Monday, November 16, 2009

The current SMH main headline

is about the Twitter response to the end of Rove Live.


ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!?! Reporting on tweets about a TV show? Not even a TV show about a controversial issue! A show about fart jokes and tour plugs. This makes me TWITCH with outrage. WHERE HAVE ALL THE JOURNALISTS GONE?!!!

8 comments:

Carmel said...

They've all been sacked. Fact. Along with all the designers. (Just see Friday's Metro for proof!) I went to a meeting there recently and whole floors in their 'open-plan-style office' which were once irritatingly noisy are now like ghost towns, and the journos they have retained are running ragged trying to look after their outrageously large portfolios. Fairfax are dying a slow, painful and oh so public death.

Margs said...

Obviously I'm not as outraged by the fact it made headlines...it DID run for 10 yrs....I am, however, horrified by the spelling mistakes and bad grammar in the article! Forget the journos being sacked...I don't think they were ever taught properly in the beginning!

( had to quickly re-read to make sure I didn't make any of my own typos hahahahaha!)

Carmel said...

The 14-yr-old tea wallah wrote it.

Flit said...

They've obviously taken our comments to heart, this morning they're running with how Britneys show is actually worth watching despite being shallow, lip-synched drivel (or at least I assume that's what they're saying - if anyone actually bothers to read it and I'm wrong then let me know), intriguing stuff

Jenny said...

It's amazing how bad the SMH is these days. Aside from the actual content of the stories, the headlines alone are all tired cliches and lame puns. And the website is just shocking.

I have a friend in journalism (she started out at SMH about 15 years ago!) who is desperately re-inventing herself as an online video content something or other because according to her, traditional media just refuses to pay anyone like her what they are worth. Why would they when they can get said 14-year old tea wallah (what is a wallah Carmel? I'm going to assume it means the person who fetches the tea) to do it for a few bucks an hour.

Matt said...

I think the SMH is a good example of what's happening to traditional media companies not being able to monetize their online presence whilst their circulation numbers steadily drop. Let's face it, we're a generation not used to paying for news.

Your friend, Jenny, is being paid what she's worth, her skills just aren't worth much anymore because the media have set a standard they can't profit on, and therefore can't maintain.

I don't think it's fairfax's fault, they don't have the cash to maintain the standards they, and we, are used to.

Margs said...

yeah fair comment Mattwa...I remember when you used to have to pay to get access to SMH online. Obviously we wouldn't pay for it so they caved and made it free...suckers!

Jenny said...

I think it's a vicious circle scenario: the more they drop their standards, the less likely we are to pay for it. In on online world, all they need are page hits, hence snappy headlines and poor content, or else controversial and antagonistic Miranda Devine-style articles that do the social media circuit.

And I guess you're right about my friend, though that doesn't make the prospect of a massive paycut any easier for her!