Daily Mail Australia’s maternity leave initiative, ‘Mums of Media’, is now open for expressions of interest in 2020.
Launched only in Brisbane last year, Mums of Media is a regular meet-up event for women on maternity leave from the fast-paced world of media, to help them stay connected during their time-off.
Daily Mail Australia’s business development director Sophie Harcombe said: “I had the idea after I returned to work because I felt too cut off from media when I was on maternity leave and really missed the industry and the people. By meeting regularly, we were able to share industry knowledge, provide an additional level of support, and talk about how we were all adapting to motherhood.”
“It made a refreshing change from the standard mum groups.”
The Mums of Media group grew to 12 members in 2019 in Brisbane, where Harcombe is based, meeting on Friday mornings in child-friendly cafes to keep in touch with the industry, share ideas and find support from other mothers within media.
While providing a dedicated space for media mums to ‘talk shop’ is core to the group’s mission, attendees said Mums of Media also helped them in more personal ways too.
Starcom digital manager Natalie Paraskevas said: “Daily Mail’s Mums in Media is a great initiative, one that I hold very dearly as it helped me through the huge personal change of becoming a mum and being on maternity leave. It was nice to have somewhere to go to every month and feel supported by other mums who were in the same boat.”
Auto & General media manager Karmen Wellington said: “It was so great of Daily Mail to start an initiative like this in the industry, definitely something that was lacking. Being on maternity leave it was a great way to reconnect with industry contacts and fellow working mums on a regular basis.”
All bubs in the group also received a custom Daily Mail Australia ‘Paparazzi’ bib.
Mums of Media is set to expand in 2020, with expressions of interest open for women and men who are due to take parental leave this year in Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne.
The group welcomes to expectant mums and dads of all media backgrounds, including those from media and creative agencies, client marketing teams, and other publishers or broadcasters.
