The Australian editor takes aim at Fairfax, defends paper’s place at News Corp
Chris Mitchell speaking yesterday at Mumbrella360
The editor-in-chief of News Corp’s national paper The Australian has taken aim at rivals Fairfax accusing them of misleading advertisers over the demographics of their audience online, and said he will only retire when he has a successor.
The iconoclastic newspaper editor yesterday spoke at the Mumbrella360 conference in a wide ranging conversation with his CEO Nicholas Gray and Mumbrella content director Tim Burrowes, which saw them discuss social media, the 50th anniversary of the national broadsheet, Mitchell’s own future and the competitive landscape.
“Picking up on Nicholas’s point on the nature about the nature of our digital offering, I think it is a big issue for some of our competitors,” said Mitchell. “I love talking about our competitors and if you think about who the Sydney Morning Herald selling to traditionally it was the AB readership of the eastern suburbs and the north shore.
“There is so much click bait there now, so many young commentators — Clementine Ford types — who are really going after very youthful readers. I think there is a question there for the business or the business model.
“When you buy an ad from Fairfax are you really getting the AB readership they say they are giving you or are you increasingly getting a readership that is much younger, much lower disposable income than they are telling you?”
Fairfax editorial boss Garry Linnell hit back accusing Mitchell of being “obsessed” and “infatuated” with his rivals.
In the conversation Mitchell also accused the publisher of being too focused on drawing news from social media sites.
“When I became editor of The Australian 23 years ago and Paul (Kelly) was editor-in-chief and we sort of judged ourselves against John Alexander and that very high point of The Sydney Morning Herald when most people thought the Herald had been the best it had ever been,” said Mitchell.
“I think it is a bit sad that the Herald is sort of reverse publishing Twitter now,” he said.
However Linnell has hit back, saying: “What a nonsensical litany of claims made by a man with a complete obsession and infatuation with all things Fairfax.
“It perplexes me why News constantly and only talks about print. Fairfax has never walked away from print, we have always emphasised that it is an incredibly important part of our business.
“But unfortunately his remarks just underline his lack of understanding of how audiences consume media these days. Fairfax has a business model that caters for all audiences, across all devices and our numbers and audience reach reflects that like nothing else.
“I thought reruns of The Flintstones were over, but it appears a new season have been commissioned by News Corp.”
Asked whether readers cared about the frequent snipes between The Australian and its rivals Mitchell conceded they may not be all that interested, but argued the competition was good for the media and society.
“The readers probably don’t like it,” said Mitchell. “Readers probably want to have a relationship with their product and feel that either competition with the ABC or Fairfax is interfering with that relationship.
“But I think its healthy for democracy. I think it is a really good thing that journalists are quite competitive, I think it’s good for the body politic that journalists do compete hard.”
Mitchell was also asked if he used social media and whether he had a Twitter account. “Yeah I do (look at Twitter),” said Mitchell. “I don’t (have my own account) and I don’t intend to get one, but I was for instance, if you go back to Sunday with (former News Corp boss) Ken Cowley the person who was talking to Sharri (Markson) about tweeting that story quickly.
“I follow (Twitter) and look carefully at the tweets of my own staff. Sometimes I think people get too political in their tweets, they engage in too much banter with opponents on Twitter and I discourage that.
“I like to see Twitter used to market their stories.”
CEO of The Australian Nicholas Gray was also asked if he had a “healthy hatred” for his competitors and said: “It’s a healthy respect.
“There is no doubt it is a incredibly competitive environment and also the fragmentation of digital is accelerating that but I like Chris think competition for the body politic and for our audience and our marketing for media buyers that there is such competition — it makes us all better”
Gray also responded to recent reports about how The Australian lost $30m last year saying: “We make a very large contribution to the overall business and we are confident that that will continue.”
Editor-in-chief Mitchell was questioned by Burrowes on whether editorial worried about the newspaper’s finances. “I actually think people at The Oz have editorially always been very concerned with the paper’s profitability,” he responded.
“You know it is no secret that the national business model is not easy — there are a not a whole lot of retail advertisers who want to get into a national paper. But if you look at the revenue based verticals inside the paper things like the IT section or the Higher Ed section they are very much the invention of editorial.”
Amid ongoing industry speculation that Mitchell might step down following the 50 Anniversary of The Australian, the newspaper editor responded that he would move on “when I feel ready.”
“I would like to hand the paper and the digital businesses over in a good state,” said Mitchell. “I would like to have clearly defined successors who I felt were ready for it,” said Mitchell.
“There is a tradition in newspapers, I don’t particularly mean in News Corp but generally, of throwing good journalists into a job that they are completely unprepared for because there is not much in journalism that teaches you how to do what Nick Gray (CEO of The Australian) does.
“When I feel that it is ready, I will move on.
“It is a tricky thing. How do I do what I do? It is a very disciplined business. I am probably a mammoth consumer of media — I start with ABC breakfast, then move to 702, I read everything I can before ten past nine when I go for a 45 minute walk. I make my ideas during the walk, I like to come to work with three or four good ideas for things that no one else has and I finish at the end of Lateline Business every night.”
“It’s 6.30am in the morning to a quarter to twelve in the night. So the time when I can move on is appealing,” he quipped.
Nic Christensen
topics
battle
Chris Mitchell
conversation
editor
Fairfax
Garry Linnell
Mumbrella360
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The Australian
Tim Burrowes
Twitter
And what about the oz demographic? A bunch of old farts in south east queensland sucking on a bile biscuit. Just look at these folk: Linnell and Mitchell; is that all they have to say? And barely comprehensible at that. This ineptitude must surely accelerate the demise of once important news media.
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Better to buy Fairfax and get an AB readership rather than buying The Australian and getting no readers at all.
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It might come as a bit of a shock to some, but The Australian is a national newspaper and the Sydney Morning Herald is not. Consequently the papers are not competitors. However if it were possible to sustain an argument that the two papers were in competition, The Australian would come a very poor second. Its circulation must be one of the great disappointments in Australian media.
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Lachlan Murdoch committed to print? Doubtful. Sounds like a sales pitch to talk up potential of print ads while NewsCorp loses clients. His father, Rupert Murdoch, was celebrating the death of newspapers a few years ago – “no paper, no printing plants, no unions. It’s going to be great.”
http://yournewreality.blogspot.....apers.html
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Unsure if mitchell is mr. burns or grandpa simpson … or a hybrid of both.
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In 1910, 10% of the UK workforce was employed in hat manufacturing. What’s this got to do with newspapers? Nothing – except it helps illustrate that times and behaviours change. Companies have to go where the audience, and therefore where the money is.
There’s no point churning out newspapers in printed form if no one is buying them just as there’s no point churning out hats if no one is wearing them. http://bit.ly/1rN1U7w
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to be fair… how “national” is the Oz?
I know it gets dropped into all the capital cities, but the readership numbers suggest that excluding the east coast, no one is reading it.
Newspapers that are now little more than political mouthpieces for interfering owners and self absorbed editors are rapidly plumeting toward extinction.
Its a very sad thing that instead of working to create a better product and reverse the decline, those in power simply point and laugh at their neighbour… as their house falls off the cliff.
Was there ANY mention during the discussion…about great stories, investigative journalism or even a great (unbiased) interview from the pages? No?…never mind, we’ve got more 80 year old millionaires than you have.
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Fairfax is often Reddit a day later. Take today’s front page of the age. Racist rant video and Go Pro footage of a bike getting stolen we’re on Reddt yesterday. Then there’s an article about Iggy Azalea – not quite as good as the one I read in the guardian yesterday but admittedly a different angle. There are a lot more Top 10 style articles trashing the brand. I read the Guardian more now. Admittedly I don’t read the Australian at all!
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Anybody else do a double-take on this quote:” I start with ABC breakfast, then move to 702..”?
Not Today, not SkyNews, not Alan Jones – instead his morning info comes via the dreaded Labor/Greens empire that News Corp wants emasculated/crippled/closed down???
Don’t tell me it’s a case of “know thine enemy” when it is obviously a case of accidental admission that there’s only one quality electronic news source worth bothering about
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News Corp editor fires a broadside at Fairfax Editor. Fairfax Editor snipes back. News Corp editor comes again. Fairfax Editor lobs a volley back. Seriously, apart from the two protagonists and some of their navel gazing cohorts, who cares? Is it really news that Fairfax and News Corp don’t think much of each other?
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Mitchell clearly understands neither democracy nor competition. The fact that he believes the bitch-slapping and mooning that goes on in his newspaper (and quite often that of his soulmate Stutchbury) is somehow related to those concepts is sad confirmation of his shopworn intellect.
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Clem Ford doesn’t write for the herald! Does Mitchell read Daily Life these days??
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Chris Mitchell is OBSESSED with Fairfax and their digital pace. Does he own a computer? Wouldn’t even ask if he know what a smart phone is.
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@forest Nahm: Daily Life stories — often including Clem Ford’s – are promoted on the home page of the herald and age daily.
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Nothing like a good swipe at the SMH to bring out the cool lefties.
Jesus wept.
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@lindsay actually 50% of SMH.com.au audience is based outside NSW according to Nielsen Online Ratings, essentially making it a national title (or half irrelevant metro-based paper, depending on your POV).
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@ Sam: about 30% or more of the SMH’s traffic comes from Overseas (same for all other news sites). I guess that makes it an international title.
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Buzzards squawking over the carcass.
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isn’t mumbrella just part of this same echo chamber? and media watch? and the aus media section? and…crikey. does joe public really care?
i think the point is advertisers care. and they sustain the media, so if they didn’t support a media brand and it went out of business then joe public would care.
so the echo chamber has some value? or it has the potential to have value, if used right?
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At least we can regard journalists at Fairfax as journalists (aside from the non independent advertorials, which promote their own products, such as Domain…) The investigative journalism is very good at Fairfax.
Anyone pushing pens / typing it out at News Corp however is a PR person for the right wing agenda. There are not any credible journalists at The Australian, nor at any of the local comic book fodder tabloids either. The day after the budget, News.com.au had Kevin Rudd on it’s homepage, swiping away as they do; being evil.
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Sam, online is one thing newspaper sales are another. If it was logical to assume online interest in the SMH made it a National product, you would also need to attach some of the online traffic The Age and Canberra Times get as all three sites share much of the same content. The truth is despite all the rubbish that has gone on at Fairfax over the past two decades, the SMH still out sells The Australian on the news stands where both papers are sold. It might have something to do with the News Corp publications limiting their audience to the Mad Right.
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