‘Incompetent, timid, short-sighted’. Journo attacks Aussie media management
A journalist has launched an impassioned attack on Australia’s media companies including his own, accusing them of “sheer management incompetence”.
Writing in his blog, Importance of Ideas, Jason Whittaker says:
“The recession is not killing Big Media in this country, as the sales department will tell you. Nor is the internet and digital media to blame, as the prevailing theory goes. Media companies in Australia are struggling to make a buck through a lack of imagination. Through short-sightedness. Through commercial timidity, certainly. Ultimately, though sheer management incompetence.”
Whittaker is a managing editor at Brisbane-based Trader Business Media, a division of ACP magazines.
I, too, read Jason’s blog on the weekend and righteously agreed with him. The weird thing was, I figured he was right when he said the big bosses would probably ignore him anyway … that’s what they’ve been doing in regard to content for years. While they happily award themselves bonuses and allow sales teams to collude and collect commissions, they have been cutting content budgets and pinching on editorial salaries for decades. The biggest shame is that none of those managers could work out how to factor “cost of irrelevant content” into their budget spreadsheets.