A media innovation for the times

DOOMSAYERS and new-media competitors have long predicted the death of quality journalism, pointing to the fact newspapers are struggling around the world with declining classified advertising and rising newsprint prices. In the US, prominent newspapers such as the 100-year-old Christian Science Monitor, the Rocky Mountain News of Denver, Colorado, and the Seattle Post-Intelligencer have had to close or produce online versions only. In a recent interview, following a report on Australia's media sector by accounting firm PriceWaterhouseCoopers, media partner David Wiadrowski said Australian newspapers were faring better than some of their global counterparts because they had embraced online.

Indeed, while we are living in a time of contracting markets and opportunities for traditional media, changing technology allows the resources of The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald to present quality journalism to the public in new ways. Today Fairfax Media, which owns The Age, launches the National Times at www.theage.

com.au/nationaltimes, an online website featuring opinion, analysis and commentary. The website will bring together Fairfax's best-known journalists and commentators, joined by a team of influential contributors and bloggers. The resurrection of the National Times masthead which had a rich history of fearless investigative journalism is a positive sign of innovation and self-belief in a media industry that is redefining itself. The National Times is being launched at a time when there is plenty of ferment online, with News Limited launching blog site The Punch in June this year. Public broadcasters are also beefing up their internet presence. For Fairfax, the National Times is a clear sign that quality journalism is far from dead in print or online.