Career
Magazines
Cleo
After tripling the circulation at Dolly, she was personally approached by Kerry Packer to become editor of Australian Consolidated Press women's lifestyle magazine, Cleo . [7] One of her first acts was to remove the magazine's infamous male centrefold. [8] During her time as editor, she mentored up and coming journalists such as Mia Freedman and Deborah Thomas. [9] [10] Over ten years Wilkinson became the title's longest-serving editor, and during her tenure there was unprecedented circulation growth for the magazine. Wilkinson went on to become Cleo's International Editor-in-Chief as it opened titles in New Zealand and Asia. [11]
Huffington Post
In August 2015 Wilkinson was asked by Arianna Huffington to become the Australian Editor-at-large of The Huffington Post , a role she held until 2018. [13] [14] [15]
Television
Wilkinson's television career began in the late 1990s when she became a regular panelist on Network Ten and Foxtel's Beauty and the Beast . During the 2000 Summer Olympics, she (along with Duncan Armstrong) co-hosted The Morning Shift on the Seven Network. [16]
Today
On 10 May 2007, it was confirmed that Wilkinson was to co-host Today on the Nine Network after Jessica Rowe left the network and she began appearing on Today on 28 May 2007. [18] This was Stefanovic's fifth female co-host in just over two years. [19] In 2016, the duo took the show to number one in the breakfast TV wars for the first time in 12 years. [20]
On 16 October 2017, Wilkinson resigned from the Nine Network and Today effective immediately due to a contract dispute with management over the significant gender pay gap that existed between her and long-time co-host Karl Stefanovic [21] after ten years with the network. [22] Wilkinson herself announced she was leaving on Twitter and then just over an hour later announced on Twitter that she was joining Network 10. [23]
In her 2021 memoir, It Wasn't Meant to Be Like This, Wilkinson revealed that she had been sacked over her request for a fairer pay structure at the Network. [24]
The Project
In 2018, she joined The Project, a nightly TV current affairs programme on Network 10. [25] On 20 November 2022 Wilkinson "stepped down" from her role on The Project after a controversial year on the program." [26] [27] [28]
Other
In 2013, Wilkinson gave the Andrew Olle Media Lecture on the treatment of women in and by the media. [32] She was the first female journalist to give the speech since Jana Wendt in 1997. [33]
In 2017, Wilkinson was remarked on by The Daily Mail for wearing on air a blouse she had worn four months before. [34] Her cohost, Karl Stefanovic, had previously worn the same suit every day for a year without attracting notice. [34] Wilkinson posted a tweet criticizing the sexism and wore the blouse on air the next day, sardonically writing "my greatest legacy to the annals of female news broadcasting history will likely be that I dared to wear the same outfit two days in a row on national TV". [34] [35] Other male and female Today Show hosts also wore the blouse on air in following days. [34] [36]
In October 2021, Wilkinson was for the second time named a finalist in the Walkley Awards, for her interview with political staffer Brittany Higgins [37] in which she alleged being raped on Federal Government Minister Linda Reynold's office couch in 2019. [38] That story led to a full cultural review by Federal Sex Discrimination Commissioner, Kate Jenkins, into the workplace treatment of women in Parliament House. [39]
Honours
Wilkinson was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia in the 2016 Australia Day Honours list for significant service to the print and broadcast media as a journalist and presenter, and to a range of youth and women's health groups. [46]
In 2017, Wilkinson's portrait by artist Peter Smeeth was a finalist in the Archibald Prize, and winner of the Packing Room Prize. [47] [48]
In 2022, Wilkinson was part of The Project team that won 2 Logie Awards - one for Most Popular Panel or Current Affairs Program and one for Most Outstanding News Coverage or Public Affairs Report. [49]
Controversy
On receiving an award at the nationally televised 62nd Annual Logie Awards, Wilkinson "gave a speech in which she openly referred to and praised" the complainant in a sexual assault matter, despite "clear and appropriate" warning of the associated risks of doing so while criminal court proceedings were afoot. [50]
The subsequent publicity generated from Wilkinson's speech caused lawyers for the man awaiting trial in this matter to lodge an application to temporarily stay proceedings. [51] On 21 June 2022, lawyers for the accused argued that Wilkinson's "speech did not need to be made" and the ACT Chief Justice Lucy McCallum granted the man's application. [52]
Commenting on Wilkinson's speech, Chief Justice McCallum said, "What concerns me most about this recent round is that the distinction between an allegation and a finding of guilt has been completely obliterated". [53] Her Honour further stated that, "The implicit premise of [Wilkinson's speech was] to celebrate the truthfulness of the story she exposed" before any finding of guilt, and in the context of the accused denying that "any sexual activity took place". [52] The Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported that "the prosecution is considering making an application for a restraint on commentary by Ms Wilkinson". [54]
As a subsequent independent inquiry investigating the prosecution of Lehrmann, ACT Prosecutor Shane Drumgold admitted he "misread the situation" in a meeting with Lisa Wilkinson discussing her acceptance speech for a Logie award [55] and that he subsequently misled the judge about Wilkinson's Logies speech. [56]
In 2023, Bruce Lehrmann launched a defamation suit against Wilkinson, Samantha Maiden, Network 10, and News Corp and subsequently the ABC. [57] In May 2023, Lehrmann dropped his defamation case against News Corp and Samantha Maiden, but not Wilkinson, the Ten Network or the ABC. [58] Wilkinson subsequently commenced legal action against her employer, Network 10, over alleged failure of the Network to pay her legal fees of $700,000. [59] In April 2024, the defamation suit was dismissed when the court ruled that on the balance of probabilities Lehrmann raped Higgins. [60]
This page is based on this
Wikipedia article Text is available under the
CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
