A quick tour of the ‘new’ Fairfax site The National Times and it appears no great changes have been made from their regular sites. With a promising pitch by David Marr over the weekend declaring a nostalgia for a paper which was ’short on columns, long on research’. This reader had their interest piqued.
Alas. Nothing of any revolutionary nature. Just an amalgam of articles we can already access, only badly organised. A column on the left allows us to sort through by topic. A quick scan of the heading ‘Arts’ gives us 133 results, including the following at the top of the list:
1) an article by Malcolm Turnbull about Rupert Murdoch’s comments on the digital revolution.
2) a rant about one man’s struggle against the ATO.
3) a piece about the influence of public vs private education.
4) something by Ross Gittins about the economy.
5) a column about the Rudd Government’s Health policy.
6) something about the cost of prams and motherhood.
7) finally something closely resembling the arts: an unintelligible thesis titled “Making Peace With Fashion”. I never made it past the Sex & the City allusions and references to ’spray-tan’.
You get the idea? Not much in the way of actual arts conversation. There is one interesting piece by filmmaker Rachel Ward buried, as she discusses the fractious nature of our local distribution industry. A hot topic for the thousands of struggling independent film producers left stranded by a lack of local TV content (subject for another day perhaps). But you can’t comment on that one. No engagement, no conversation, no reason to come back. New Media? Missed the point again.
Fairfax, a tip, if you’re going to rebrand yourself with a new site offering hard-hitting investigative articles in the brave new digital world – get with the program, and offer the readership a chance to participate. Put a proper arts ed in place so you can build the conversation beyond token gestures. We have a thriving, intelligent arts community in this country and we are crying out for a place to publicly debate.
Don’t say you’re going to do something new, and then just give us more of the same. It only makes you look shabby.
No comments:
Post a Comment