Hacker News Reader

Comment by chris_wot | Hacker News Reader

I've not bothered reading the SMH (and by extension, The Age) online for a long time. The online version is weak, lazy journalism, incredibly (to my mind) even worse than The Daily Telegraph.

Check out www.smh.com.au now... More than a third of the articles are about celebrities, or are vapid commentary on meaningless issues. There's a bit of content, but nothing really groundbreaking. And today is a day when there is easy news, as an election was announced by the Australian PM.

The SMH used to be great. Not any more. Old media is indeed dying.

View on HN

I've said in other places that there are two Sydney Morning Heralds.

One is an old fashioned high-church leftie yawnfest staffed mostly by people who dine out on stories about being stoned in the 60s.

The other is a tabloid bilge pump.

The bilge pays for the yawnfest and everybody tries to pretend that the pulpit isn't being subsidised by the people it rails against.

Worst of both worlds. To my mind, it seems to me that they have rudderless leadership, and lazy journalism. I severely doubt they know anything about the South West of Sydney, for instance. That would require leaving the North Shore occasionally :-)

I resent the suggestion that North Shore residents aren't aware of Sydney's South. I go to the airport all the time, and that's as south as it gets.

As for the West I'll have you know I have been through Strathfield several times, and I once even flew over Parramatta.

Hope I've busted a few stereotypes here tonight!

Are you a journalist? If so, apologies. Otherwise, no stereotype busted.

So what do you read online then? I'm a displaced Melburnian living in the States and have been reading The Age online for ages, simply because it was the paper I use to read when I live there, many moons ago...

The iPad app is still excellent. But try the Global Mail.

http://www.theglobalmail.org/

I've just discovered their Android App for the tablet. It gives a totally new experience to reading it online. I definitely feel more at ease reading the via the Android App than the online version.

> Old media is indeed dying.

I can't speak for Autralian media, but "old" media like the New York Times and the Washington Post in the US seem to still do well for themselves. Many big investigative pieces still come from newspapers, as most online-only outlets don't yet have the resources for that work. Newspapers are certainly less responsive (and the smaller papers are declining in quality, unfortunately), but for high-quality journalism the old guard has yet to be beat.

Sorry, can't speak as to U.S. media. But it's pretty dire in Australia.

I used to enjoy reading SMH when I lived in OZ, about 10 years ago, I even kept up with smh.com.au when I returned but in the last 6 or 7 years I have probably checked it about 6 times and each time realised why i dont go there any more.

If you knew just how understaffed they were compared to even just a few years ago. The money left print media with the classifieds and they can't afford to pay for journalism (which was always a cost center) any more, everyone is doing about 8 jobs and just printing press releases. Combine that with inefficient layers of management fat from the good times and employees who haven't upskilled in decades (again, a product of the good times), and it's easy to see why small, digital teams are going to thump old media.

(obvious exception is the New York Times, who seem to be doing a great job)

If they can't afford to pay for journalism, then not sure the point of running a newspaper.

I use http://www.smh.com.au/text/

Online is terrible. In print and on the iPad it is far better.

But I fear for Fairfax when the Guardian officially launches: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/australia

Oh, I'm totally abandoning SMH when the Guardian launches here! Another paper I love is the Global Mail.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com