A game almost anyone can play

The big media companies face competition in their attempts to go local, reports MARGARET SIMONS NEW MEDIA is largely about the rise of niche audiences, and the most natural of all niches is the local. But will we ever be able to get over the ingrained idea that local journalism in this country means low rent journalism served up by overworked junior journalists whose job is to fill up the space between the ads? Our major news organisations have clearly absorbed the importance of the local to new media, as demonstrated most recently when Fairfax newspapers announced fourteen new local newspaper websites in New South Wales. Meanwhile News Limited, stirred a couple of years ago by the born-again digital enthusiasm of Rupert Murdoch, has been doing some interesting and worthwhile things, including innovations like Nook in Melbourne and Where I Live in Brisbane. Both of these go beyond conventional newspaper sites and seek to become the community networking site of choice for their suburbs. They are facing competition. Residents are starting their own locally based blogs and community news sites. Take a look at the Republic of Moreland blog, run by a mother and gardener in the northern suburbs of Melbourne. In the United States and Europe ?hyperlocal? community sites have become real rivals to commercially driven media, particularly those who have cut back too far and too often on editorial costs. Naturally the big media organisations are alert to the risks. It is worth nothing that one of the reasons given for the Fairfax?Rural Press merger was that Rural wanted to move faster to develop its online presence. But will the big profit-driven media organisations really invest in the content? Can they possibly compete against involved and concerned citizens, intimate with their communities, and without the need to turn a profit? This is a question that goes to the heart of the dilemma for media professionals ? what is that we provide that is special? What are journalists for? The reality at both Fairfax and News Limited is that often the same journalists who put out the local newspapers ? already overworked and underpaid ? are expected to run the websites as well, adding to an already crushing workload. They do a good job in the circumstances, but there are limits. Meanwhile the ABC clearly recognises that one of its strengths is the fact that it is the only media organisation in Australia with both depth of journalistic talent and strong local presence. The ABC?s Backyard sites containing material gathered by local radio are among its most popular content. The ABC is in process of gearing up local newsrooms to be able to provide video as well as still pictures and text, and Fairfax and News Limited are also looking at this. News Limited?s Leader Newspaper sites in Melbourne already offer video, such as this example (Windows Media). Comments online editor Jon Burton: ?You?ll notice they?re nothing like a tv story ? they?re not supposed to, they?re supposed to be a local reporter speaking direct with a local community. Talking with them rather that talking at them.? Yet can the big media organisations maintain their grip on the local while making the big profits investors demand? This week Macquarie Media, Australia?s biggest provider of commercial regional radio, announced its purchase of the regional television stations previously owned by Southern Cross. Macquarie Media is already a news ?hubber? par excellence, with local news often nothing more than ? as the ABCs Media Watch has put it in this excellent report ? ?haphazard collections of stories from somewhere.? The worry now is that Macquarie will combine newsrooms across television and radio, reducing local content still more. At present this is prohibited by law, thanks to last minute changes to the federal government?s package of media reforms passed by parliament last year. The changes, insisted on by the National Party, guaranteed that from 2008 local radio must broadcast four and a half hours of local content each business day and that when a change of ownership occurs, extra requirements apply relating to the number of news bulletins and ?local presence.? At the time Macquarie protested that these laws made regional radio uneconomic, and that radio stations would have to close. Since then lobbying has been intense and constant, resulting in the review of the requirements within six months of them becoming law. When former Secretary to the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, Max Moore-Wilton, became chairman of Macquarie Media , the Australian quoted a source tipping that he would be much better able to negotiate the ?politically sensitive? negotiations over local content regulation. Perhaps he has been successful. Coonan?s office advises that she received the results of a review of the laws on local content on 30 June. ?It is a comprehensive review and the Department is looking at it closely, and will provide advice back to the Minister.? And now Macquarie is making more investments in regional media. Nobody seems to believe that the local content requirements will be allowed to stand, yet National Party Senator Barnaby Joyce protests that without them ?we won?t have any such thing as local media.? Perhaps, but I think that if the main media organisations are to maintain their grip on the local they will have to invest much more in content, and in journalists. They probably won?t do this. There isn?t enough profit in it. Meanwhile, technology lowers the barriers to entry to the media business. In the suburbs and country towns, media is now a game almost anyone can play. ? Margaret Simons, a freelance journalist and author, is a visiting fellow at the Swinburne Institute for Social Research. Her new book about the media will be published later this year by Penguin. Photo: Tom Gufler/iStockphoto.co