Today, one of South Australia’s most senior corporate communication professionals resigns, cracking the Facebook code, media movements and more.

Megan Lloyd leaves ASC

Former Sunday Mail editor Megan Lloyd resigned suddenly this week from her corporate affairs job at ASC – and the circumstances will send a chill up many people’s spines.

Lloyd accidentally cc-ed the wrong person on an email to her boss which contained a draft message from the ASC CEO to staff.

It’s a mistake most of us have made. However, the stakes in this case were high.

The contents of the email were sensitive – about a rescue plan for the Australian Warfare Destroyer project, to be announced imminently by federal Defence Minister David Johnston.

And the cc-ed person? Federal political reporter for The Australian, Sarah Martin, who has just joined the Canberra press gallery from the Oz’s Adelaide bureau.

Martin, like any reporter worth their salt, used the information to seek confirmation from Johnston about the impending announcement, while seeking to protect her (inadvertent) source.

Regardless of publication – the story made page one of Tuesday’s paper – Lloyd was in strife, given the stringent confidentiality requirements in Defence.

She decided to resign.

The Facebook enigma

There have been thousands – maybe millions – of words devoted to trying to help business crack Facebook’s algorithm.

The tricky formula governs how far and wide a business or organisation’s posts are pushed – a factor which Facebook calls “reach”.

Unlike the way Facebook works for individuals, the formula means that an organisation’s followers won’t automatically see all of the posts, all of the time.

Sometimes, as social media operators know all too well, a post will reach a tiny percentage of an organisation’s followers (Facebook helpfully offers to help you “boost” your post – for a small charge).

But what if you’re providing information to your followers as an important public service? Like South Australia’s Country Fire Service (CFS), for example?

The Sellicks Hill fire this week was a harsh reminder of what the impending South Australian summer can mean – hot, dry and dangerous.

As the fire continued, one InDaily reader pointed out that although he “liked” the CFS pages (countryfireservice and cfsupdates), no updates were appearing on his personal newsfeed.

Facebook’s tinkering this year means that users must not only like an organisation’s page or group, they must go to that page and select “get notifications” from the drop-down menu on the “liked” button.

The CFS Media Unit said it had run multiple awareness campaigns to inform the public of the change – but it seems not everyone has got the message.

The CFS does appear to know what it’s doing in social media.

It has more than 157,000 total followers across both pages and more than 50,000 people engaged (unique likes, shares, comments or impressions) from December 3-9.

Interaction for the week peaked on Monday when the Sellicks’ fire started and there were more than 1600 comments and 1300 shares of content.

Nevertheless, the CFS advises the public to always seek information across multiple channels.

In the case of fire, the old ways are still the best – nothing will beat a battery-powered radio tuned to ABC local radio when the power goes.

The leaking index?

Labor veteran Michael Atkinson has pre-empted the annual run of media stories assessing the performance of State Government ministers and their shadows.

He took to Twitter to explain how he believes it works.

“Media due to vent spleen scoring State political frontbenchers out of 10. The incompetent & unknown will be rewarded for leaking to author.”

Goodings’ replacement

Channel Seven has announced a permanent replacement for weekend newsreader Graeme Goodings.

Experienced journalist Jessica Adamson will take the position full-time, after Goodings refused an offer to share the role next year.

Adamson will continue reporting from the field on weekdays.

Katrina’s new gig

South Australian Katrina Sedgewick will leave her position as head of arts at the ABC in Sydney to take up a new role in Melbourne.

Sedgewick, who founded the Adelaide Film Festival, has been appointed CEO of the Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI).

ACMI, based at Federation Square, looks at the moving image in all of its forms. It screens films and runs exhibitions, festivals, live events, workshops and education programs.

Sedgewick joined the ABC in 2012.

Naughty corner

The title of this weekly prize is too trivial to describe the moronic attempt at clickbait published by News Corp’s tabloids this week about cyclists.

Presented on Adelaide Now as “Car vs Bikes: Part 1 Why cyclists drive me mad“, the piece that originated at the Herald Sun is both self-evidently stupid and potentially dangerous.

Surely it must be satire?

For the benefit of the article’s author, “The Motorist”, the 2013 national road toll figures showed a doubling of cyclist fatalities, with experts saying that what is needed is more education on how to share the road.

This sort of article is a backward step.

Top of the class

The Advertiser gets an honourable mention for its wrap-around cover on Monday this week. It was a tribute to Phil Hughes on day one of the Test, with hundreds of readers’ personal tributes surrounding images of the late cricketer. Nicely done.

This week’s winner is Graham Archer, the veteran executive producer of Today Tonight Adelaide, who received a $5000 award from the organisation Voiceless this week.

Voiceless was set up to promote animal welfare. The media award won by Archer was for his work lobbying against the Weatherill Government’s proposed Surveillance Devices Act. Archer believed the Act would have criminalised the shooting and use of undercover footage which is a crucial tool in exposing  the mistreatment of animals. The winning entry showed dramatic footage of puppy farms, intensive farming, sow stalls and live animal exports.

The kicker is that Archer has decided to share the dough with all staff that had a role in the winning stories.

Media Week is published on Fridays.