This is the fourth instalment of a Crikey series, Movers and Shakers.
It’s been a long year, and Australian journalism has covered a lot of stories with nuance and close attention. But what subjects aren’t being covered enough? We surveyed more than 200 of Australia’s biggest media figures — journalists, editors, defamation lawyers, academics — to hear what stories are falling by the wayside, and who’s doing the best at serving their readers with specialised coverage.
What they shared has formed the backbone of a multi-part Crikey series, Movers and Shakers, holding a mirror up to the industry and asking it to reflect on itself.
We emailed everyone the same eight questions and about one in four got back to us. It was an imperfect list — if we missed you, let us know for next year — but we contacted people from the following outlets: Nine’s major metropolitan mastheads as well as people in its broadcast divisions, The Australian Financial Review, Network Ten, Seven, SBS, the ABC, 2GB, Sky News Australia, Guardian Australia, the News Corp newspapers, The Conversation, Daily Mail Australia, Australian Associated Press, Apple News, Mamamia, Pedestrian and Schwartz Media.
We also included journalism academics, media lawyers and industry body executives, as well as people from smaller outlets like The Nightly, Quillette, Unmade, Capital Brief, the Koori Mail, About Time, The Daily Aus, Women’s Agenda, IndigenousX, Mumbrella, 6 News Australia and of course Crikey. More than 50 people generously offered us their insightful, searing and sometimes cheeky thoughts on the state of the industry.
Which areas are undercovered?
Kate McClymont, chief investigative reporter at The Sydney Morning Herald: When it comes to beat reporting, the lack of proper scrutiny of local government is such a shame. Local government is riddled with cronyism and corruption and it’s where the real decisions are made that affect the lives of many.
Margaret Simons, journalist and author: Local reporting is the most threatened area. By which I mean towns, regions (perhaps most of all), suburbs and the all-important edge-of-urban. This is where good information is most lacking, and therefore where social cohesion and democratic norms are most vulnerable. At the other end of the spectrum, reporting on our region. So much happening. So little coverage.
Alan Kohler, founder of Eureka Report: Local government beats are no longer covered at all, and state governments not well.
Louise Milligan, reporter at ABC’s Four Corners: Local government is an area that is a lot less well-covered than it was when I started in journalism — partly because of the closing down of regional and rural newspapers and downsizing of metro newsrooms. I suspect there is a rich vein of stories there waiting to be unearthed.
Dave Earley, audience editor at Guardian Australia: Rural and regional are undercovered, but who’s going to invest in covering them now? We’ve seen so many closures of regional print and broadcast outlets over the past five years, even in large centres, and I’d really like to be able to see someone make it work.
Leo Puglisi, founder of 6 News Australia: Local government, and in particular local government elections, are unbelievably undercovered.
Misha Ketchell, editor of The Conversation Australia: State politics is poorly covered these days, but the truth is all beat reporting is underdone. The new media model is to fly in to report when there’s big news or a scandal and fly out when it’s the daily grind. But it’s the turning up every day to cover schools and courts and council meetings that makes journalists part of the communities they serve and builds the trust that we all need to do our jobs. I think it’s a tragedy that so many beat reporters have fallen by the wayside.
Michael Pascoe, journalist: Local government is underreported — regionals have lost media coverage. Councils shape towns and cities.
Myriam Robin, editor of The Australian Financial Review’s Rear Window: The Australian media suffers from too great a focus on federal politics and too little a focus on just about everything else.
Karen Percy, federal president at MEAA: Local government is one area where there are major journalism black holes. We know about the news deserts across the country. In cities, in country towns, all over Australia this crucial level of government faces little scrutiny. Given alleged levels of corruption in local councils, this is a major opportunity for media organisations. Industrial relations need to be a focus again. Most of us spend a third of our day working, yet there’s very little coverage beyond the current “work from home/come back to the office” binary. There are so many workplace issues that we’re all confronting — work intensification, stagnant pay, bullying, poor workplace culture, a lack of opportunities, discrimination based on gender, race, age, ability. It’s not just about unions; it’s about what’s happening in the workplace and how so many of us find ourselves dissatisfied and how organisations too often breach their own agreements and standards.
Sophie Black, editor-in-chief at Crikey: Climate change is criminally undercovered. It remains the biggest story challenge for outlets — no-one wants to read about it. It’s fascinating to read some really inspiring (and successful) attempts to find a different way in to engage readers — including France Télévision’s regular nightly weather-climate report in lieu of the weather report, and more forays into reporting the climate crisis as a crime story.
Karen Barlow, chief political correspondent at The Saturday Paper: I’d say climate/environment/science reporting could do with a boost, but there are fab exponents in Aus. I also enjoy The Canberra Times’ public service reporting.
Alex Bruce-Smith, head of editorial at Pedestrian: Honestly, probably the climate — it’s traditionally hard to get people to read stories about it, but it’s becoming harder to untangle climate change from any other beat. It feels like it won’t be long before it’s the only story that matters.
Paddy Manning, journalist and author: Climate and energy are not underreported but badly reported — with a few honourable exceptions — because after 30+ years of debate and discussion, the gravity of the crisis is not well understood by the general public. The media has been so bad that climate scientists (eg. Joëlle Gergis) have had to skill up and learn to do the public communication themselves. The media and political class have utterly failed to inform and educate the public and expose the bad actors, and I include myself in that. God help our kids.
Joseph Friedman, managing director of About Time: I think there’s far too much reporting on crimes (they’re very newsworthy), and not enough on criminal justice, miscarriages of justice and potential wrongful convictions. I’d love to see more writing about adventure sports and outdoor activities in Australia. I’d love to see some more This American Life– or The Moth-style storytelling in Australian media.
Gabrielle Jackson, deputy editor at Guardian Australia: Indigenous affairs is still tragically undercovered or poorly covered. And I think we could do better reporting on online trends in a serious way.
Gina Rushton, editor of Crikey: The contraction of newsrooms has seen a huge loss for court reportage — there are entire cases that don’t see a scrap of media coverage because there are so few court reporters now, which is sad. I would love to see more coverage of the regions where so many outlets have shuttered and also of local councils where so much dodgy stuff happens. We also have an incredibly underserviced youth media sector in Australia. There isn’t enough old school, critical and sceptical reporting on the issues that matter most to young people.
Rachel Withers, freelance writer: Housing. It’s about time outlets had specific housing reporters on the beat, in the same way they (in an ideal world) have environment or education reporters.
Eric Beecher, chairman of Private Media (publisher of Crikey): Maybe the old idea of “beat reporting” is no longer the right way of looking at it. After all, if you want to know what’s happening inside a specialist subject (and why), the best source is often a slate of podcasts and specialist websites or Substacks. Unfortunately, because traditional journalism’s funding is drying up fast, audiences who want bespoke information have to look elsewhere. Hand wringing won’t bring back the beat reporters, except for unfortunately in the few financially fertile pastures like watch (i.e. time pieces) reporting in the Financial Review, or upmarket property and travel writing in broadsheet newspapers.
Peter Cronau, journalist: The issues in Pacific countries are severely underreported, however, the ABC is head-and-shoulders superior and expanding its coverage of this “round”. Federal government policy coverage suffers from the persistence of “gotcha” interviews, rather than persistent burrowing into policy options meant to be addressing community need. Defence reporting suffers from a lack of sceptical examination of the PR moments, press releases and unchallenged assumptions behind Australia’s current massive Defence buildup.
Peter Bartlett, partner at MinterEllison: There are not the available dollars these days to support beat reporting to the extent that we saw in the past. Reporters need to be more versatile, jacks or jills familiar with multiple areas.
Sally Neighbour, former EP of ABC’s Four Corners and 7:30: We now have endless lifestyle, “wellness”, recreation, leisure, travel coverage. Real estate, restaurants, hottest holiday spots, health kicks, ad nauseum. That’s fine, it’s what people want to read. In the rush to this, other areas have been neglected, including some traditional beats, like organised crime. As a Sydney-sider I’m shocked by the seemingly constant spate of gangland killings, which are reported daily/weekly as news incidents, but with little/no investigation of the root causes. Not sure why this is. Maybe it’s considered by editors to be old-fashioned. National politics is covered like a spectator sport with very little deep investigation of what’s going on underneath and behind the scenes of the daily slugfest. We need more investigative political journalism.
Erik Jensen, CEO and editor-in-chief of Schwartz Media: Policy remains the most important and least well-covered area in Australian journalism, especially on beats like climate change and social affairs. There are individual reporters who are the exception to this rule and who connect to audiences that want serious consideration of complex topics. Rick Morton on robodebt would be a leading example.
Justin Stevens, ABC director of news: In the age of mass information, and amid the proliferation of chatbot-generated summaries of issues and events, the best way to serve the public will be specialising in investigations, impactful journalism, expert analysis of issues and policy areas and trustworthy explainers. We also can’t underestimate the importance of human connection in journalism — hearing from all communities across Australia, engaging with the public on a personal level, holding all levels of power to account.
Ben Schneiders, reporter for ABC’s Four Corners: It’s a target-rich environment with so many areas now underreported in Australia. Beat reporting can give journalism depth and complexity, it’s vital. For instance there are now very few journalists doing daily reporting on industrial relations, social policy issues or religion. Some of the most important stories in recent years around robodebt, wage theft and child abuse in religious institutions have come from these areas. Many important stories are being missed because of a lack of specialist journalists.
Part of it is a question of priorities from editorial managers about where they allocate staff — there’s too much horse-race coverage of politics, for example. You’d be better off having more reporters covering a specialist round than chasing the same stories in Canberra that everyone else is doing. But the decline of specialist reporting is largely driven by the funding crisis for journalism.
Marc Fennell, presenter and journalist: I still think a lot of Australian arts reporting only talks to a very specific “arts audience” and I’m always interested in anyone who can find ways of reporting on culture that reaches people who wouldn’t gravitate to that content. Usually, it requires a creative form, unusual hook or structure.
Antony Loewenstein, co-founder of Declassified Australia: Undercovered areas include the real role of lobby groups with close ties to foreign states (from Israel to the US).
Cam Wilson, associate editor at Crikey: Not a huge shock that I’ll say this but tech reporting in Australia continues to pale in comparison to the US or the EU. It is an enormous, consequential topic that has only a handful of reporters dedicated to it at major outlets. That being said, some of the smaller and trade tech outlets like InnovationAus, Information Age and iTnews do good work. If you want to know the stuff that isn’t making the big headlines like a teen social media ban, you gotta keep an eye on them.
Kishor Napier-Raman, CBD columnist for The Sydney Morning Herald: I would like to see more reporting on diverse communities/race issues that isn’t either reactionary panic or feel-good fluff. Also more robust arts journalism.
Gay Alcorn, former editor of The Age: There is much good work, day in, day out, that is rarely acknowledged. Journalists in newsrooms are under huge pressure with the 24-hour new cycle and reduced resources. There is good investigative and explanatory journalism being done all the time — and good beat reporting too, from health, sport, education and many others.
There is much that is underreported, but when we talk about “media”, that’s very broad. No doubt there are special interest publications/podcasts doing these things well, and lots of churnalism and clickbait, too. So I am talking about mainstream journalism that takes seriously its democratic role to inform and hold the powerful accountable. I think Indigenous issues have been underreported in the media since the Voice referendum, although there are those that have stuck with it (The Australian is biased, but they have kept up with it). Our newsrooms still lack cultural diversity, so that limits what we know about and report on — we have been talking about diversity for years, and it’s far too slow to happen. I agree with the view that the Australian media needs diversity more broadly, too, especially class and political perspectives.
Policy is underreported. It’s harder than the politics of politics. It’s a huge challenge to ensure readers/viewers aren’t turned off by the dire news around climate change, and we can think hard about how to do it well. News Corp campaigns against serious action on climate change to the extent that it’s not actual journalism.
Overall, I don’t think media in Australia is grappling deeply enough with the remarkable moment we are in, with the collapse of support for major parties, the searching around for something to replace neoliberalism, the threat of climate change, the upending of long-held shibboleths in politics and policy, the rise of the authoritarian far right and the shakiness of liberal democracies. So these ideas and shifts that are being discussed a lot in quality media in the US and the UK we seem to neglect somewhat.
Overall, there are fewer specialist beat reporters with years of experience and knowledge, and that’s because of the reduction in reporting staff. That leads to an issue with depth and context. For instance, domestic violence is reported and sometimes well, but it would be good to have more coverage of policy and shifts in thinking in this area (and others).
Even issues like housing affordability, the international context of inflation, people who are really struggling economically and the big political shifts I mentioned, would also benefit from more in-depth reporting. We have a tendency to focus on the politics of these issues, how they “play” politically, rather than the substance of them, or how they impact people, although there are clearly exceptions. Getting on the ground more to report the impact of these issues would be welcome.
Who is serving their readers best with specialised coverage?
Jordan Baker, chief reporter at The Sydney Morning Herald: Rounds reporting is the engine of newsrooms, and in my view does not get recognised or rewarded enough, particularly at awards nights — there’s often no category for roundspeople to enter. There are some outstanding beat reporters in Australia at the moment. The crime team at The Daily Telegraph has always been excellent. Natasha Robinson is doing a tremendous job on health at The Australian. And my colleagues at the Herald — I’ll name Matt O’Sullivan on transport and Matt Wade as economics writer, but there are many more — bring so much expertise and news-breaking power to the masthead.
Peter Lalor, Cricket Et Al: The Daily Telegraph still does excellent police reporting. They’ve re-embraced the old school. Its police rounds stuff attracts silly numbers online. It’s cheap to produce and there’s a disturbing appetite for it. Business journalism has a ready audience of people who have money and are willing to spend money to get more. I’d like to say that Melbourne reporters still cover Aussie Rules well, but even those departments have been razed and their big hits seem to be around trade week/SuperCoach hoo haa and the like. Cricket has a good base of reporters at places like Cricinfo, Cricket.com, The Times, I could go on, and some very good local roundsmen, including but not limited to Ben Horne, Daniel Brettig, Robert Craddock, Daniel Cherny and Malcolm Conn. I like Tom Morris’ sports reporting too — he is an old-fashioned news hound. I wish there were a few more women covering sport in the mainstream press, especially in cricket.
Peter Cronau, journalist: Specialist outlets and independent news outlets regularly show up mainstream outlets’ paucity of deep coverage. Online news and analysis outlets like Pearls & Irritations, Michael West Media, Independent Australia and, of course, Declassified Australia are proving to be the alternative sources so many of the audience are looking for.
Margaret Simons, journalist and author: There is quite a bit in niche media, on Substack and so forth, but a lot of it is opinionated or slanted. And people like to concentrate on the areas they are passionate about, rather than the non-glamorous legwork of covering a beat well.
Myriam Robin, editor of The Australian Financial Review’s Rear Window: I can’t go past my extraordinary colleagues at the Financial Review. If I had to nominate one, I read everything published by the AFR’s Jonathan Shapiro, who always seems to find what’s interesting and new in his coverage of high finance.
Alan Kohler, founder of Eureka Report: The AFR is serving its readers well with specialised coverage.
Michael Pascoe, journalist: Best service is provided by the AFR for those interested in business.
Karen Barlow, chief political correspondent at The Saturday Paper: I enjoy The Canberra Times’ public service reporting.
Steve Austin, host of ABC Radio Brisbane Mornings: The Australian newspaper does really well in the arts and legal affairs. The Australian’s education round is required reading. Bernard Keane at Crikey is very good on national affairs. The AFR is good on finance but not business, unless you want a mouthpiece. ABC TV is strong in international affairs in Asia. ABC’s defence reporting is solid. YouTube is the best forum for opinion pieces. Podcasts like The Rest is History is the best contemporary retelling of historically significant moments that I listen to.
Dave Earley, audience editor at Guardian Australia: I don’t know. The Age readers seem to love a bit of private school gossip, judging by what regularly appears in their most-read stories lists.
Karen Percy, federal president at MEAA: Those news organisations with a range of perspectives that genuinely represent underrepresented and marginalised communities — The Guardian, SBS, NITV, ABC — are doing a great job in beat reporting in my opinion.
Gay Alcorn, former editor of The Age: I may be biased, but I think, objectively, investigations at The Age/Herald are as good as they have ever been, and are having real public impact in areas of importance. People want to read them, and they require substantial investment. Locally, The Age is covering local planning and Melbourne issues well — federal politics is prioritised, so the need for strong local reporting on state issues and politics is vital. It was a terrible decision for the ABC to scrap local editions of 7.30 (again, it came down to money, but also priorities, and the gap has not been filled in other ways). The Australian Story series on Lachlan Murdoch was outstanding and only the ABC would do that.
Kate McClymont, chief investigative reporter at The Sydney Morning Herald: The Herald’s coverage of both courts and the legal system is superb.
Joseph Friedman, managing director of About Time: There are particular writers focused on beats who do excellent jobs. Rick Morton’s reporting on the public sector and the public service is deeply reported and clearly told. Liam Mannix’s science writing at The Age and SMH is another example.
Leo Puglisi, founder of 6 News Australia: 6 News started LocalElections.com.au earlier this year, but I’ll also credit the work of the SMH and The Age who had lots of really good specialised coverage this year.
