Is the Evolution of a Behemoth Good For Gay News in Australia
A couple of weeks ago The Pink Broad was given an editorial slamming by Brad Johnston, editor of Sydney’s second tier GLBT paper, SX.
The cause of the salvo was a profile I wrote of his publication while moonlighting for the Sydney City Hub newspaper- which included a couple of errors that were slipped in by Hub staff during the editorial process after I had submitted my wholly accurate copy for printing.
However one criticism I made which Johnston raised no issue with (and in fact he confirmed it in print himself last week- albeit obliquely) was the growing market dominance of what he calls, “the rapacious media behemoth known as Evolution Publishing”- otherwise known as his publishers.
With its recent acquisition of the Queensland Pride newspaper, Evolution Publishing now owns a GLBT community paper in every state capital on the eastern seaboard of mainland Australia.
Add to this AX National, the company’s free nationally distributed gay men’s magazine, and the Fellow Traveller gay and lesbian travel guide, and it becomes no great exaggeration to call Evolution Publishing the New Ltd of gay Australia.
But what is more worrying than seeing more than half of the Australian GLBT print media in the grasp of a single set of hands, is the attrition of voices and opinions that has gone with it.
A cursory glance at the websites of Melbourne acquisition MCV, and new stable mate Brisbane Pride reveals how many of the articles were written by SX’s Sydney staff- and AX National’s list of contributors includes many of the usual suspects as well.
Content duplication has been a winning strategy for News Ltd too, with most of the interstate stories in its capital city papers appearing identically in the pages of other Murdock stable mates.
And while I do not doubt this will be a winning strategy for Evolution- and further acquisitions in the next few years in the nation’s west would come as no great surprise to me either- I have to ask if it is a good thing for the GLBT community in Australia that these publications serve?
When The Pink Broad was first envisioned as a national GLBT newspaper for the whole of Australia, the intent behind it was to create a forum for national debate- for the various state communities to come together and talk about the issues facing us all so that once consensus had been reached we could go forward united in tacking them.
This seemed to be particularly important in the wake of the marriage ban and the initial reluctance of the lobby representing a certain state to come to the table and get behind the team as it were.
Yet Evolution Publishing’s market dominance provides no such national forum- you might be sitting in Melbourne reading news that was written in Sydney but chances are the only letters and opinions you are going to see are Victorian based.
The same goes if you live in NSW or Queensland- while this duplication of content also ensures that a tinier and tinier pool of GLBT journalists can find gainful employment within their own communities.
On the web things are looking more cheerful- The Pink Broad website is still steaming along, DNA Magazine is branching out into providing more and more online content, and new players Same-Same are doing their bit to add to the diversity of GLBT news and opinion writing in Australia as well- albeit with a somewhat DIY approach. Even dating site Gay.com is providing some news content.
But while content on the web is blossoming, for most the economic rewards in online publishing are yet to follow, and with print media still the mainstay, its still a case of “the incredible shrinking Australian gay press”.
Disclaimer: Andrew M. Potts was a contributing writer for SX News and SX (now AX) National for the years 2004 and 2005.
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