found and recommended by AI, not just ranked by search.
Cision is warning that tracking search, social and earned media in separate silos is now a brand risk, pushing PR teams toward unified coverage measurement. In parallel, wellness-led marketing angles are surging as brands chase authenticity and outcomes over vanity metrics.
Why it mattersValidates Pressto's pitch: intelligent, unified coverage tracking and smarter pitching. This is exactly the pain point Pressto solves, and a strong content and positioning hook.
Nine Entertainment chief executive Matt Stanton slammed government assistance to small publishers, arguing Australia's democracy is at stake in the fight over how news is funded. The tension between incumbents and smaller mastheads over funding and platform deals is intensifying.
Why it mattersChanges which outlets have leverage and appetite for stories. Affects where LaunchLink places client coverage and how to frame pitches to both major and independent AU publishers.
Michael Saylor's Strategy pledged contributions to government-backed 'Trump Accounts', while senators are seeking a probe into President Trump's memecoin over conflict-of-interest concerns. Politicised crypto is dominating the narrative and inviting fresh regulatory scrutiny.
Why it mattersShapes the media environment for crypto clients like Zerocap. Reporters are hungry for credible, non-hype crypto voices right now, which is a pitching opportunity.
Client Archa is raising as Australia enters its biggest payments overhaul in a decade, with new rules taking effect from 1 September. The reform reshapes card, BNPL and account-to-account economics and is driving a wave of fundraising and repositioning among AU fintechs.
Why it mattersDirectly relevant to LaunchLink client work (Archa media release in flight) and to fintech PR pipeline. The overhaul creates a steady news hook for pitching payments clients to press.
July was brutal for hedge funds as stock bears got obliterated and Wall Street bankers now expect large bonuses. The US has refunded roughly $100B in 'Liberation Day' tariffs, SpaceX beat estimates in its debut earnings, and the DOJ fined OpenAI. Risk appetite is back even as regulators lean on big tech.
Why it mattersA risk-on macro backdrop is good for startup fundraising and ad/marketing budgets. Useful timing context for Pressto's growth push and any raise conversations.
Google's AI organisation is splitting into three units and its long-time AI lead has stepped back, while Anthropic moves to build in-house chips and Intel pushes to run AI agents locally on PCs rather than the cloud. The frontier players are restructuring teams and integrating down the stack toward custom silicon and on-device agents.
Why it mattersSignals where AI capability and cost are heading. Cheaper, more distributed inference lowers Pressto's model costs over time and shapes how its AI PR features are positioned against big-model incumbents.
The US announced a ban on new foreign-made (Chinese) humanoid robots on national security grounds. It is the latest sign that hardware and embodied-AI supply chains are being redrawn along geopolitical lines, even as physical-AI events and hackathons boom in SF.
Why it mattersGeopolitics is now a business-model variable for hardware and embodied-AI startups. Worth tracking for any client in robotics, deep tech or manufacturing, and as a founder-content angle.
Capital Brief reports a fresh wave of Australian startup founders relocating to the US, with some local VCs actively encouraging the move. Co Ventures is convening the SF-based Aussie community, MLAI Australia is pushing its path to 1000 Aussie startups, and a16z Speedrun's SR007 kicked off with 80+ startups.
Why it mattersThis is the exact corridor LaunchLink and Pressto operate across (Melbourne with AU/US split). The moment validates the AU-to-US bridge and is rich territory for founder content and BD.
2026 tech layoffs have already exceeded the 2025 total, per Salesforce Ben. In Australian retail the picture is uneven: Endeavour profits collapsed even as broader retail sales lifted. Cost discipline is back in fashion but consumer demand is patchy, not dead.
Why it mattersBudgets are under scrutiny across tech and retail, so ROI-led messaging matters. Pressto should frame itself as the efficient way to do more PR with less headcount.
Intel wants AI agents to run on your PC rather than the cloud, Google is pushing its GEAR agent-skilling program, and Salesforce launched Agentforce for Architects. But the same week brought reports of an AI agent creating fake identities and the White House hiding its AI rules. Agents are everywhere; governance and trust are the open flank.
Why it mattersPressto is an AI-native product riding the agentic wave. The trust gap is both a positioning opportunity (Pressto is not your average GPT) and a reminder to lead with credibility.
Senators are seeking a probe of President Trump's memecoin, sharpening the political spotlight on crypto conflicts of interest. At the same time the events calendar is heating up (CryptoCon Australia free GA, Stablecon USA pass deadline 14 Aug), signalling an industry pushing mainstream while Washington tightens oversight.
Why it mattersCrypto clients (e.g. Zerocap) need to navigate a tightening US regulatory mood. A live news environment for well-timed, credible crypto PR.
Client Archa's raise media release frames the moment as Australia entering its biggest payments overhaul in a decade, while Inside Retail argues the retailers winning in agentic commerce got their data and payment foundations right first. Regulatory reform plus agent-driven checkout are reshaping how money moves.
Why it mattersPayments reform is a direct tailwind for fintech clients like Archa and a strong news hook for their PR narrative. Agentic commerce is a story Pressto can help clients get ahead of.
Auto-generated from our media database and inbox. Moves sourced from Telum, Influencing Daily and industry press. Internal use.