Crikey’s attack on The Age’s audit would be more credible if it was audited itself
Regardless of where things end up, the media story of last week was Crikey’s publication of an internal memo from The Age which appeared to raise serious questions about the Fairfax newspaper’s audited numbers.
It was a good get. The Age may or may not have done something wrong under the rules of the Audit Bureau of Circulations. But there certainly appears to be a case to answer.
But here’s the thing. This is only a problem because Fairfax gets its numbers audited.
And guess who doesn’t?
Not sure your point holds. The allegation is that Fairfax has been cheating the ABC. For Crikey’s position to be morally dubious, it would have to be audited and have dodged the audit by pretending not to auto-refresh.
It’s the difference between a right-wing religious politician who’s secretly gay and a drag queen – the drag queen has every right to call out the politician without attracting any criticism himself, because the issue isn’t being gay but being dishonest…
John B, man I love a good analogy and that was fab.
The difference between marking free newspapers as “circulation” and auto-refresh is that even if the website viewer ignores all the ads, they are still exposed to the page in some way. if you see a copy of The Age outside a museum, there’s nothing stopping you from putting it in your bag and throwing it out the next day, unread. As an ethical principle, though, I agree.
I agree with John B too.
They are two different issues, not to say auto refresh shouldn’t be discussed.
Its just a separate discussion.
Inflating circulation numbers has been widely known in the industry for years.
Nothing wrong with bringing old media to account.
Agree MJ. Nothing wrong with bringing new media to account.
Crikey in
“look we’re pwoper jurnalists” fail shocker.
Again.
But Crikey it’s not just a website. They also do a daily email to X thousand paying subscribers.
There is a saying about blaming the messenger for the message. Crikey may be doing the wrong thing but it is a separate issue to the Age, who appear to have a case to answer.
There’s also a saying about people in glass houses….