Murdoch puts papers on the chopping block, but won't touch The Aus

Over the past couple of years some of the world's most credible mastheads have made the tough call to put pride and tradition behind them, dealing with an international print advertising downturn by taking the machete to some of their papers, reducing their physical size and hopefully increasing profits. Earlier this year, London's Times newspaper made news itself when, after 150 years of quality journalism (and yes, the last 30 or so have been under Mr Murdoch's frugal watch), announced it would move from broadsheet to tabloid. Oh, you could hear the treated pine creak and groan with the sound of those UK Lords turning over in their graves. Apparently, the sheer cost associated with producing enough copy to cover the tabloid's windswept pages, was getting too much for Rupert, without enough advertising to fill the space in between. For those of us who sit comfortably on the journalism side of the business journalism equation, the initial kick to the head has taken a while to get over; but I'm slowly getting over it, as well as getting half-way down from my high horse. The trip down was made a little easier by the news that the venerable American institution of editorial independence and purveryor of journalistic martyrdom that is The New York Times was thinking of cutting it pages size as well. Hell, The Courier-Mail's done it, so why can't, and why shouldn't the Times?

Here in Melbourne, The Age has slowly been slicing and trimming, tucking and preening away at its daily output, and now it's only the hard news and business sections that remain broadsheet; everything else - sport, entertainment, television, arts, culture - has been slotted into a tabloid format, even if the boys at Spencer Street do go out of their way to avoid using the T term. Out of Victoria, The SMH and The Canberra Times have gone the same way: shorter stories, tabloid format, and more pieces taken from international papers.

And then there's Rupert's baby, The Australian, which began life as a broadsheet in the 60s, and 40 years later is still trying to cement its place in the Australian newspaper market with the same broadsheet format. So while all Rupert's global mastheads and print magazines are trimming their inches and cutting down on pages, The Aus - probably Murdoch's least profitable Australian paper - is still as thick and rich as it ever was; for Michael Stuchbury, the paper's editor, and the rest of the team, it's like the advertising downturn never happened. It's certainly not the ruthless approach to the business of journalism we're used to from uncle Rupert. So, I was skeptical when The Aus announced it would bring out a glossy monthly magazine, Wish, which, according to NewsCorp's NewsMedia website, is "pitched at intelligent, successful readers who are interested in quality of life." Yes, as you have probably already assumed, quality of journalism does not come into the picture. It's an advertising magazine, and NewsCorp hopes it will draw enough advertising revenue to afford Rupert's favourite Australian paper the luxury of remaining a broadsheet for the next few days. And until this morning I hadn't had the time, nor the inclination to pick up Wish and have a look. In between the advertorials for $10,000 jeans and Hawaiian surf camps, we have some of the paper's most experienced writers - Mark Day (second in Murdoch's Aussie congaline of suckholes; first is, of course, Herald Sun columnist Terry McCrann) among others - who are forced to spin useless copy around whatever the advertisers are flogging. In fact, Wish doesn't even see the need to cover-up the fact that what the poor reader has picked up is a publication that has even less news value, and more advertising than your local Leader Newspaper, which, for those unfamiliar with the Melbourne suburban newspaper market, is nigh on impossible.

It's probably not fair to single out The Australian for its Wish magazine, especially since the Fin Review has been cranking out an almost identical magazine for as long as I can remember. But it is interesting to see the lengths Rupert will go to ensure his beloved Aus remains a broadsheet longer than the Fairfax papers do. But then again, Rupert probably won't have to hold out too much longer before the Aus holds the title of the only broadsheet in the country.