Nancy to Press Council. Jeweller Kate Durham says she’s “had enough” of Gerard Henderson. After the media columnist wrote that Durham had been expelled 16 times (instead of once at 16) at school — a mistake (since corrected) made as part of a broader criticism of Durham’s husband, human rights lawyer Julian Burnside — Durham says she plans to report the latest episode to the Press Council.

“I have not had an apology from Gerard Henderson,” she said to Crikey. “He is a constant critic of my husband, and I cannot help but feel that this is just another shot in his little campaign.”

Referring to comments Henderson made to Crikey yesterday after we approached him about the error, Durham says the “so-called apology” he delivered is “no apology at all: in fact he seems to be justifying himself … He denies his intent, and yet curiously he says it was a ‘deliberate’ mistake.” Durham says she suspects Henderson is complacent given Burnside’s reputation for never suing people.

“What troubles me most is that he shows such low journalistic standards, yet he is politically quite influential. He is often on [ABC political show] Insiders. It’s hard to see why: he comes across as a crank. Media outlets should give a care to who they allow to fill the commentator’s chair. This man can’t process words on a page yet rushes  to critique what his creative invention of the words might mean.”

Henderson’s mistake came after he misread an article about Durham published in The Age. “I had had a ‘particularly busy week’ and a John-Laws’-style deliberate mistake was perhaps inevitable,” he said. “I must have heard Kate Durham — that self-declared ‘wild child’ — say on 16 occasions that she had been expelled from school. With this rebel past in mind, in haste, I misread Suzanne Carbone’s report in The Age (6 Sept) and (falsely) declared that she was expelled on 16 occasions from one school — rather than on one occasion when 16.”

Henderson also disputes the allegation that he criticised both Burnside and Durham. “If someone will let me know how I attacked Kate Durham and/or Julian Burnside … I will apologise.”

Durham says she’s not sure where Henderson’s assertion to having heard her talk about her expulsion before comes from. “I do not think I have said publicly before that I have been expelled, and I have never met Gerard Henderson,” she said. — Myriam Robin

MEAA seeks first-ever CEO. The Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance — which represents journalists, musicians, actors and crew — is looking for its first-ever CEO, after a vote controversially passed its council earlier this year replacing the elected position of federal secretary with an appointed CEO. There’s an ad up on AEGEUS Executive Search that looks for someone with the usual corporate experience (“significant experience at senior exec level” etc) along with “a commitment to the process and benefits of collectivism”. An unusual combination to be sure.

Gotta have that media-rich content. Seven years ago digital video advertising barley existed, if at all. Next year it is forecast to top US$6 billion in the already huge US market and grow to close to US$19 billion in four years time. US research group, eMarketer says close to US$5.9 billion will be spent. That’s a leap of 56% from what will be spent this year. Digital video ads spending is dragging money from free-to-air and cable TV, outdoor and cinema advertising, not to mention money previously spent in print media, especially magazines. The sector leader, according to eMarketer, is Google’s YouTube, which will earn an estimated US$1.13 billion from video-advertising revenue in 2014, up 39% from US$810 million last year. eMarketer reckons YouTube’s share of ad spending next year will fall to just under 19%, from 21.3% in 2013. That’s because of rising competition and the short duration of much of the content currently being shown on YouTube:

“Much of the time audiences spend with digital video in general is not useful for advertisers, such as clips that are either too short to include ads or not brand friendly, and both are attributes of many user-generated YouTube videos that get the most views,” eMarketer said.

eMarketer points out that the value of ads on digital video services is actually a victim of its own success because:

“Though video advertisers are following the broader trend of shifting dollars to mobile devices, mobile video ads actually suppress the overall market in part, since many smartphone video ads are short ads accompanying short clips and often cost less than desktop video ads. “Video’s share of digital display ads in the US will gain significant ground throughout our forecast period, increasing from 21.6% of all digital display advertising last year to 30.1% by 2018. Meanwhile, rich media — which can include video and interactive elements — will also gain share of the digital display market, taking away dollars from banners and other static ad formats.”

If these forecasts pan out, static websites without video and media-rich content will become as much “victims” as the analogue media whose business digital is rapidly destroying. — Glenn Dyer

Front page of the Day. First they came for our bins…