Tory Maguire has worked for, and edited, several iconic Australian news brands.
Until the end of last year, she was the executive editor of Melbourne’s The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald.
She started 2024 by crossing from the newsroom to the commercial side of Nine Publishing, taking charge of Australia’s leading news publishing group as managing director.
Maguire admits that, since leaving editorial, she has become “a more objective” consumer of news: “If something doesn’t capture me, I no longer have a professional obligation to persist with it, which has made my tolerance for journalism that isn’t highly ethical, well executed and entertaining lower than ever.”
Truth – as it relates to journalism – was already on shaky ground before the former US president’s contentious comeback, she told the audience of WAN-IFRA’s Asian Media Leaders Summit in Singapore last week – just hours after Donald Trump’s victory was confirmed.
The timing couldn’t be more serendipitous, Maguire noted, as her talk was on the subject of Trust – and Trump has played an integral role in the erosion of trust in news media.
The night of his 2016 election, she says: “was the moment the conversation about trust in news media began in earnest”.
Shifting trust, in pandemic proportions
COVID19, and the global response to it, exposed a lot of risks for leaders of credible newsrooms, noted Maguire, recounting its devastating impact in Australia – and how those attitudes are showing signs of finally shifting.
“When I was a young reporter covering politics in Australia, you were on safe ground if you diligently wrote down exactly what someone in a position of authority said, and accurately reported that information without skewing it to an agenda.
“The handling of COVID19 – at least in Australia – broke that model in a way that I doubt will ever be repaired.
“We had to rely on information that later proved unreliable. For the first time in my career we were regularly getting things wrong, in spite of our best efforts. All we could do was fess up to our readers every time and explain the conditions we were working under. They did give us some credit for that.
“It was a deeply uncomfortable place to be.
‘In lockdown – Australia and the state of Victoria endured some of the longest and harshest COVID19 lockdowns in the world – a new national sport emerged: journalist bashing.’
“Journalists were relentlessly attacked for the questions they asked, or the way they asked them. A strong prevailing view formed: that questioning our political leaders over their decisions was somehow unpatriotic or, worse, putting people’s lives at risk.
“Many journalists became too worn down and afraid to ask the questions that needed to be asked – to force our leaders to justify their incredibly draconian demands.
‘Everyone seemed to retreat to the extremes. I started to worry that there would no longer be a place for a healthy mainstream, centrist, media. A media where you might read something that challenges your worldview, alongside something that confirmed you were righteous.’
Signs of a return to credible news
As the pandemic and associated lockdowns slogged on, people gradually became accustomed to the ongoing situation.
Then something shifted, notes Maguire: readers sobered up to the realities of social media.
‘I don’t know if you’re discerning this, but over the past 18 months to two years I have detected a robust return to people wanting to read credible news – and more of them being willing to pay for it.’
“I know that the experience is different in different countries – but ‘I saw it on Facebook’ is no longer something you can say with a straight face and expect to be taken seriously.
“When we detected this shift we slammed shut the gates on our fly-by audience, insisting that they pay for the risky, expensive, time consuming and incredible journalism produced by our newsrooms.
“In the past 18 months we have had double digit growth in our subscription volume while at the same time putting the prices up for the first time in years.
“When we put the prices up we didn’t know what would happen. We thought there was a risk churn would skyrocket. It didn’t.
Future forward, fitfully
As audiences shifted their information diets to consuming more social media, so too did the product that publishers were providing change.
‘Now, our message to everyone in our business is that there is one thing we are selling more than any other. Our product is trust. And I think that no matter what your business model is; if your product is anything but trust it won’t be sustainable.’
“And this really excites me. The way people consume news will always change. Technology will advance. AI will make it easier to produce and distribute news. Competitors will use it to make cheap content that churns out inventory at ever-decreasing CPMs (Cost Per Thousands).
‘Only a well run newsroom with strong leaders, proper training and robust editorial integrity can offer trustworthy news. We have to believe there will always be a market for this.
And who knows what Trump’s victory will unleash in our own political leaders – and what that will mean for how we cover our own markets?
‘My view is that the market and the world we cover can throw what it likes at us. If we stick to our principles we will always have something of value to sell.’
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Source: Banking on trust: a view from Down Under
