John Hartigan

The Punch is now one month old. We would like to thank our readers for getting us off to such a strong start. We would also like to engage you in conversation as to what more you would like out of this website - what’s working, what isn’t, what more we could do to make your reading experience more illuminating and entertaining.

The Punch had expected to get about 80,000 readers (unique browsers) in its first month. The official figures show we ended up with 206,281 readers. This compares to Crikey, which is five years older than us, and had 179,069 readers in the same period.

This funny little niche website run out of Melbourne has been obsessing about us since we launched, and it’s something we regard as proof positive of the navel-gazy bullshit which blights the media landscape, where journos both from the independent blogosphere and big media would much rather talk about each other than the readers.

It’s a fact demonstrated by the coverage of Wednesday’s Press Club address by News Limited chairman and CEO John Hartigan, which was a characteristically blunt and thought-provoking bomb-throwing exercise where Hartigan questioned the quality of Australia’s newspapers, including those owned by News Limited, challenged the work practices of his own staff in the Canberra Press Gallery, and bemoaned the fact that the readers were often the farthest thing from the media’s mind as it went about its journalism.

Continue reading "The Punch thanks its readers and extends an invitation" »