The Aunty looms large because Fairfax has failed. Not the other way around.
Whenever I’m short of ideas for a blog post, I find inspiration in the writing of the team at the Institute for Public Affairs (IPA). Today I had John Roskam, none other than the Executive Director himself, to thank. He provided a doozy in his piece that was published on the IPA website and in the AFR. Differences of opinion aside, I respect the IPA’s ability to get into print media!
Like so many IPA articles I read, I didn’t really know where to begin with this one. John’s basic premise is that government funding of the ABC results in an unfair playing field for profit-driven media companies in Australia, in particular Fairfax and News Ltd. In John’s own words:
The problem with the ABC is not just its bias. Just as big a concern is the way it is using its privileged, government-funded position to crowd out the market against its commercial rivals.
He continues:
The ABC’s rapidly expanding online presence duplicates what Fairfax and News already provide, but with one vital difference – the Fairfax and News sites are, or soon will be, behind a paywall. In the not-too-distant future, consumers will have a choice: pay to get stories and commentary from Fairfax and News, or get them free from the ABC.
The notion that media is homogenous gives too little credit to the ability for a media company to create their own unique strategic position in the marketplace. And if John can so easily see the bias in the ABC, is he blind to the bias in The Australian, The Herald Sun, The Age and most other publications? Bias is a way of targeting a particular market. That’s business strategy, John. Something that has been sorely lacking at Fairfax, as Andrew Jaspan points out over at The Conversation.
Where things get a little illogical for me is that John is the executive director of a think tank with the tagline, “free people, free society”. His article goes on to show just why Australians may be attracted to the ABC.
While Fairfax and News will inevitably attempt to compete with each other and against the ABC on the basis of quality, the difficulty they have is that the quality of much of what the ABC produces is very high.
And.
On the ABC’s website is its own proud boast that “74 per cent of all Australians use ABC services each week via television, radio and online .?.?.”. Then there’s the threat of any government that wants to change this – “87 per cent of Australians believe the ABC provides a valuable service to the community“
So John, the real question should be why Australians derive value from the ABC. Are Australian’s being deceived by the ‘bias’ of the ABC? Or do they realise that there is bias in all media, and perhaps are more sympathetic to the tone taken by the ABC? In other words, is the ABC, a government funded media company, a better marketer than private profit-driven companies? Also, assuming the ABC introduced a pay wall, would people then go back in droves to The Age and The Australian? If media and opinions were homogenous then perhaps this would happen. But they are not. There will always be an audience willing to listen to a particular opinion. And anyway, I believe that ultimately pay walls will fail and I’m not sure what will replace them. Because the thing is John, media companies were never in the business of content, they were in the advertising business. This was where all their money came from and now it’s been plucked out from under their noses by tech upstarts (although they prefer to call themselves startups). The real problem with media businesses globally is that they are trying to re-design their business models for the first time in a long time. And they’re struggling. Defending them and accusing the ABC of making things tough ignores the fact that Fairfax failed itself through poor strategy. Unfortunately I don’t claim to have the solution for media companies woes and I certainly wouldn’t invest in them at the moment, but then I’m not Australia’s wealthiest individual. Which brings me to my final point.
The Age has traditionally been something of a counter-balance to the reporting of The Australian (and vice-versa). Once Gina and co. get their way the values of the two papers will suddenly be much much closer. I’d say that in times like this society benefits greatly from having some balance in the form of the ABC. Having said that, I’m sure glad other alternatives such as The Conversation are popping up. And John, between you and me, I think they’ll do pretty well out of all this too, even if they do have to squeeze in there next to a portly Aunty.
