Daily Telegraph is a product of the Sydney it serves, says News Corp editorial chief
The robust stance taken by News Corp’s Sydney tabloid The Daily Telegraph is driven by the character of the city writes for, the company’s group editorial director has argued.
Campbell Reid, also a former editor of The Tele and The Australian, made the argument at a debate on the nature of the real Sydney organised by Mumbrella.
Asked about how editors develop an understanding of an audience, he pointed to differences between The Tele and its sister title The Adelaide Advertiser, arguing that nuances existed in any community.
During the election, the Advertiser took a much less strident tone on the previous Labor government than most of the News Corp stable.
Reid argued: “In newspaper terms, Sydney has been described as a loud, hungry and vicious, sometimes aggressive place and therefore you get the Daily Telegraph.
“In Adelaide, it’s the much quieter, more conservative, ‘please don’t shake their trees too hard’ in-the-community Advertiser,” he continued. “If you go and produce the Daily Telegraph in Adelaide, there’d be massive upset and yet the values of those two newspapers and the core values of their audiences are nearly the same but there is that nuance.”
The inspiration for the “Will the real Sydney please stand up” event came from a survey by out of home company Adshel which suggested that more people working in the media industry had eaten at North Bondi Italian than had been to Parramatta. Also on the panel were Mindshare CEO Katie Rigg-Smith, Adshel marketing director Nicole McInnes, MixFM’s drivetime presenter Tim Ross and Woolworth marketer Luke Dunkerley.
Rigg-Smith told the audience that anyone working in agencies had a responsibility to understand the media outlets where they spent clients’ money. She said: “It doesn’t matter if someone in this industry hasn’t been to Parramatta – it makes a difference if we’re spending money on behalf of our clients, and a lot of their money, and we’re naive to it it, and we’re okay living in our bubble,” she said.
“You’re never going to be able to connect with them if you can’t empathise with them.
“You can’t spend your clients money on media if you haven’t ever touched the media.”
McInnes argued that the media industry needs to break its assumptions on audiences. “Make sure you do the research,” she said.
Meanwhile Ross argued against the “patronising” idea of sending agency staff to study people in Parramatta as if they were visiting a theme park. Ross argued that one of the biggest demographic trends facing ordinary Sydneysiders was being unable to afford to live in the suburbs they grew up in.
“I find it really offensive when they do these things like we’re all getting on a bus and we’re all going to go out west. So everyone from work gets on a bus and they drive down to Rooty Hill and go to the RSL, then they might go to Panthers. It’s something truly offensive to the western suburbs people, we’re all coming out to have a look like it’s Disney Land,” he said.
Miranda Ward
Miranda Ward worked for Mumbrella from 2013 to 2017, eventually becoming deputy editor. Miranda joined Mumbrella in September 2013 from Sky News.
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The Tele gets a pasting here in Sydney, but really it’s just reflecting its readership and good on them. I’m not a typical Tele reader but do pick up the occasional copy in a cafe etc and, to their credit, it’s always very good. Sadly the debate is often dictated by the whinging Left in this country and, for sure, the Tele is its worst nightmare. Sure, it’s a bit “sensationalist” but it dictates the debate in Sydney far more than the SMH does. And that’s why it trounces its rival…
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I’m from Glasgow which isn’t really known for being a city full of love and hugs. In fact, you could say that the Glasgow kiss leads the town’s reputation globally as a place of anger, violence and aggression. It’s a rough city but it is getting better.
And the city’s local paper is called the Evening Times. It’s a lovely, pleasant newspaper aimed at giving locals the daily news – strangely enough without any hint of aggression or anger.
But for someone to claim that Sydney is aggressive is pretty insulting to Sydney and for them to then claim they make their newspaper aggressive to match is insanity – surely you would be wanting to do the opposite.
If the Daily Telegraph sees Sydney as aggressive its because they are only looking at themselves and their own attitude.
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To the first commenter, I have to disagree with this: “Sure, it’s a bit “sensationalist” but it dictates the debate in Sydney far more than the SMH does. And that’s why it trounces its rival…”. The Tele may have dictated the debate a while back, but I think over the last few years we’ve seen that begin to change quite dramatically. I honestly believe the aggressive approach taken under the current editor is wrong. We’ve seen it get to the point where it is just so partisan, so obsessively one-sided, that it’s days of setting the agenda are drying up because you just can’t take it seriously or give it any real credit.
Also, to say they are trouncing the SMH is wrong. The SMH is now the most-read masthead in Australia. The Tele sells more print copies, but the SMH rules on digital – and that’s where we are heading.
I totally agree with Scott. The idea that The Tele has to be aggressive and loud to supposedly ‘match’ Sydney is delusional. This is a figment of the News blokes’ imaginations – because THEY are aggressive and loud. There is no one type of Sydney. It is a city with such a wide spectrum and so much variety.
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@Scott Rhodie – unfortunately, as you’ve probably noticed, 2010’s Australia doesn’t have a lot of maturity, sound leadership or respect for knowledge. Newspapers like The Daily Telegraph (and the ‘Tiser – the nation’s worst paper after NT News) both lead and reflect that, its hard to say which it does greater. Its interests are entirely self-serving and commercial. Not judging that, but there’s no doubt that’s what they are.
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It’s the Labor Party. Gosh.
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As a Sydney boy through and through who has played sport from Bondi to Penrith and then driven my kids to obscure sport grounds all over Sydney I am stunned to hear this self serving bullshit from Campbell Reid. Sydney is neither aggressive or vicious. It is wonderfully diverse, multicultural, generally tolerant and far more interesting than when I was a boy. The great news is that the Daily Telegraph’s circulation is steadily declining and given its poor news value and blatant partisanship it will sooner rather than later slip into irrelevance. Its tabloid style will not work in the digital age which is really good news.
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I like how you have approved my comment but not corrected the spelling in your article. Makes me think you didn’t know that Labor Party is spelled Labor Party. You’re not in Kent anymore.
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And you sir, as they say in the popular parlance, are a wanker. Mumbrella people i know you won’t publish this comment due to libel fears, but fuck what the hell. Do you realise how screwed up what he is saying actually is. Media shapes society, it isn’t a reflection, and News is a horror story. If it was a reflection, we would all be anti gay Protestant boat people haters who play the real estate market. Please, please mumbrella have an opinion on this bullshit, we like you not because you are a source of information, but because you have an opinion.
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Hi Have to Ask the Question,
I’m happy to give you my view, but you may not like it…
Campbell Reid’s main point is that each newspaper has to be crafted for its market. He used the argument that Sydney is a sharper-elbowed city than Adelaide, and that the varying tone of the two News Corp papers reflects that. Which is sensible publishing.
But then comes the question of whether The Tele is more strident than its city… the truth is that I’m impossibly biased because I worked on a small but very tabloid local paper in the UK (the Crawley News). Particularly when we ran local campaigns – for instance around the local hospital – we were very strident and, I’m sure, a complete pain in the backside for the local authorities. Similarly when we covered court and crime stories, we were at times lurid, because we felt that was what our readers wanted. But with hindsight, we drew a pretty dramatic picture of our own town – one that I’m sure didn’t represent it in all its warm nuances.
So I read The Tele most days and if I wasn’t doing it as part of my job, I’d do it anyway.
On the plus side, it’s campaigning, entertaining and always has a point of view. On the negative side, if I relied on it for dinner party ammo, I’d be made a fool of on particular topics. For instance, I felt it showed extreme bias in how it wrote about the NBN under Labor, to the extent that it let me down as a reader. Ditto in the run-up to the election.
The publishing judgment call is to not go so far down that path that you turn off readers or alienate advertisers. That’s a judgement call, and I do wonder whether the paper has risked that at times. It’s a line that every tabloid editor has to dance on. But (particularly given yesterday’s debate on media bubbles), I wonder whether The Tele better reflects a slice of the population we don’t meet every day over lattes in the Eastern suburbs.
And of course The Tele doesn’t represent all facets of the city. No paper does. That’s why I read the SMH too. As a reader, if you consume both of those papers every day, you’re pretty well entertained and informed (and often annoyed).
But, coming off the fence, does the Tele feel like it’s of Sydney to me? Yes it does.
Cheers,
Tim – MUmbrella
Great thoughts Tim and thanks for sharing. My take is that the Tele has indeed crossed the line under the editorship of Paul Whittaker. If they maintained the price point (half the price of the SMH), kept the b-grade celebrity & entertainment coverage, kept the simplified readability of their news articles, continued with pun-laden headlines BUT dropped the extreme partisanship, questionable campaigns, and dubious selection of facts to suit their pre-determined editorial line, then I’m sure they’d sell just as many copies – maybe even more.
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Oh, and of course – kept the sport. A big reason why many purchase it I’m sure
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Reid is saying people in Sydney want fake news. That they despise various parts of their own community. And that they are utterly transactional.
Personally, I think most people around the world are enjoying the digital opportunity to get facts from primary sources and news that meets their interests. Which is why papers like the Tele are screwed.
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I was looking forward to a rigorous debate yesterday but the consensus of those I talked to was that the industry becomes rather uncomfortable when it has to hold a mirror up to itself. The discussion didn’t really get to the nub of the issue that (as Adshell’s survey found) most people within agencies are totally disconnected with the real Sydney.
So much work created by the industry is a reflection of themselves and their limited view of Sydney. There are incredibly painful stereotypes they believe exist or believe that others beyond the Bondi/Inner City bubble aspire to attain.
The response to the debate was a default behavior of congratulating itself on what a great job it is doing in understanding the incredible diversity of the city of Sydney. Visiting a restaurant of a different culture is held up as a multi-cultural insight.
There are huge numbers within the many multicultural enclaves of Sydney where English is a second language and in so many cases English is barely spoken. Now I’m not recommending that all marketing efforts be fragmented to embrace the immense diversity of Sydney. It’s time to get out of the bubble and understand and embrace the diversity of Sydney where even the average Aussie turns their nose up at wanky campaigns that don’t reflect themselves and are barely understood by other cultures.
At the moment it is totes redick and very obvi that maybs the sitch needs to change. Laters.
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The Tele’s influence on readers is massively overstated. Internal research at the paper shows it is a sport and racing rag and the ‘news’ content is there to influence a handful of important government types into doing what’s best for the broader News Corporation. The evidence of this is that despite their relentless campaigning for the Coalition, the swings in Western Sydney were no worse than in other regions the Tele does not reach, and most commentators concluded that Labor actually did quite well in Western Sydney.
TL;DR: Tele is for NRL fans and punters.
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I think for a tabloid it’s bereft of any humour. Think of The Sun in the UK it has a certain tongue in cheek style. The Tele is just Alan Jones in print pandering to rednecks and the ill informed.
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At least they write punchy heads and short sentences. Not wafty Americanised “stylish writing”.
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One of the great points made in yesterdays debate is that so many people in our industry look down their nose at anyone who isn’t like themselves. Has the industry developed its own smug snobbery inside its bubble?
Perhaps Daily Telegraph readers aren’t latte sipping Bondi hipsters but its our job to understand them and know how to communicate to them. Stand in a newsagent and watch purchasers of the Telegraph and more often you’ll see them go straight to the back page. That’s OK…it could be a good indication of where to reach them.
To Rosso’s point of yesterday: HSBC shirts are the high point of fashion in Penrith. That’s OK too. They are spending a stack of money buying them and have the money to buy products you could be selling for clients if you just took the time to understand the wide array of consumers in the market.
Go to a client’s Dealership/ Retail Outlets and coalface and spend time with the people on the ground who are really in touch with the many different kinds of Australian consumers.
In whatever form, take time out to demonstrate that you actually have “skin in the game” rather than viewing their business from the cheap seats of biased assumptions and shallow conclusions.
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Basically I resent the oft-heard assertion that somewhere way out west is the “rfeal” Sydney.
Sure, there are lots of people there (I resist the temptation to say “an awful lot”) but so what?
The “real” Sydney may be Bondi, or Mosman or, indeed, Colyton. But again, so what?
Where is the “real” London, “real” New York? Is the “real” Washington Georgetown or the “real” Los Angeles Glendale? (Is not the “real” Seoul Gangnam?)
You see, where we talk about diversity, there can be no “real” epicentre. It is a conceptual oxy-moron.
The Tele has always been a down-market tawdry little rag. It is likely to remain so, however for its supporters to insist that somehow their lowest common denominator is the “real” Sydney is laughable.
Warren Buffet says some industries are so lucrative that even fools could run them. And that, eventually, they will.
(and please, somebody use this electronic, digital, online forum to defend print media)
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That will do me. If mumbrella cant see the toilet for the crap, them it is time to unsubscribe.
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Tele debate aside, I agree wholeheartedly with Mr John Hollands.
The assumption that Western Sydney is, for some reason, the “real” Sydney is ridiculous. It almost feels as though that assumption is the ultimate manifestation of inner city and eastern snobbery.
Equating “real” with working class, as if we attribute some unknown, Aussie “value” to the “true blue” collar way of life is just condescending. The real Sydney is Sydney. It can’t be pidgeon-holed to one socio-economic or geographic subset. No city has it’s “real” self. Big cities are made up of sub-markets that need to be addressed separately if they want to be effectively targeted and reached.
To the point regarding the Tele’s audience, while it may have a stronghold in Western Sydney, whether this is the “real” Sydney is irrelevant. What is relevant is the size of it’s population and subsequently, it’s news consumption. A huge market of active consumers, being provided the content they want to consume. Nothing wrong with that.
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I live in the suburbs and work in the city.
The striking thing about the mob at this gabfest, they are all inner city, Eastern Suburbs or North Shore based. You don’t have to live in the suburbs yourself but you better employ people who get it because this bunch doesn’t.
The perfect example of The Daily Tele missing the boat is a series of articles this year talking about making Sydney a better place – harping on improving public transport.
Now, suddenly they are pushing a second airport at Badgerys Creek saying people out west support it (we’ll see the truth of that one come out soon enough). That airport will eventually add 100,000 passengers a day to the M4 and M5 and the aim is for Badgerys Creek to be an airport without curfew. The M4 and M5 are already carparks and have no room for expansion thanks to the dead end at Strathfield where the M4 joins Parramatta Rd and an M5 tunnel that can’t be expanded and was already past capacity the day it opened.
If the Telegraph understood anything beyond its little strip of cafes, beachside suburbs and sharp elbows around the back desk, it wouldn’t even be pushing its support for that nightmare scenario.
Our feeling in the west and south west, is that the Tele is well in the pocket of big business and they think they are smart enough to run a con on us without us knowing.
The fact is, where I live, way out in the South West, most people are over the Tele. They are sick and tired of its politics and its trashy Beyonce, twerking stories vaguely pretending to be news. Paul Whittaker has also been a nightmare with his blatant politicking throughout the paper.
Have a look through the Tele tomorrow and see if beyond the cops, ambulance chasing, Federal and State politics and the Hollywood Babylon of international news if there is anything about the communities out there beyond the usual cliches.
The Tele lost relevance years ago and the latest appointments are dragging it further and further away from its so-called suburban roots. Talk to any Community Newspaper editor – they will tell you the exact same story.
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