23 Jan 2008

The Bulletin Gets The Bullet


Just in case Kerry Packer wasn't already turning in his troubled grave, The Bulletin magazine has ceased publication. Lucky I didn't buy my Mum an annual subscription for Christmas.

It seems quite a waste, doesn't it?

I know we bloggers are supposed to be rabidly anti the Dead Tree Press, but I can't help wondering if The Bulletin might not have "reached out" to bloggers for some (cheap) content, and basically reinvented itself (particularly as an online magazine, where it never made much effort or impact).

I wonder where Patrick Cook's cartoons will turn up?

UPDATE: Reuters global coverage gives an idea of the significance of this event:
The Bulletin published some of Australia's greatest writers, such as Andrew "Banjo" Paterson who penned the iconic Australian poem "The Man From Snowy River", and in its heyday often broke news that shook the Australian political and business world...

The Bulletin was once the flagship news magazine of one of Australia's major media moguls, the late Kerry Packer. But Packer's son James hived off a controlling share of the family's media business to private equity in late 2007...
Isn't it rather sad that Rupert Murdoch is prepared to financially support publications which pump our his vile brand of propaganda, even if they do not turn a profit, while James Packer quickly dumps a potentially enlightening alternative into the hands of private equity vultures?

I guess the good news is that it leaves the market more open to even better alternatives. Like, um... THIS BLOG!