Who moved my pyramid?
This is an edited version of last night’s opening keynote to the Walkley Media Conference in Sydney from SMH editor Peter Fray
I was recently reminded of the six golden rules of how to become a good reporter:
Read, read, read – write, write, write.
That deceptively simple advice came from late Peter Bowers, relayed at his recent funeral.
of the many calls for change in newspapers this is one of the clearest and most engaging I’ve seen. it’s good to see somebody encouraging structural change rather than encouraging readers to pay for old news in app form.
A great read – but with all due respect, I think he misses a crucial point. He seems to want to look for ways to maintain/increase the appeal of the print edition. Presumably, this is because the print edition is where his revenue base is.
The differentiation he should be making is not print/online but free/paid. I would happily pay for extra content, quality, features etc, but want it in the convenience of an online format. Granted, not all people are willing to pay for online content, but isn’t asking ‘How can we extend the life of print as long as possible?’ the wrong question?
Surely the right question is ‘How can we get people to pay what our quality is worth?’
I agree with other Andrew. People want quality they dont have to pay for. How can we build quality in a ‘give it away’ society?
Interesting piece. I love this quote:
“there might even be a case for afternoon papers, given so many of our readers don’t get to read that day’s edition until the evening”
Last time I checked, the 3rd highest-circulating weekday newspaper in Australia was mX – distributing 232,000+ copies every weekday afternoon across Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane to mainly 18-39s (sorry, sales pitch over)
Peter, I think you’re onto something 🙂
It’s all very nice. But the problem Fray has is that the Herald is not compelling in its basics. The “news” is all extremely predictable. The “analysis” is trite. The “comment” is often childish or pathetically pretentious. The make the Oz look good, which is in itself tragic. Muck with the form all you like. It’s the substance that has gone missing.