Synchronised indignation has been a trademark feature of the Australian media commentariat for years, writes Eric Beecher: the past week’s episode started with a stirring landmark speech about climate change by the Prime Minister at the Lowy Institute.
Articles by Eric Beecher 
This is not the time for Mark Scott to build empires
Last week’s speech by ABC managing director Mark Scott advocates the creation of an expensive new ABC global television service as “an important way of putting Australian democracy on display”. But there’s a much more important place for the ABC to do that — at home, writes Eric Beecher.
Free Evening Standard: paywall waters muddied
Newspaper publishers everywhere will be avidly watching the London Evening Standard’s decision to drop its print paywall. Will free newspapers attract more advertisers?
Does Fairfax need a 67-year-old grocer at the helm?
Roger Corbett is poised to become Chairman of Fairfax. Does he honestly believe he is the best person to steer Australia’s venerable newspaper publisher through the most challenging period in its history?
Beecher: Walker squabbles while Fairfax burns
The feud between Fairfax Chairman Ron Walker and the Fairfax family is like watching a brawl between the captain and senior personnel on the Titanic, while the ship sinks and the crew jump for their lives.
Death of newspapers: it’s the advertising, stupid
Newspapers aren’t dying because readers are no longer buying them. The main problem is that advertisers, whose ads have always paid the cost of journalism, are deserting newspapers.
How to have your paywall and eat it too
Last week’s revelation that newspaper publishers are planning to ask readers to pay for online content has been greeted in many quarters as some kind of gigantic gamble. But where, precisely, is the gamble? asks Eric Beecher.
Why investigative journalism needs … investigating
The really shocking aspect of the News International phone hacking revelations is that they have appeared in public, argues Crikey publisher Eric Beecher. The cat is out of the bag.
Will Fairfax subsidise their flagships for the health of democracy?
Are Fairfax Media prepared to fund the papers at, or close to, a loss in the interests of Australian democracy?
newspaper death watch Fairfax classifieds nearly halved year-on-year
New page-count research shows big falls in the volumes of classified advertising in the key Fairfax papers.
Democracy and the near-death of public trust journalism
As classified advertising migrates from newspapers to the internet, the funding source for Australiabn public trust journalism is disappearing, writes Eric Beecher.
