Give independents a chance!

It’s hardly revelatory to point out that baby boomers dominate public culture: Mark Davis’ Ganglands general thesis still stands, unfortunately David Carter’s recently published anthology The Ideas Market is a missed opportunity to update the particulars.

While Janet Albrechsten, Miranda Devine, Gerard Henderson et al crowd the opinion pages, self-absorbed middle-aged soft left perspectives have turned inward. Liberals despair, while their neo-liberal peers run riot. I share many of their political concerns, but Martin Flanagan, Michael Gordon et al seem oblivious to a point that appears obvious to me: they do not have the answers. Instead of searching deep within, it’s time to cast the net wide, to actively look out for what’s coming up after them; to back brave initiatives; to seek and treat seriously new voices; in short, to make space. So how does this trend relate to independent publishing? Consider these two examples.

A February 3 story in The Australian about Private Media Partners’ (PMP) acquisition of Crikey! quoted new co-owner Eric Beecher as saying the Australian media landscape “desperately needs more players”. It sure does. So why would someone who believes the above, someone with considerable capital, someone is already a media proprietor (PMP publish the subscription-based The Reader) move to acquire another media outlet? Invest in, by all means: But PMP buying out Stephen Mayne and assuming editorial control of Crikey! leaves us with one less player in the field. Thanks Beecher, looks like we now “need more players” slightly more “desperately”.

Am I making too much out of a minor contradiction? Or is this move symptomatic of an unhealthy modus operandi within a small influential group of people, who are positioned to affect significant change in a staid public sphere?

Here is the publicity surrounding Morry Schwartz’s soon to be launched The Monthly: “The times cry out for an intelligent, independent voice. The long wait is over. Only Australia’s best and freshest writers will light up The Monthly’s stage: Helen Garner, Don Watson … Gideon Haigh, Amanda Lohrey … Robert Manne.” There’s almost no need to critique such a venture, it acts as a parody of itself. Robert Manne, “fresh”?! The Monthly, more of the same.

In case it seems like I don’t respect my elders, I regard Beecher’s business partner Diana Gribble as one of the pioneers of interesting Australian fiction publishing, and Black Inc’s Quarterly Essay provide unmatched forums for in-depth non-academic exploration of complex, topical issues. It’s really not individuals I’m critical of: it’s a blinkered cultural mindset.
 
The Spinach7 team is still keen to make quality independent media. We’ve moved online - Marni Cordell and I are editing the monthly electronic journal Signature, which promises to publish “new voices”. We are interested in ideas, stories and voices that are overlooked by the dominant media, and in contributing to a more diverse and diffuse public culture. Subscribe; support us. It’s free.