It’s 8:30pm in Sri Lanka and I’m sitting at the top of a mountain, in front of a fire, surfing the Internet on my netbook using the guesthouse’s free wifi. I know, it’s a rough life. But it’s 5pm in Cairo and right now over there in the Middle East’s most populous country is the beginning of what looks to be a historic popular uprising against the governing regime.
So, I’m sitting here on the Internet trying to keep up to date with what’s going on. Most of my information is coming via Twitter — first-, second- and third-hand accounts, and links to more credible reports by various publications — and I’m keeping a close eye on stuff like The Guardian‘s live blog and Al Jazeera English (when the guesthouse’s bandwidth allows). Even as far away from the action as central Sri Lanka might be, I feel quite informed about up-to-the-minute events.
Even though it’s 2am in Melbourne, I’m curious to know how the Australian newspaper websites are covering the story. I know it’s the middle of the night but surely skeleton web crews are at least updating their sites with links to give curious Australian readers a point of entry into the coverage, associating their masthead with news delivery. And surely a story of such global and historical importance would be given worthy prominence.
Oh, how stupid of me.
Here’s The Australian publishing an AP wire as its fourth headline, backed up by a piece by its Middle Eastern correspondent. You might care to have a read of them after you’ve browsed the latest riveting news about the Murray Darling rescue plan.
Here’s The Age publishing a piece by its man on the ground, Jason Katsoukis, as its third headline. Once you’ve finished reading about the Australian soccer team and state politics, you might care to read some words written by Katsoukis before the protests begin: “Now it seems as though the unthinkable could be about to happen …”
And here’s the Sydney Morning Herald publishing absolutely nothing at all.
This is (one of the reasons) why Australian newspapers are dying: because if it happens outside business hours, or at a time otherwise inconvenient to the deadlines of their printing presses, then as far as the newspapers are concerned their readers will just have to wait. That might’ve been okay in 1990 but in the age of the Internet it’s business suicide.
UPDATE: A tweet from Groupthink’s Cosmicjester:
@cosmicjester: abc 24 now playing a rerun of big ideas. Dont worry, its not like anything important is happening.
