'Horrifying' sacking of Who editor sparks fury in magland… Plus, state premier shocks staff by announcing two ministers hooked up – and it's curtains for the Logies: INSIDE MAIL

Who do they think they are? 

There’s a reason Aussie media types like to call it ‘boning’ when someone is sacked.

That’s because unlike other trades where there is a modicum of professionalism, for hacks like us it’s usually a clumsy, brutal smack round the head.

And so it’s our sad duty to inform you that veteran journalist Melissa Matheson was fired as editor of Who magazine last week.

She’d been in the job six months and didn’t pass probation. We can’t speak for her performance but Inside Mail has never heard a bad word said about her.

Death-spiral publisher Are Media already has a bad reputation for handling staff dismissals – but this one truly is shocking, even by their rock-bottom standards.

Apparently, the witches of Park Street didn’t want to upset the rank and file by firing an editor of one of their tentpole glossies, so used a staffer’s baby shower as a ‘distraction’.

We’re told Erin Holohan, the pregnant editorial director for New Idea, was getting a nice little send-off in the office last Thursday afternoon.

The party started at 4pm. Susan Armstrong, the general manager of entertainment, gave a glowing speech before running off while the rest of the team did trivia.

It was Susan who had the tricky task of telling Melissa her services were no longer required and her employment was being terminated – immediately.

The probation meeting began at 5pm and lasted for an hour. By contrast, the April redundancies were held at 11am. It’s almost as if they wanted no one to notice…

‘The post-baby shower trivia session was a ploy to keep the worker bees busy in the kitchen while s*** went down,’ one magland veteran tells us.

That evening, Melissa quietly packed up her desk and left, heading out the door as a few remaining staffers tied up loose ends and the cleaners arrived.

That was the last anyone saw of her.

We spoke to several Are Media spies, one of whom described the exit as ‘horrifying’ and ‘brutal’.

Another staffer told us Melissa ‘wasn’t the right fit’ at Are Media – glowing praise given the reputations of some who work there – and that Susan ‘wasn’t a fan’.

Meanwhile, we hear top brass at Are Media are desperate to prevent details of Melissa’s exit from leaking out – ‘especially to the Daily Mail’.

They’re so paranoid, they’ve hired senior spinner Neil Shoebridge to handle enquiries about the looming magazine sell-off.

Why bring in the big guns? There’s a hot rumour that CEO Jane Huxley won’t get her promised end-of-contract bonus in April next year if she gets any bad press.

Whiff of suspicion

Speaking of Park St shenanigans, we hear Are Media raised quite a bit of cash at a recent office beauty sale – $23,500, to be precise.

(Again, thank you to our spies who forwarded the email from the Flying Monkey!)

Where the money will end up is anyone’s guess. Apparently staff are furious because some fragrances were going for as much as $100.

‘What are they running over there? A publishing company or a Chemist Warehouse?’ was how one mag lifer put it to us.

We also hear there’s been a noticeable drop-off in freebies now PRs know anything they send goes up for sale.

Curtains for the ‘bogan Oscars’

We’ve been calling it Australian television’s ‘night of nights’ for years – even though none of us every really believed it.

Now we hear the Logie Awards might not be back next year – or ever.

Speaking to Daily Mail’s senior showbiz reporter Ali Daher on the condition of anonymity, a very high-level TV insider says ‘they’re quietly rolling up the red carpet’.

‘It’s just not viable anymore. No one wants to pay for it, no one’s watching, and the people behind it are already looking for an exit,’ says the source.

That ‘exit’ is apparently the upcoming fire sale of mags at Are Media – which owns TV Week and the Logies brand.

The private equity firm backing Are Media, Mercury Capital, wants out after five years of underwhelming returns.

Beyond just the mag brands changing hands, our source says the landscape has shifted and the Logies simply aren’t relevant any more.

The Logies red carpet used to host the likes of Katy Perry, Ed Sheeran, Bruno Mars, One Direction, Ricky Martin and even Destiny’s Child.

These days, we’re lucky if Delta Goodrem shows up.

‘You remember when the Logies had international stars, outrageous moments, drama?’ says our insider. 

‘Now it’s a glorified promo reel for local TV. It’s like the Bogan Oscars. The big acts are gone – and so is the audience.

‘It’s Karl Stefanovic, Sonia Kruger, Hamish Blake – rinse and repeat. Boring! The audience is tired, the talent’s recycled, and the networks aren’t throwing cash at Logies campaigns like they used to.’ 

And the ratings have plummeted. Seven – which reclaimed the Logies broadcast in 2023 after 28 years with Nine – has seen a 20 per cent drop in digital audience.

‘Seven thought they were buying back a national treasure. What they got was a very expensive nostalgia trip,’ the insider adds.

Nine’s MAFS betrayal cuts deep 

Speaking of the Logies, it’s that time of year again when the stars of Married At First Sight have an almighty whinge because Channel Nine didn’t wrangle them tickets.

Now look, Inside Mail doesn’t typically go to bat for reality TV desperados – but maybe they have a point this time. Hear us out…

MAFS is Nine’s prime-time juggernaut. It’s the only entertainment show left in Australia still breaking the ‘magic million’ metro viewers mark – and the only program capable of clawing back youth audiences who’ve otherwise abandoned free-to-air TV.

That’s not down to producers or programmers – it’s all the messy brides and grooms.

‘We gave them the most talked-about season in years – and they didn’t even invite us to the Logies,’ one cast member tells us.

‘Not one of us. It’s like we never existed.’

Despite MAFS being nominated for Most Popular Reality Program, not a single participant from the 2025 cast has been invited to attend.

‘We were good enough to boost ratings, but not good enough to walk the red carpet?’ another MAFS star says.

‘It’s beyond insulting.’

The snub has been particularly hard on the brides and grooms who ‘played ball’ while the show was airing.

In previous seasons, cast members were rewarded with a ticket to the Logies for not leaking spoilers or engaging with banned media. Not so in 2025.

‘They asked us to protect the show’s image – we did,’ one bride tells Daher.

‘And the second the reunion aired, we were ghosted. The bastards don’t even reply to our emails anymore.’

Age is just a number

Word around 1 William St is that two of David Crisafulli‘s cabinet ministers have swapped late-night policy chats for something a little more personal.

Inside Mail hears that Amanda Camm, the Minister for Families, Seniors, Disability Services, Child Safety and the Prevention of Domestic Violence (try fitting that on a business card), is now officially an item with Tim Mander, the Minister for Sport, Racing, and Olympics and Paralympics.

Premier Crisafulli made the cabinet aware of the romance during a meeting on Monday at Brisbane’s Tower of Power, to ensure everyone was in the loop.

It’s all very above board – but the age gap has set tongues wagging. Mander, 64, is nearly two decades older than 46-year-old Camm.

But love doesn’t come without its logistical hurdles: Camm’s electorate of Whitsunday is about 1,000km from Mander’s seat of Everton, in Brisbane’s north.

It’s not the first time Queensland politics has seen romance bloom within the ranks.

In 2018, Labor MPs Meaghan Scanlon and Mark Bailey made headlines when they went public with their relationship, raising eyebrows not only for their cabinet positions but also their 25-year age gap.

Scanlon was just 25, while Bailey was 50.

Chalmers: It’s okay when we do it

The Albanese government’s instinct to duck rather than engage has again been laid bare. 

This time it’s Treasurer Jim Chalmers stepping in to defend Jillian Segal, the government’s hand-picked antisemitism envoy, after revelations her husband donated $50,000 to right-wing lobby group Advance.

Rather than address the optics or implications of the donation, Chalmers played the ball well wide of the pitch, insisting personal donations were a ‘private matter’. Really?

Would he feel the same if the partner of his treasury secretary did the same? Or perhaps if his political chief of staff’s spouse held hands with a far-right organisation?

Segal’s role – already the subject of quiet consternation given its sensitivity – now risks being undermined by perceived political bias, something the Albanese government can’t afford if it wants to be taken seriously on the issue of antisemitism.

The Greens, predictably, are making noise – but the deeper concern lies in Labor’s unwillingness to set clear lines of accountability: either this government believes in transparency and credibility for special envoys or it doesn’t.

Trying to have it both ways reinforces the sense that this is a government increasingly allergic to scrutiny, let alone self-reflection.

Running out of hats

Not content with being ruled a rapist by a civil court, the king of bad decisions Bruce Lehrmann has once again tried to ‘own’ his enemies – only to fall flat on his arse.

His latest target? Daily Mail Australia.

About a month ago, we sent senior reporter Karleigh Smith and a snapper to Tassie to chase various unrelated stories, after which she followed up a tip that Lehrmann was living on the Apple Isle with an older female housemate.

Sure enough, he was there. We got the pics, got the yarn and slapped it together with the sort of withering headline for which we are rightly famous:

‘Bruce Lehrmann’s last chance saloon: We found the despised party boy hiding at the end of the Earth – and he’s shacked up with a single mum who has a LOT to say to the local haters.’ 

Bruce wasn’t pleased – and we know he likes to get his way – so he sent a risible letter demanding we pull the article and cough up $50,000.

We didn’t respond.

Then, last Thursday, Lehrmann’s lawyer Zali Burrows served Smith with a notice that Brucey – as he is known in media circles – had applied for an interim restraining order, and Smith was ordered to face court in Hobart this Tuesday.

Neither Smith nor Lehrmann attended court in person, though our reporter engaged a local barrister who argued – successfully – that her actions were justified as a journo.

Meanwhile, Burrows waffled on about Smith and the photographer endangering Bruce and causing him ‘psychological harm’.

Magistrate Marica Duvnjak didn’t buy it – Lehrmann’s application for an interim restraining order was rejected. His court fail then made the front page of the Mercury, which charmingly referred to us as ‘mainland media’.

When Supreme Court Justice Michael Lee last year found, on the balance of probabilities, that Lehrmann had raped his colleague Brittany Higgins in Parliament House in 2019, he remarked that Lehrmann, ‘having escaped the lions’ den’ of his aborted criminal trial, had then ‘made the mistake of going back for his hat’.

After his latest legal fumble, the question we’re asking is: how many hats does this doofus have left?

A banquet of praise 

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese received the sort of endorsement on his China visit that PMs usually cringe at. The state-owned China Daily showered him with praise, contrasting his pro-China sentiments with the actions of Scott Morrison.

It didn’t take ScoMo long to fire back, taking to the airwaves to point out that he didn’t take dictation from the communist party’s official publication when pulling together his foreign policy plans.

That said, the economic climate has certainly changed for the better when it comes to China since Albo settled into The Lodge: Chinese tariffs on everything from beef to wine to barley have lifted – welcome news for Australian exporters.

Our new PM knows which side his bread is buttered – and keeping China happy isn’t the electoral poison it once was. In fact, Labor strategists credit his pro-China stance as a powerful underpinning of the government’s continued success in the west.

Albo’s strong showing in WA at the 2022 election only got better in 2025, helping to lock in his thumping majority.

Meanwhile, the Liberals continue to scratch around to find ways to reclaim a semblance of the electoral success they enjoyed over the previous decade. So far, at least, that hasn’t involved buttering up to China the way Albo does. 

Thai death photos for sale 

One of the biggest stories of last week was the sudden death of high-flying Brisbane lawyer Christopher Saines at a massage parlour in Thailand.

He was found unresponsive at the Siam Touch shop – which offers sexual services – about 6am on July 7. Coincidentally, this was just minutes from where cricket legend Shane Warne suffered a fatal heart attack in 2022 – also after a Thai massage.

It’s a tragedy for the young family of the 43-year-old legal firm CEO – one that could have been made far more painful had the full story been published.

You see, the agency that supplied the exclusive story provided more than just words and a few pics of the massage parlour – a local snapper had ventured inside the shop and taken photos of Saines lying dead on the table.

They are the sort of pictures you can’t unsee – but mercifully were never published. 

Gamble responsibly

The Liberal Party’s decision to challenge the Bradfield result in court is a high-stakes gamble that could easily backfire.

Yes, the margin was razor-thin – just 26 votes – and yes, the teal victory must sting – having gifted them all of Sydney’s once-blue-ribbon north shore – but voters rarely warm to legal challenges over election outcomes, even when they are technically justified, which this challenge may or may not be.

If the court tosses the result and orders a fresh by-election, the Libs could find themselves in an even worse position. And if the court doesn’t overturn it, well they’ll only look like sorer losers than they already do.

While we get the party’s broader aim to try to keep another teal out of parliament, the challenge is being launched under the name of the failed Liberal candidate, Gisele Kapterian. If she loses the court case or gets trounced in a rerun, she’s not just defeated, she’s politically radioactive. Unelectable perhaps forever.

If the party weighed that up and decided it was worth the risk – perhaps to boost female numbers in parliament – are they really looking after her best interests in doing so? If they ultimately win, sure – but how likely is that really?

Sky News sacking sparks another Israel conspiracy

What happened to Liz Storer? 

Six weeks after the Late Debate co-host vanished from Sky News without explanation, viewers are still demanding answers – and now the conspiracy theories have begun. 

A Facebook group with more than 1,200 members is calling for her reinstatement, with even Mark Latham weighing in. On Tuesday, the outspoken ex-Sky host told us Storer was dumped for not being ‘lavishly sycophantic’ enough towards Israel.

(Latham hasn’t said anything on the subject since then. Unsurprising, really – it seems he has a bit on his plate at the moment…)

Now, there is no evidence that Storer, the former national director of lobby group Advance Australia, was sacked for failing to toe the company line on the Jewish state.

However, her being replaced by rising network star Freya Leach – who is about as pro-Israel as they come – has raised more than a few eyebrows.

It’s not the first time Israel has been dragged into a Sky News sacking.

When Erin Molan was let go last year, some falsely suggested it was because of her outspoken Zionism – a claim Jewish Sky presenter Caroline Marcus called ‘a lie’.

Seat fillers wanted

Nothing reveals the hollowing-out of political engagement quite like an empty fundraiser. This week, Queensland Labor’s Steven Miles (the now-state opposition leader who lost the last election as premier) learned that the hard way.

The Hayden Oration – a $150-a-head dinner designed to boost Ipswich MP Jennifer Howard‘s war chest – sold just 13 tickets out of 140 on offer. Even the wine and canapés couldn’t attract more takers!

The optics are bad, not just for the local campaign but for Labor more broadly in the sunshine state. A former premier hoping to return to the top job can’t fill a modest-sized room with party faithful? That’s not apathy – it’s a stark warning.

Maybe Queensland Labor needs to find someone else to take over? Someone – anyone – who can actually pull a crowd?

Miles has been portrayed as a steady hand, but the truth is he’s struggling to cut through. If this is a sign of things to come under his struggling leadership, the next state election might turn into a victory lap for the LNP.

Which is good news for Australian conservatives when they don’t have much else going for them around the rest of the country.

Stefanovic‘s new wheels

We papped Karlos last week looking like the cat that got the cream after he somehow convinced Nine management he was worth an eye-watering $3million a year.

And say what you like about the Today show frontman, he knows how to take a good paparazzi photo. Because a week later, we caught him again.

But instead of swanning through airports with half his shirt unbuttoned, we spied the breakfast TV anchor climbing into his brand-new Toyota HiLux Ute worth $77,000. 

We know junior producers at Nine paid less than that…

Anyway, we’re sure Mr Stefanovic is worth every penny and Nine won’t regret signing him on for another few years – even after the ratings showed his understudy James Bracey was just as popular with viewers on a comparatively thrifty $600k a year.

And lastly…

When Cold Chisel legend Ian Moss needed a lawyer after being caught speeding on his way to a gig, he unknowingly called in a 25-year-old favour.

Former cop Paul McGirr – one of Sydney’s top criminal defence lawyers, known for representing everyone from Brett Finch to Kristina Keneally‘s son Daniel – first met Moss in 1999 after a university rugby game in Parkes.

Moss made sure he was able to drink for free all night at the Cambridge Hotel after introducing him as one of his roadies.

‘For a uni student, I thought I was in heaven’ McGirr tells Inside Mail.

‘I told Mossy, «Mate, if I can ever repay the favour…»‘

‘Fast forward 25 years, he rang me and I said, «Mate, I owe you one.» He didn’t remember it, and so I did it for him for nothing. I owed him one.’

As for the speeding matter, Moss had a win. He got a three-month conditional release order with no conviction recorded.