nyonyamansor09

When a newspaper croaks, a loyal and important servant to its community is lost. Or that's what the obituaries say. The truth is, a dead newspaper scarcely bears any resemblance to the mythical beast that will be lionised when the printing presses shut down and the plastic bag full of paper and ink stops landing on lawns each morning.  The Advocate, its death assured as a marsupial on a Tasmanian road at dusk, will be one of those lionised newspapers. It shouldn't be. The Advocate's turf is one of Australia's most economically disadvantaged electorates, something that goes hand in hand with low education levels. It's almost assured when The Advocate recycles a press release or culls stats to craft a story, the readership won't find themselves digging any deeper. Forget them trawling ABS spreadsheets for reality.  Sean Ford, senior journalist amongst a bunch of 12 year olds, knows this. He's The Advocate's "resident numbers man" (yep, that's...

Fairfax is losing trust and respect at an alarming rate, leading more readers to question if they are bought and paid for by the real estate industry, a new survey has shown. Only a quarter of readers and potential readers surveyed in the Media Landscape Confidence Index thought Fairfax still had any credibility on real estate matters, down from half the respondents in 2009. "The vast majority of readers find Fairfax real estate reports to be little more than comedic, myth filled love letters to the real estate industry. An indictment on those writing the reports and an indictment on Fairfax itself for giving column space to industry 'experts' to push sales," the report found. By any measure, spruiking is on the rise as the real estate industry pushes into spring, attempting to jump start the market, through fear, paranoia and even blame on the buyers themselves, for not chomping down enough housing debt at the peak of the market... And so the so the story goes. As an...