In Conversation with Erik Jensen: ‘We’re a niche product with mass market aspirations’
With the launch of The Saturday Paper looming Bill Birnbauer in a cross posting from The Conversation sat down with the new newspaper’s young editor Erik Jensen.
Businessman and publisher Morry Schwartz’s decision to appoint a 25-year-old, relatively unknown journalist to edit the first serious newspaper launched in Australia in more than four decades might be a “courageous decision” in the Yes Minister senseIn an era that is witness to a difficult transition from print to digital media, Erik Jensen will edit Schwartz’s biggest gamble to date, The Saturday Paper, from March 1.
Jensen said the job was his until “I screw up”. He was bullish about the newspaper’s prospects despite the recent staff cuts, slashed budgets and advertising slumps experienced by most newspapers.
Things would be different at The Saturday Paper, he asserted. Journalistic quality would catalyse sales; stories would be better and longer; it would be a niche newspaper for a niche readership; sales of 60,000 would break even; and … reporters would get 80 cents a word. One downside was that the two-year search for a good conservative writer with empathy was a very difficult one (see full transcript).
Schwartz and the former chairman of Schwartz’s The Monthly, Robert Manne, would help out a stable that included David Marr, Hamish McDonald, Christos Tsiolkas and others.
