Steve Harris speaks out
The new editor-in-chief o f The Age is n ot pulling p u n ch e s , re p o rts T ra d e Winch.
w o years ago Steve Harris, then
editor-in-chief of the H erald
and W eekly Times, launched a
scathing attack o n The Age. He
belled the p a p e r leth a rg ic ’ claiming
that the circulation drop could be
directly attributed to ‘ten years of
neglect, arrogance and ignorance’.
Editing The Age, he said, p re­
sented an enorm ous challenge, par­
ticularly given that ‘it no longer has
any territory to call its o w n ’.
Late last m onth, in his first m ajor
address since becom ing editor-inchief and publisher of The Age, there
was a distinct feeling of deja vu.
The difference w as that the chal­
lenges had becom e greater and the
com petition fiercer, prim arily d ue to
the stream of on-line new s and infor­
m ation services available through the
Internet.
While Harris says that on-line serv­
ices will be the ‘em ancipation not the
em asculation’ of new spapers, others
are not so sure.
W eekday circulation has show n
no real signs of im provem ent and the
p a p e r is again in the p ro cess of
reinventing itself, finally recognising
that it is no longer able to trade off
w hat Harris refers to as the ‘em phatic
success of the p ast’ - the M acdonaldPerkin era.
O ne of the biggest changes, and
perhaps the m ost controversial, has
b een the corporatisation of the se n ­
ior editorial position: the m erging of
the editorial side of the p ap er w ith
the business side. The traditional
sep aratio n b e tw e e n ‘c h u rc h ’ a n d
‘state’no longer exists, though clearly
the lines of division had b e e n blurred
for som e time.
In his address, Harris referred to
his dual role as ‘the natural m arriage
of editorial integrity w ith the com ­
T
Communications
Update
mercial im peratives w e m ust address
to secure not only survival but a suc­
cessful future . . . the role places no
b o unds on the delivery of quality,
la­
allow ing publishers to leverage off
econom ic success into new m arkets
and new m edium s.’
Harris asserts that ‘a commercially
successful new spaper gives us journal­
ists the freedom to comm unicate the
way w e w ant . . . While commercial
greed and pressure can adversely af­
fect editorial quality and integrity, m e­
dia watchers seem reluctant to accept
the parallel reality that commercial suc­
cess is capable of delivering more than
any charter of editorial freedom ’.
‘Within our newsrooms we
have too many pockets of
negativism, arrogance,
sneering cynicism and
confrontationalism.’
Journalists at The Age will no
doubt be grappling w ith this state­
m ent as they w e e p into their charter.
That com m ercial greed and pres­
sures can adversely im pact on edito­
rial quality and integrity at all is obvi­
ously cause for serious concern, but
then there is nothing new in that.
To p retend that new spapers o p ­
erate in a vacuum is naive, and in that
sense Harris deserves to be applauded
for at least openly articulating w hat
w e have always know n and w hat he
dubs ‘the new econom ics of inform a­
tion’. Those less sym pathetic to Harris’
view s have called it the ‘old econom ­
ics of m isinform ation’.
The central issue is how to m ain­
tain editorial integrity and satisfy ‘m ar­
k et’ requirem ents, so that both the
advertisers and the readers feel their
n eeds are being met.
♦7 ♦
In th e c u rre n t e n v iro n m e n t,
w h o se n eed s are param ount?
Bruce G uthrie once said that pro­
vided there is quality journalism, the
circulation will follow. An adm irable
sentim ent from an editor, but given
that circulation has not lifted - at last
on w eekdays - it does raise som e
questions ab o u t journalistic stand­
ards and culture.
According to Harris: ‘there is too
m uch tendency in m odern day jour­
nalism (m ore so in broadcasting than
print but com m on to both) to seek to
establish guilt by accusation rather
than evidence: to engage in “gotcha”
journalism w hich focuses on contra­
diction, error, conflict and mishap.
To see at the heart of alm ost every
issue a sim plistic black and w hite
conflict w h e n m ost issues are com ­
plex and contain considerable grey­
ness.
‘W ithin o u r new sroom s w e have
too m any pockets of negativism, ar­
ro g a n c e , s n e e rin g cynicism a n d
confrontationalism .
‘N ew spapers have not b een suffi­
ciently astute to the changing needs
of the com m unity, and . . . their ow n
culpability in adding to com m unity
frustration.’
T hrow into the mix the fact that
the com m unity is ‘drow ning in infor­
m ation’, a n d a review o f the eco­
nom ic a n d social rationales for new s­
papers seem s long overdue.
H a rris s u g g e s ts th is c a n b e
achieved by offering som ething ‘b e ­
yond new s, beyond raw inform ation’.
But what?
This is p erh ap s one o f the most
im p o rtan t q u e stio n s that rem ains
unansw ered. It certainly represents
Steve Harris w ith his biggest chal­
lenge.
November 1997