Opinion: new media will not bridge the gap as quality journalism decreases in Australia

Eric Beecher, former editor of The Sydney Morning Herald, says that Australian politicians have to support the idea that journalism may be vital to a democracy, while pointing out that quality journalism risks dying out.

"We can cherrypick. We can do the commentary and a little bit of investigative journalism and that kind of thing, but I can't see a business model for independent journalism funding hundreds of journalists to do the bigger things that you have to do to fulfil the democratic mission," said Beecher.

According to The Australian, Fairfax Media's recent decision to cut 5% or 550 workers from papers like The Sydney Morning Herald and Melbourne's The Age may "blow a hole" in Australia's traditional quality media that new online media like blog sites would not be able to fill since the number of staff employed at such outlets may be about 10 times smaller than at traditional ones.

Beecher thinks that Fairfax is sending a message that its duty is to shareholders and "not to maintaining quality journalism and its place as the fourth estate".

Rupert Murdoch's News Limited remains as the "sole" commercial source of serious journalism, The Australian writes. The future holds "celebrity-driven pap" as paper and magazine content, for which advertisers are moving to the Internet, according to Beecher.

Source: The Australian