poor journalism

Fairfax's problem is poor journalism, not recession | The Australian

In The Age, Max Suich, former editor-in-chief of Fairfax's Sydney and national papers, details the publisher's decline

IF readers of The Age or other Australian newspapers detect a decline in quality, intelligence and scepticism, address the blame to the editors and journalists in the newspaper press. It's true that management will be bearing down on costs but the style and content of the papers is a direct result of editorial desires not boardroom decisions. Editorial numbers at the Fairfax papers are back to levels of the early 2000s, a time when better papers were produced. While every editor would enjoy more staff and The Australian is surprisingly well, though not lavishly, staffed (which allows it to provide a benchmark for serious reporting of national affairs), there are enough journalists on the major papers to maintain quality news reporting, inquiry and explanation. The quality of the Fairfax metropolitan papers in Sydney and Melbourne is widely perceived to have declined. Generally, however, (journalists) suggest it's not their fault, whereas I consider that it is. Talented senior writers who once produced well-written, accounts of major events, have retreated to the lazy comfort of an opinion column, unconfined by the reporter's need to confirm facts. The opinion pages routinely make room for lobbyists and "opinion" that is banal, and asserted rather than persuading with facts. The Age opinion pages of the past provided a platform for the better of its writers to tell you what was going on - not what should be going on in an ideologically perfect world. The ignorance of the club of journalists, who do not read papers, who take their opinions and obsessions with celebrity from their web browsing, is affecting the papers' reputation for intelligence. If the (next generation of editorial) appointments are made by people who know little about competitive metropolitan journalism - as in the Hilmer and Kirk eras - the company will survive but Fairfax journalism will continue to decline.

Eric Beecher, the publisher of Crikey, last Friday outlines his plan to fix The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age by copying The Australian:

THE business model for newspapers, we are told, is collapsing. But in the minds of some people who understand and care deeply about the future funding of good journalism, a more thoughtful response to the demise of the 150-year-old broadsheet newspaper business model is emerging: the idea of reinventing so-called "broadsheet" newspapers as high-quality niche products targeted at narrower audiences who are attractive to advertisers and fundamentally committed to the idea of reading a newspaper. With smaller circulations and higher cover prices. Operating on a much lower revenue base, with far less dependence on classified advertising. At Fairfax Media, this approach would clearly require a new management and editorial mindset.

A leaner, bespoke newspaper that bristled with ideas and curiosity because it no longer had the requirement to appeal to a broad market. A newspaper that treated news as the commodity it now is and built on the news with backgrounding, probing and analysis. A newspaper with fewer pages, vastly less lifestyle and advertorial journalism, and much more certainty about its place in the life of its (smaller) audience. A newspaper that connected with the issues that mattered to its more defined universe of readers.

Emphatically not an elite newspaper but an intelligent newspaper.

And - crucially for the business model - a newspaper with half the staff and cost base of today's Sydney Morning Herald or Age. Fewer journalists (but still the best journalists), fewer executives on high salaries, an entrepreneurial energy and structure, . A sleek pocket battleship, not a rusting Queen Mary.

Alan Ramsey in The Sydney Morning Herald on Saturday:

ADELAIDE'S Penny Wong, Rudd's disappointing Water and Climate Change Minister, announces the details of the Government's proposed scheme in a National Press Club speech on Monday. And we know hers is a real sewage sandwich because the PM, ignoring togetherness, has opted out, leaving it to his female colleague. Usually the women get all the shit jobs, if you'll excuse me. And what the Government calls its white paper on its Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme - to be announced by Wong at Monday lunchtime, after a 2 1/2-hour media lockup in the parliament, God forbid - bids fair to be one of those truly unpleasant episodes for which Our Kevin will find more pressing business keeps him elsewhere. Such as Brisbane, or Alice Springs, or the South Pole. Wong will be on her own.