‘A nasty stunt’: Gazette founder denies propaganda claim
The founder of regional news startup Gazette has rejected allegations the organisation is politically funded in a wide-ranging interview with Mumbrella.
Gazette has set up five local news mastheads across Victoria and New South Wales, attracting strong criticism from conservative politicians and Country Press Australia (CPA). Detractors say Gazette has promoted teal independent candidates in partisan coverage, and National Party chief David Littleproud and Liberal Party senator Jane Hume say they have reported the organisation to the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) for breaching rules on political advertising.
Gazette founder and publisher Anna Saulwick told Mumbrella her organisation has an editorial charter, was independent from funders, and was committed to fact-based reporting for local communities.
Anna Saulwick
”I think that [AEC] complaint was a nasty and false political stunt,” she said. “It’s not news if these folks just call us fake news. If they refer a complaint to the AEC, all of a sudden they get a headline out of it. And yeah, so I think it was a stunt to try to impugn our credibility.”
Reporting in Crikey and The Age has drawn attention to the identity of Gazette’s three funders – Matthew Doran, James Taylor and Mark Rawson – and the fact that two of them had also donated money to Climate 200 (Rawson is the exception according to Climate 200). Opposition politicians described Gazette as “a highly sophisticated domestic disinformation campaign” and the CPA denounced the publisher – which competes with its members — as “politically funded propaganda being passed off as independent news”.
In conversation, Saulwick told Mumbrella she was a newcomer to media. She openly recognises her mastheads come with a pro-climate editorial position, but denies any impropriety.
“We’re absolutely independent,” she said. “Yes, we cover climate — it’s one of the most under-reported issues in Australia. That doesn’t mean we’re politically aligned. It means we’re paying attention.”
Saulwick said her three funders provided seed funding after seeing her pitch on the need for a new local news model in Australia. The money provided was a one-off lump sum, and the funders hold no equity in the business. At this point, she is the only director and shareholder of the Gazette News Operating Company.
“Funders get no say over editorial. Our editor and reporters make decisions on what to cover and how. We have an editorial charter of independence that means there is a strict firewall between funding and editorial.”
Five mastheads form the local news Gazette offering, covering east Melbourne, Sydney’s North Shore, NSW mid-north coast, Gippsland and western Victoria. There is also a national masthead. The regional publications all incorporate marginal electorates. Saulwick said this was intentional.
“I had to choose where we set up first. And the way that I did that was I chose places where there are hot local debates that are going on about infrastructure, about elections, and about climate impacts.”
The titles operate by newsletter, on social media – chiefly Instagram – and also have websites. She rejects the accusation that her publications favour climate-focussed teal independents.
The North Shore Lorikeet, one of Gazette’s mastheads
“We’ve covered and profiled and quoted candidates from every political party. We do it fairly,” she said.
“The first title that we launched, The Eastern Melburnian, covers four marginal electorates: Aston, Menzies, Deakin and Chisholm. Every single one of those is a Labor–Liberal race. There is not a viable independent within cooee.”
Each masthead operates with a single regional reporter, supported by a central editorial team of three. The operation employs 10 people, including herself.
Gazette, which has been running since November 2024, currently carries no advertising or sponsorship, and does not have subscriptions. Saulwick said she has plans to commercialise the product and has 18 months before the seed funding runs out. She does not expect to break even within that time, but will instead seek support from “impact investors”.
“When we first started, we didn’t have a product to sell. We didn’t have an audience. Now we do. I’d say in the next few weeks we’ll start putting up ads.”
Saulwick, who has a science/law degree from UNSW, has a long history working for cause-driven organisations globally: Getup, UNICEF, Democracy International and Change.org. Her previous role was as a product manager for a tech startup in San Francisco.
She said her motivation for setting up Gazette came from observing what happened when people no longer agreed on a set of shared facts.
“Living in the US you kind of get a front row seat to what happens when people live in completely separate media environments,” she said. While still living in the US, she also saw how the 2022 floods in NSW gave rise to misinformation.
“I’m from Byron Bay and I went to school in Lismore… when the Northern Rivers floods hit… I noticed how the way that we access media and information had really drastically changed.”
“I decided to come back to Australia to explore whether I could start Gazette… I think there is a real gap for digital local news.”
She said Gazette titles now had 20,000 subscribers and 19,000 followers on social media.
“Our goal is to cover our costs and to deliver high-quality, modern digital local news to communities that want it,” Saulwick said. “They’ve got us wrong. I’m trying to do something here. I’m trying to do something good here.”
Mumbrella has contacted the AEC regarding the complaints. A request for interviews with Gazette’s funders was turned down.
If anything CPA member papers should be referred to the AEC for lack of reporting on the climate crisis, have THEIR funding and motivations questioned.
They represent the people who will be disproportionately effected by increasing flooding and drought more than most Australians.
Why are they having a conniption about a small but growing news source?
Good on you, Anna!
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Good on ya! Keep going!
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