Dum de dum. Struggle to the cafe on a Saturday morning. Open The Age. Local council corruption. Organ harvesting in Good Weekend. And what’s this on page 6? A feature on U2’s latest tour with a focus on a gig in, um, Auckland. By venerable and very good culture journo Karl Quinn.
But why, uh, is it? Ah, here we are, at the end. “The author travelled to Auckland as a guest of Live Nation …” So it’s a junket. OK, well that’s not unknown, in travel at least. Less acceptable in entertainment. But it’s on page 6.
Page 6 of the news section of a major newspaper, up there with the world events and national affairs. Which makes it something more than a junket. It’s unlabelled advertorial, and the news placement is possibly part of the deal — bigging up a band that has been together two-thirds as long as the Rolling Stones. (Old? You’re not old. You’re dead.)
There’s not much that’s newsworthy about U2, but if Bono said something wanky, or the ticket prices were obscene, would it make the story? And any possibility that a Nine TV U2 special is in the offing?
Oh and what’s this on page seven, by equally respected arts journo Andrew Hornery? A half-page story on the globally earth-shattering news that Karl Stefanovic is returning to the Today show at, uh, what’s that network again?
This is junk, pure junk, the destruction of a once-great paper in real time. Is news director Michelle Griffin happy with her pages being turned into a giant billboard? Journalists and section editors need to resist it, as the hoons pile in.
There used to be a saying, “you should look in the paper and see if you’re dead”. Now it’s the paper that needs to do the looking. No wonder its mind is on organ harvesting.
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Spot on Guy.
No truer words were spoken.
I have cancelled and re-subscribed about 3 times over the last 18 months or so.
Cancelled now for good.
Still getting over a 60-year addiction though, the Age has been declining for years, but the absorption into the 9’s was the last straw.
People bang on (rightly) about the failures of polling in the last Fed election. The Age coverage / polling prior to the last State Election seems to have been forgotten. The analysis involved looked like work experience meets press release. A breathy attempt to generate interest rather than present and reflect upon facts. eg In the seat I live in, an outer suburban sandbelt special, the local Labor MP was declared as being “In real trouble” with reasons given and quoting various local groups. It puzzled me a bit, but I thought that the Age knew more than me. She was reelected with a 10% swing.
A week ago, there was one of those “Andrews in trouble” stories. The information seemed to consist of rumours from unnamed people that other unnamed people weren’t happy. My overwhelming reaction as a Fairfax subscriber was “I’m paying for this?”.
Yesterday, I was trying to get up to date news of the incident in Yuendumu. The link to the story on my FB page linked to a paywalled Newsltd site. “Ok” thinks I, “I’ll look it up on Fairfax” – not there.
Plus there are the regular front page opinion pieces by IPA clowns.
I am at the point where inertia, plus a few writers, are all that’s keeping me subscribed. It is sinking
My interest wanes in direct proportion to the number of published Daily Telegragh ( aka Torygraph ) sourced ‘lifestyle / opinion’ pieces. Soft middle class twaddle. I’m now online – and global.
It was even worse in that once great newspaper, the Sydney Morning Herald. They splashed the Karl Stefanovic story on the front page, even as NSW was burning. Even the Oz recognized the importance of the bushfires. The iPad edition kept the entertainer on the front page even after their afternoon update, well after it was known people had died. Some time after 8.30 pm priorities were rearranged and the fires took central stage.
Once was a newspaper
Yes indeed. I cancelled my subs, been reading SMH all my life. Bye bye to a good masthead, hello to pap.
For anyone who can be bothered, an example of SMH pap is a piece by Louise Rudendyke yesterday on Julie Bishop. Just gorgeous.
That was also in The Age. The correct title for both publications is SMAge as all the muck is published in both.
Thank God someone with clout has come out and stated the bleeding obvious-the Age is going down the toilet, and seems happy to do so.
Our most respected newspaper is now so trivialised it is almost astonishing. The magazine section is verging on ridiculous-only fit for airheads. The article on Julie Bishop treated an under-achieving political failure like royalty; surely a mention of her work to block asbestos victims claims would be nearer reality? Meanwhile, please keep calling out the trashing of the Age-perhaps the editors will take note.