I have written at least a gross of columns for Eureka Street—amazingly not having missed an issue—since it began in 1991, and find myself with mixed emotions as I write this for the last printed issue—at about the same time as Communications Minister Helen Coonan is circulating her white paper on the future of the media. I shall write on for the internet edition—assuming the editors want me to—and my job of doing so will not be different, right down to drafting the article on a computer, and sending it to Melbourne, late as usual, by email.
For at least the past 20 years, people have predicted the demise of the newspaper, the magazine, and, probably, ultimately, the book. I do not believe it for a second. Indeed, some of the new technology—not least the ebook—may well lead to a revival of interest in the printed word. Here in Canberra, I have a particular perspective on thinking so.
About 20 per cent of the population of Canberra—a proportion far higher than anywhere else in Australia, and possibly the world—are news junkies. They read, watch, listen to and otherwise access anything they can if it has some relevance to their lives. They are politicians, political staffers, public servants and other government advisers, lobbyists for private and public causes, and members of Canberra’s substantial education, military and diplomatic industries. Information and informed views—and being up-to-date on what occurs—are their stock-in-trade.
The news junkies sop up information wherever they can get it. They are the most sophisticated consumers of all mediums. Many get up in the morning and flick on television news and current affairs. They listen to AM on the radio, and browse the newspapers—three on average, sometimes more. As soon as they get to work, they are browsing the internet, and will likely consult news sources several times during their working day. They will go out of their way, if they can, to hear ABC news and current-affairs broadcasts, and to watch key television current-affairs shows. They buy books, particularly non-fiction, and are at least ten times more likely to do so than average Australians—themselves keen book buyers by international standards. And they read magazines, particularly current-affairs ones (a nice example is that about one in every 40 readers of the British magazine The Spectator lives in Canberra). They are catholic in doing so. A high proportion of, say, Quadrant readers also