A further sign that we may be seeing the de-coupling of opinion from the news and journalism pages.
The website will replace the opinion section on news sites including theage.com.au and will feature the best of Fairfax’s opinion writing, commentary and analysis, coupled with guest commentaries from politicians, academics and other public figures, the publisher said in a statement.
Fairfax Digital chief Jack Matthews said the advertising-funded site, which had been months in the planning, would include interactive features such as blogging tools, forums and polls to engage readers in debates.
Certainly with the launch of News Ltd’s The Punch this appears to be where the big media companies are heading – two clearly delineated streams of content.
Excusing their recent and seemingly endless fascination with the Ramsay/Grimshaw ratings scam, I already see The Punch as News’ real opinion landing page with the writers of their other online ‘papers’ buried deep in a hillbilly-like backwater of Laura Norder beatups, UFO sightings and breathless celebutard vacuity – not a bad thing really, given the crazy clock-tower like rhetoric that so many of them are prone to.
With this announcement by Fairfax it’s also interesting to compare and contrast the tone from the two media giants.
The Punch.
It’s not a fancy, la-di-dah site aimed at people with three university degrees, nor is it a site for yobbos who want to engage in mindless abuse.
Fairfax.
…the best of Fairfax’s opinion writing, commentary and analysis, coupled with guest commentaries from politicians, academics and other public figures.
Academics?
Interesting too is that their early efforts in coming to terms with the web focus on the low-hanging fruit of opinion, not the hard graft of investigation and news.
So, will this work? Maybe. I hope they don’t expect to make a lot of money doing it. Opinion is purely a loss leader for real news and journalism and no one is quite sure yet how to pay for the latter.
‘FAIRFAX Media is set to relaunch one of Australia’s historic newspaper brands, The National Times, as an opinion and editorial website covering the nation’s political and national affairs debates.’
Why would I be interested in the opinions coming out of Fairfax media? We just saw them resort to xenophobia in a personal campaign against a Defence Minister. Indeed we just saw a Fairfax paper intentionally try and get rid of a Defence Minister, obviously helping some personal friends in the defence forces.
Fairfax opinion’s are mostly rubbish and increasingly right wing partisan rubbish, no more useful than the opinion of the average joe.
News corp is even worse. You only need to see how they are aiding right wing extremism in the USA for the sake of what? Sales and their political view. So these guys love it when someone gets murdered or goes crazy – it is news that sells and increases their revenue and, also pleases them that they have been successful in furthering hate against a non right wing President.
Murdoch reckons Obama is dangerous. It is murdoch’s media that is dangerous for its disgraceful behavior. And of course here in Oz the News Ltd media is consistently anti Labor anti Rudd regardless of merit. The only standard of merit they measure by is membership of the Liberal Party.
Why would I be interested in the Opinion or otherwise of News Ltd anything when they have over many years shown who and what they are.
Let them sink and drown.
Indeed the best thing for world democracy may be for News Corp and all its off shoots to go bankrupt and have to sell of the majority of its assets into diverse hands.
One only has to read Miranda Devine’s piece in the SMH today to realise Fairfax has hit rock bottom in its opinion pages:
http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/fielding-changes-canberras-climate-20090612-c61o.html?page=-1
Yes, Devine, Sheehan & Gerard. Can’t wait to see these gods of opinion given their own prime space. Loon Pond as the true devine, Dorothy Parker would say.
http://themichaelduffyfiles.blogspot.com/2009/06/miranda-devine-stephen-fielding-climate.html
The Punch also publishes academics. If you count Catharine Lumby as an academic.
“breathless celebutard vacuity”
epic LOLs
How do we start a campaign to get rid of media personalities that produce turgid crap as copy?
ANyone see the Daily Show’s vsist to the NYT? ‘Aged news’! lol
I’m not at all sorry to see the demise of the self-righteous and arrogant mega-companies that is all that is left of the once dynamic and challenging “Fourth Estate”. I very rarely buy these collections of drivel, celebrity gossip, and carefully crafted subterfuges – transcribed in bulk from the PR releases of whoever is being paid to hand feed the media chooks still sitting behind a desk in the “newsrooms”.
This apparently endless pap – so carefully designed to hide and protect the excruciating folly of the rich and powerful and cover us with a haze of half-truths and twisted logic – is better left un-read.
Fortunately for us, this deterioration of independence in journalism has been trumped by electronic communications.
When you and I can dial up and read hugely contradictory opinions, revel in the wit and wisdom of people all over the globe, and get energised, challenged and informed by commentators – young or old, inspired or cranky, wise or wacky, stupid or sober. (And all of the above can be found on our own LP!)
It was a long time before I become convinced about the internet and could resist the temptation to buy all the papers on a news stand. But it is a great asset to anyone who wants to get what some of us used to hope to get from the press corps.
It is a tool of magical proportions and a great asset to the common good. Hence, I am sure it will undoubtedly become the target of more and more subtle and not so subtle mechanisms to curb its continual assistance in delivering a workable pathway to democracy.
Perhaps time will show that the ability of ordinary people to chase down stories will be as hamstrung as journalists are now, but that will be a challenge of far better informed and dynamic citizens – won’t it?
In short, “The Punch” is on-line tabloid-journalism, joining NewsLtd’s broadsheet tabloid-journalism, and tabloid tabloid-journalism.
Now I was under the opinion that TheOz’s target demog was middle-class professionals in business, industry & the professions – many of whom do, in fact, hold three degrees: professional, advanced/ second professional & management/professional (usually at masters level). So obviously The Punch isn’t aimed at TheOz’s more intelligent readers – inc. the paying ones (tho that’s probably an oxymoron).
So The Punch is, in fact, pitched at “No well educated people please; we only wants tabloid level stuff”. DOH!
Agree re Devine column . Even more disgraceful was the Barry Cassidy soft interview with Fielding on Insiders. But I have pasted Saturday’s editorial from the Oz re people (like me) who are uncomfortable with the deputy Pm taking a private junket to Israel, Look at all the evils you have heaped upon yu by the Oz for having such a view.
A supporter of Hamas, terror and probably anti Semitic …..It is masterly in its smear…
JULIA Gillard’s roots may be in the left of the Labor Party, but she does not mind confounding the comrades by ignoring ideology. Last week she stared down ACTU conference delegates demanding she abolish the agency charged with stopping standover tactics in the building industry. And this week she is upsetting Israel’s enemies by announcing a visit to the Jewish state. Good for Ms Gillard. In ignoring fanatics who see people who do not agree with them as enemies to be beaten rather than fellow citizens to be convinced, the Deputy Prime Minister is governing for all Australians, rather loud lobbies with no interest in compromise. Even though Ms Gillard has rolled back the industrial relations reforms of the Howard, Hawke and Keating eras the unions demand ever more. And her plan to visit Israel this month is opposed by those who believe any contact with Israel betrays the Palestinians, that the Jewish state should be treated like a pariah.
Both demands are irrelevant to the way the world works. Australia has always supported Israel’s right to exist and the Labor right in particular has a long tradition of links there. It is entirely appropriate for Ms Gillard to express solidarity with the only democracy in the Middle East. And it is worth Israel’s opponents understanding that Ms Gillard also intends to meet leaders of the Palestinian Authority on her trip, giving weight to the Rudd government’s support for a two state solution. It is all very well for Israel’s enemies to continue their chorus of complaints, to suggest that the Jewish state has brought the terror attacks on itself. For every such allegation Israelis can point to concessions ignored by Hamas and Hezbollah and the terrorists’ oft stated intention to destroy Israel. As Barack Obama made clear in Cairo last week, it is time for all sides to the debate to accept negotiations as the only answer. And in expressing Australia’s support for a two state solution Ms Gillard goes to Israel with a declared position, one that may, in some small measure, encourage both sides to act on Mr Obama’s urging.
And what is the alternative to diplomacy? While it is easy for extremists to rant against Israeli evils, the reality is no other nation in the region has the means to beat Israel on a conventional battlefield. And the Jewish state is far more likely to listen to friends like the US and Australia than to countries which are its inveterate enemies. Just as the ACTU needs to understand the private sector will not go away and should be respected for employing millions of workers so supporters of the Palestinians need to accept Israel. In deciding to visit Israel Ms Gillard is making a principled decision – one in line with Labor Party tradition and Australian practice. In talking of a two state solution she is making a pragmatic contribution to peace. While political amateurs prefer uncompromising ideology, professionals understand that principled pragmatism is as good as it ever gets.
The Devine Miranda really is an idiot.
I’m slightly shocked that our education system (I assume she was educated) produces such people.
She was mainly educated in the United States and Japan. A mathematics degree from Macquarie probably assists her in counting her enemies.
She’s a mathematician? Then there’s no excuse. She should know better. After all, they don’t let stupid people do mathematics, so she must be actively malevolent.