News Limited to close The Punch
News Limited has this morning announced the closure of opinion website The Punch.
In the coming weeks the website url will be redirected to news.com.au with opinion content now to be pushed across News Limited’s websites through its national news desk.
Editor of The Punch Tory Maguire told Mumbrella: “We were the first mainstream media player in this space. Obviously we did it differently to the way that other media outlets did as a separate stand alone site, rather than integrated.”
“It allowed us to be innovative, cheeky and have a lot of fun in a way that our competitors weren’t able to do,” she said.
“What this is, is a recognition that the atmosphere that we brought to The Punch is something that has been received really well and therefore the networks wants to be able to take advantage of it fully.”
Staff at The Punch had already been redeployed across News.com.au and the News Limited national news desk.
In a move similar to Fairfax’s National Times approach Punch pieces will now be published across various News Limited sites with a “breaking views” tagline.
The announcement was made the morning in a post on the website:
“After four years of excellent fun and great conversation, this is the final post we’ll be publishing on The Punch.”
“A lot has changed since we launched in 2009 in the way Australians consume news and opinion.
“The little Punch team joined the much bigger integrated News Limited team last year and now our Punch content is joining in too. Punch posts will now be published under the new brand Punch Breaking Views across News Limited’s huge digital news network.
“That means you’ll see us pop up on news.com.au, dailytelegraph.com.au, heraldsun.com.au, couriermail.com.au, adelaidenow.com.au and perthnow.com.au.”
The Punch was founded by former editor of The Daily Telegraph David Penberthy in 2009. At the time Penberthy described it as experiment designed to “celebrate journalism”.
Penberthy was recently appointed editor of Adelaide’s Sunday Mail.
Nic Christensen
ABC’s Unleashed was publishing in 2008, well before the Punch.
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This is sad. I really enjoyed The Punch, it was something genuinely different, and well-known for it’s incredibly fiery comment boards.
I’m not privy to data on it’s visitation numbers, but it seemed to be cutting through. It even had it’s moments in the sun – like the time a uni-student submitted an article bagging Triple J for an assessment, and wound up with thousands of Triple J-devotees hurling abuse at her from all directions.
A shame, but hopefully the writers involved go on to bigger and better things across the News empire.
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@Barry “We were the first mainstream media player in this space.”
Note: “Mainstream media player”
ABC is not mainstream media.
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I looked at the Punch site today to see if they could blame Stephen Conroy for making them merge.
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That’s a shame. It was the only NewsLtd site that isn’t rabidly anti-Labor while canonising saint Tony and burying any positive Julia stories deep in the bowels of some unlinked cyberzone. Had a range of perspectives and often interesting content.
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IC-1101 – Tell that to Channel Ten…
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It had some big names, but I always got the vibe The Punch was more of a place for aspiring writers to read the opinions of other aspiring writers.
Would like to hear some detailed reasons for why they made the move though. I assume The Punch’s traffic wasn’t impressive enough to warrant a status quo situation.
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I’ll miss it like chronic gastro – which it basically was.
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ABC Unleashed is part of the ABC website. I vaguely recall “The Australian” went on the internet even before Google was around, you had to find it by going through links if you didn’t remember the URL (America Online was the easiest method).
Of course, the guts is being ripped out of News – full marks for “accenuating the positive”. Your cheque is in the post, Tone.
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IC-1101 very funny
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IC-1101…
The ABC is mainstream media and may soon be the last group left. That’s why they need to improve their game.
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Does Tom write copy for grocers?
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Horsehit IC-1101. They regularly beat TEN, look at their radio ratings, look at iView, look at the ABC shops, look at their magazines, look at their website. They may not be commercial but they sure as hell are mainstream.
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wondered how far the Murdoch tolerance for left wing editorial would last… ‘integrated’ into News.com.au will see it sway a lot more right
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Punch was FOx news light. Won’t be missed.
And ic-101…lame troll bait buddy.
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Shame, enjoyed The Punch
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Loved The Punch, it will be said to see it go.
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No tears from me – The Punch wont be missed. It was a right-wing rag, Fox News lite, with amateurish scrawlings.
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