UK media industry site Press Gazette has named 9news.com.au and ABC News as the fastest-growing sites in its monthly leaderboard of global English-language news. I have been reading the Gazette since the beginning of the pandemic, and I have enjoyed its construction of a news traffic competition through the use of SimiliarWeb data. The recognition of the […]
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The Crawford Media podcast
I have added a podcast to the Crawford Media newsletter and have been speaking to some fantastic thinkers in news media in Australia and New Zealand. There are a number of ways to subscribe and listen to the podcast. You can search for “Crawford Media” in your favourite podcast app, like Apple Podcasts, Downcast or […]
Analyst Benedict Evans has built a global following understanding and explaining how tech is transforming the world, and this week I had the opportunity to talk to him specifically about the business of news. I know Evans through his insightful and wide-ranging Benedict’s Newsletter, and in person he turns out to be intense, fast-talking and dismissive of news […]
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In conversation with Tim Burrowes
For the first podcast of the Crawford Media experience I have the honour of presenting Mumbrella founder Tim Burrowes. The discussion covers the tumultuous last decade in Australian media history, as told in his book Media Unmade. Please find the link to the audio here. I went deep into the book in my review. Here you have […]
I have just finished reading Tim Burrowes’ book “Media Unmade” and my head feels ready to explode. Burrowes is the founder of Australian media industry site Mumbrella, and he tells me that when he gets into something, he can become obsessed. He got into this book. It’s 432 pages long and covers the past decade of […]
This is a photo of the Philippines Star printing room in the port district of Manila from my friend and former ninemsn and Newshub colleague Shaun Davies. This photo was taken in 2013 when Davies was striking a deal with the Star to get its content on MSN for Microsoft. “This place was so old school. […]
It seems a very sensible idea: paying only for the news you read, article by article. At a few cents apiece, there is no cost barrier, and publishers are compensated by readers directly, in direct proportion to the popularity of content. This is the micropayment model. The idea has been around as long as the […]
I have struggled with the reporting of the AstraZeneca Covid vaccine giving rise to blood clots. Not because I am wary of the vaccine. On the contrary, I’m conflicted because there’s a good argument that the blood clot risk should have not have been reported at all. There is a higher chance that the earth […]
Substack is supposedly worth $650m USD, about half the market cap of Air New Zealand. How does a company with just 50 employees based on decades-old email newsletter technology become that hot? It’s all about who you work for. Substack works for writers. If you are not already a subscriber to the Crawford Media newsletter, […]
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Smokes and typewriters
Media sage and consultant colleague Gavin Ellis, the former editor-in-chief of the New Zealand Herald, sent in this classic hovel picture from more than 50 years ago. Thanks Gavin. This is the New Zealand Herald reporters room in 1966-7. In the foreground is chief reporter (NZ equivalent of the Australian chief of staff) Gerry Symmans who later became […]