1

ANNUAL
REPORT
For the year ended
31 December 2018
 2
MELBOURNE PRESS CLUB
Contents

President’s Report 2018 Page 3

Treasurer’s Report 2018 Page 4

Events Calendar 2018 Page 5

Board 2018 Page 6

Quill Awards 2018 Page 7-8

MPC Sponsors 2018 Page 9

Financial Report 2018 Page 10

 3
MELBOURNE PRESS CLUB
President’s Report 2018

My deepest thanks to all members, sponsors, staff and the board. The Melbourne
Press Club has had another stellar year despite turbulent times in the media.

Outdated defamation laws stymying press freedom, the use of suppression orders,
redundancies and threats of ABC budget cuts haven’t gone away. There has also
been a changing media landscape with Fairfax sold to Nine.

It makes it more important than ever that we come together to support our
professional associations. Our members, sponsors, volunteers and board make a
difference by putting aside masthead rivalries to recognise great Australian
journalism and the difference it makes to our society.

In the past year we held a record 19 events with record attendance levels and ticket
revenue. Event highlights included a lunch with John Pilger, a memorial evening for
cartoonist Ron Tandberg, the first public speech by new Catholic Archbishop Peter
Comensoli, a forum of candidates for the Melbourne Lord Mayor election and a State
election forum on crime with the Attorney General and shadow attorney general.

Other highlights include the annual Quill Awards dinner, which continues to draw
close to 600 guests at Crown Palladium.

In November we completed the national foundation of the Australian Media Hall of

Fame with the induction of another 50 late and living legends of journalism from
across the country including keynote speaker and veteran crime writer John
Silvester.

We honoured the late Michael Gordon with the launch of an exciting fellowship
program providing $30,000 in grants for social justice journalism.

New sponsorship agreements were signed with VicHealth and recruitment firm Hope
& Glory - and we continued to receive strong support from principal sponsors Virgin
Australia and Monash University.

Early career journalists and journalism students are critical to the future of journalism
and at MPC we continue to support and encourage their participation with our special
events program “The Edit” and our unique, cross-industry mentoring program.

None of this could have been possible without the hard work and passion of the staff
- CEO Mark Baker, David Fisher, Anna Marulli, Kate Handley, and Sybilla Gross.

Thank you again to the board members, the sponsors and our members.
I look forward to playing my part in the Melbourne Press Club.

Adele Ferguson
President
Melbourne Press Club
June 2019
 4
MELBOURNE PRESS CLUB
Treasurer’s Report 2018

The Club further improved its financial position in 2018.

Please refer to the financial statements for full details of the year's results. As stated in previous years
the Club remains fortunate that it has no significant ongoing financial commitments other than salaries,
event venue deposits, and office expenses, but continuing viability depends on securing sufficient
sponsorship to meet these commitments.

We again received very pleasing support from our many continuing sponsors, with special thanks as
always to Monash University and Virgin Australia.

The value of annual sponsorship income was maintained at over $400,000 during financial 2017/18. It
is pleasing to be able to report a profit of $72,168, and a very strong cash position at 2018 calendar
year end at $163,308. In part the increase in the cash position arose from generous donations to the
Michael Gordon Fellowship program supporting social justice journalism, with that money earmarked
for grants to the program. The Club's current financial position is strong with reasonable cash reserves,
and significant sponsorship payments pending.

The highlights of financial performance included:

• Membership revenue remained steady at $44,258, as we began to benefit from optional on line
renewals to encourage higher retention rates;
• Revenue from functions increased to $189,640. Overall, functions ran at a modest profit.

Our secretariat continued to perform well and as always my thanks go to Mark Baker and his team for
their ongoing support.

We have continued to observe the procedures required by our auditors to ensure that accounting and
association standards are met. I would like to thank our auditors, Pitcher Partners, for their efficient
and timely service again this year.

David Poulton
Treasurer
Melbourne Press Club
20 June 2019
 5

MELBOURNE PRESS CLUB

Events Calendar 2018

MELBOURNE PRESS CLUB

Events Calendar 2018

CORPORATE LUNCHES MEDIA LUNCHES OTHER EVENTS

January

February Feb 1 – The Rabble Rousers – Mr Feb 17 - Quills Judging day

Hive (78 guests)
Feb 22 – Bean Foundation
Dinner – Savage Club (96
guests)
March March 2 – John Pilger – Mr Hive (76 Mar 16 – Quills Dinner
guests) (560 guests)

April April 19 – Neville Stevens – Mr Hive 16 April – The Edit with

Rachael Brown – Horse
(69 guests) Bazzar

April 26 – Lord Mayor candidates

debate – Mr Hive
(100 guests)

May 2 May - State Budget lunch with
Treasurer Tim Pallas (with
VECCI) – Park Hyatt (70 MPC
guests)
May 10 – Gaven Morris – Mr Hive
(79 guests)
May 25 – Graeme Samuel – Mr Hive
(90 guests)
July 23 – The Edit with crime
writer Anthony Dowsley –
(13 guests)

June June 19 - ABC MD Michelle June 6 – Jobs After Journalism forum

Guthrie – Mr Hive – Mr Hive
(104 guests) (60 guests)

July July 25 – China media forum | Mr

Hive (90 guests)

August 30 August - Lunch with the 23 August – Bob Rose Lunch -

Archbishop | Mr Hive (97 guests) – Kim Williams – RACV City
Club (45 MPC guests)
27 August | The Edit –
Freelancing (40 guests)
September

October 31 October – The Politics of Crime –

election forum (100 guests)
November November 16 – Hall of Fame
Induction Dinner - Grand
Hyatt, Melbourne (279 guests)
December
 6

MELBOURNE PRESS CLUB

Board 2018

President: Adele Ferguson, The Age

Vice Presidents: Eileen Berry, The Eileen Berry Trust

Michael Rowland, ABC

Treasurer: David Poulton, Minter Ellison

Secretary: Richard Leder, Corrs Chambers Westgarth

Executive: Mark Baker, CEO

Anna Marulli, Acting General Manager
David Fisher, Assistant Manager
Jenny Denton, Digital Producer (until 20 October 2018)
Sybilla Gross, Digital Producer (from Nov 2018)

Board:
David Broadbent, Broadbent Media
Rob Curtain, Communications Specialist
Nicole Denton, 3AW
Rachael Dexter, The Age
Bob Kearsley, Business Essentials
Jonathan Kearsley, Nine News
Heather Loomes, Ten Network
Ashlynne McGhee, ABC
Shaun Menegola, Seven News
Heidi Murphy, 3AW Macquarie Radio
Pat O’Beirne, Six O’Clock Advisory
Mike Osborne, Australian Associated Press
Simon Pristel, Headline PR
Justin Quill, M&K Lawyers
Tom Salom, News Corp
Veronica Scott, Minter Ellison
 7

MELBOURNE PRESS CLUB

Quill Awards Honour Roll 2018
__________________________________________________________________________

The Gold Quill

Anthony Dowsley and Patrick Carlyon | Herald Sun

The Graham Perkin Award for the Australian Journalist of the Year
Anthony Dowsley | Herald Sun

Lifetime Achievement Award

Barrie Cassidy

Harry Gordon Australian Sports Journalist of the Year Award

Andrew Rule | Herald Sun

Victorian Government Quill for Reporting on Disability Issues

Rachael Lucas | ABC 7.30

Young Journalist of the Year Award

Matilda Marozzi | ABC

RACV Transport Quill

Timna Jacks & Rachael Dexter | The Age

The Grant Hattam Quill Award for Investigative Journalism

Anthony Dowsley & Patrick Carlyon | Herald Sun

The Keith Dunstan Quill for Commentary

Barrie Cassiey | ABC

Sports News
Leo Schlink | Herald Sun

Sports Feature
Michael Gleeson| The Age

Business News
Adele Ferguson, Lesley Robinson, Nassim Khadem & Lucy Carter | The Age

Business Feature
David Stringer, Kit Chellel and Franz Wild| Bloomberg Businessweek

News Photograph
Alex Coppel | Herald Sun

Sports Photograph
Michael Dodge | Herald Sun

Features Photograph
Justin McManus | The Sunday Age Age

Artwork
Matthew Absalom-Wong | The Age

Breaking News Coverage
The Herald Sun/Sunday Herald Sun Team | Herald Sun
 8

Coverage of an Issue or Event

Anthony Dowsley, Patrick Carlyon & Chris Tinkler | Herald Sun

Cartoon
Matt Golding | The Age

Innovation in Journalism
Calla Wahlquist, Lorena Allam, Jack Banister & Nick Evershed | The Guardian

Suburban Journalism
Jordy Atkinson | Port Phillip Leader

Regional & Rural Journalism
Tyla Harrington | Riverine Herald

TAC Towards Zero Quill for Road Safety Reporting
Jacqui Peake, Bill Lim, Martin Elliot & Warwick Ferguson | Network Ten, The Project

TV / Video News
Melina Sarris, Jackie Quist & Damian Shine | Seven News

TV / Video Feature (Long Form)
Louise Milligan, Mary Fallon, Sashka Koloff & Lucy Carter| ABC Four Corners & The Age

TV / Video Feature (Short Form)

Tineka Everaardt | Nine – A Current Affair

Radio Journalism (Long Form)

Jane Lee, Alice Brennan, Jess O’Callaghan & Leila Shunnar | ABC Background Briefing

Radio (Short Form)

Bridget Judd | ABC Local Radio

News Report in Writing

Amy Bainbridge, Rachael Brown & Naomi Selvaratnam | ABC Radio AM

Feature Writing
Melissa Fyfe | Good Weekend

Podcasting
Richard Baker, Rachael Dexter, Greg Muller & Tim Yount | The Age

The VicHealth Quill for Coverage of Women in Sport
Samantha Lane | The Age

 9

MELBOURNE PRESS CLUB

Sponsors to December 2018