Australian media has entered a new phase in its painful transformation, yet so far it has been poorly reported and is only vaguely understood.
The evidence is everywhere. It’s in the poor commercial performance of all TV broadcasters, summed up in Bill Shorten’s recent claim on the ABC’s Q+A that free-to-air TV is in “diabolical trouble”.
It’s in Rupert Murdoch’s airy speculation that newspapers might only be around for another 15 years. It’s in the Reuters 2024 Digital News Report warning of growing news avoidance among the young.