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Fairfax has outsourced Canberra Times book reviews to other Fairfax publications, but without informing its readers. Frank O’Shea reports.
Some years ago, Fairfax took control of the Canberra Times, buying it from Rural Press. I understand that unlike the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, it actually runs at a profit, but I am open to correction about that.
For many years, one of the outstanding features of the CT has been its Saturday book reviews. Unlike its new big sisters, it does actual reviews, not just puff pieces about authors in the guise of interviews. In yesterday’s edition, as well as a full page devoted to children’s books, nine titles are reviewed, each given between 600 and 1,200 words. These are proper reviews that develop a theme about a book, tell a reader what it is about, what the author’s style is, and whether the book is worth buying.
At a time when much public discourse in this country rarely gets beyond the level of rooftop bellowing, these pages remind us that there is a life of the mind and that Canberra, for all the criticism it gets, has people who appreciate literature. There are those who claim that the best book reviews in the country are found in the CT, but as one who is a regular reviewer, I except anything that I have written.
However, as part of the changes at Fairfax (it is very tempting to make a snide remark about fast food or iron ore, but for once I will control myself), the CT book pages are to be outsourced to Melbourne.
Now, here is the rub. We know about the outsourcing because the ABC and The Australian have told us. There has been no mention in the CT, none whatsoever. Not surprisingly, when people found out they wrote letters to the editor – I am personally aware of at least three who have done so – but none have been published. The understanding in Canberra is that a diktat went out that such letters were not to be published.
So much for a free press.
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2 Comments
Wow. MT @cybahound And we're not happy! RT @independentaus: Fairfax takes away the Canberra Times' book pages. #media http://t.co/RLnV47Hk
Fairfax quietly takes away the Canberra Times' book pages. #media #literature #reviews http://t.co/rVf4WYk7
A minor correction.
Fairfax and Rural Press agreed to merge in 2006.
CT, owned by Rural Press, was brought into the Fairfax stable.
Rural Press was a totally unlovely company, and its top man, John B Fairfax, a purely commerically driven owner. Ironically, JBF claimed in 2006: “A businessman, crudely, is a money-hungry animal, whereas I think I see myself still in the old-fashioned terms of a media proprietor,” he said.
Something of a distorted self-perception, I would say. The attribution really refers to his relative James Fairfax, who displayed nobless oblige in running Fairfax in the heady days of the National Times.
JBF’s Rural Press did, however, give the CT relative leeway (especially editorial), by contrast with its key monopoly rural papers, which are rubbish.
Frank, I sent the following letter to the editor. It wasn’t published. ‘First they came for the School of Music and I did not speak out. Then they came for The Canberra Times Review of Books and I did not speak out. Then they came for me.’
Canberra Times silently cuts its book pages http://t.co/BDdCOPLO