Now Abbott’s in, what will The Australian do?
In this crossposting from The Conversation, former journalist Dennis Muller of the University of Melbourne, argues that The Australian faces an ideological dilemma now Tony Abbott is in power.
How does a newspaper of strong ideological preferences – such as News Corp broadsheet The Australian – respond when there is a government in office that more closely shares its ideology than did the previous government?
Given the parlous state of Australia’s newspaper industry, this is not an idle question.
The Australian is now the only newspaper of general interest to provide a comprehensive coverage of federal politics. Fairfax’s Australian Financial Review also provides a comprehensive coverage but it has a narrower audience and tailors its coverage accordingly. The coverage of federal politics by The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald has shrunk considerably by comparison.
The Australian will do what it has always done – cheerleading for right of centre politics. Until, of course, the Coalition does something to threaten its (ever-diminishing) revenue stream.
“Joined” the media pursuit, It did not lead it.
The Australian could shut up shop and give us a break.
Not sure that’s historically accurate @ Dan.
From memory, The Australian backed Whitlam in 1972. Unless you consider Whitlam right of centre, whatever that means these days.
I really enjoy the Oz – admittedly not the pro-Abbott crap. I, too, thought how would they deal with his election. And, to their credit, this morning’s edition gave a serve about the boat arrivals and ripped into him in the cartoons. So I think there’s hope….
The Australian does not turn a profit.
Begging the question, is it a business or a lobby group?
I no longer buy any newspaper. I can get opinions for free on the internet or by actually talking to people in real life. ‘Integrity’ is a word that can no longer be applied to ‘mainstream’ media in Australia.
Agree with schloog…
The Australian wasn’t always totally right wing. I have some old books about The Press In Australia published in the 1970s and The Australian during the 1960s and early ’70s was described as “a quality newspaper tinged with radicalism”. The paper was especially popular among uni students. Murdoch was the only press baron who opposed the Vietnam War and Australia’s involvement and his newspapers at the time – The Australian, The Daily Mirror and The News (Adelaide) editorialised against the war and supported the Moratorium marches in May 1970. All other papers supported the war. Murdoch’s papers shifted to the Right during 1975.
Silly question. it will do what the ABC and Fairfax did when labor was in power.
go along with much of it, snipe at some of it. Plenty of News ltd journos work for labor after all!
The Labor government was in power six years. The Aus is about to notch up 40 years of national reporting. Whatever you think of the Aus ideology, it is still edited locally and staffed by journalists, who will chase a story, any story, regardless of which side of politics it comes from.
and for those who rejoice at getting their news and opinion reporting for free, i’m afraid eventually you will get the quality you pay for. Proper journalism costs money.
Oops, correction. 50 years next year.
It will continue to produce the right wing, self serving Murdoch crap for its 17 readers.
It will continue to make a loss
It will continue to somehow get the rest of the media to comment on it.
No change, move along, nothing to see here