Am currently sitting in the back rows at the Media '09 event in Sydney, put together by Fairfax Media and X Media Lab. Originally I was coming down here to live-blog the event, but I've since been asked to contribute to a new video project for X Media Lab which should go live soon, so entries may be patchy.
So far we've had the official welcome from X Media Lab's Brendan Harkin and Fairfax Digital CEO Jack Matthews, who likened the current media environment to the story of Touching the Void.
Now Fairfax Media CEO Brian McCarthy is giving his welcome, painting a picture of a fairly grim media economy, ridden with debt and declining revenue. But he also talked about the importance of news and newspaper, be they publishing on paper or online. He posed questions about how to grow a media business during a downturn and find new revenues.
In discussing the media environment, he pointed out the differences between the US and Australia, including the greater investment in colour printing and the more discreet geographic distribution of our population that has protected Australian publishers.He also reiterated his faith in content - and quality journalism - being the key to survival, as the company continues to merge its print and online offerings and diversify into new markets.
He also pointed out that traditional media companies were not the only ones suffering.
"We're all in the same bucket in terms of the challenges that lie ahead of us," McCarthy said. "But this is only a short term thing. This downturn, no matter how severe it is going to be, will one day turn upwards again."
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