Crikey is an Australian online news outlet founded in 1999. It consists of a website and email newsletter available to subscribers.
History
Crikey was founded by the
activist shareholder Stephen Mayne, a journalist and former staffer of then
Liberal Victorian premier
Jeff Kennett. It developed out of Mayne's "jeffed.com" website, which in turn developed out of his aborted independent candidate campaign for Kennett's seat of
Burwood. Longstanding Crikey political commentators/reporters have included the former Liberal insider
Christian Kerr (who originally wrote under the pseudonym
"Hillary Bray"),
, Charles Richardson,
Bernard Keane,
Mungo MacCallum and Hugo Kelly.
In 2003, Mayne was forced to sell his house to settle defamation cases brought by the radio presenter
Steve Price and the former
Labor Party senator
Nick Bolkus over false statements published about them by Crikey.
Staff of
Treasurer
A treasurer is a person responsible for the financial operations of a government, business, or other organization.
Government
The treasury of a country is the department responsible for the country's economy, finance and revenue. The treasure ...
Peter Costello
Peter Howard Costello (born 14 August 1957) is an Australian businessman, lawyer and former politician who served as the treasurer of Australia in Howard government, government of John Howard from 1996 to 2007. He is the longest-serving trea ...
banned Crikey from the 2005, 2006, and 2007 budget "lock-ups" in which financial journalists are shown the federal budget papers some hours in advance so that their publications can report the budget in depth as soon as it is released. The grounds were that Crikey was not considered to be part of the "
mainstream media
In journalism, mainstream media (MSM) is a term and abbreviation used to refer collectively to the various large Mass media, mass news media that influence many people and both reflect and shape prevailing currents of thought.Noam Chomsky, Choms ...
".
On 1 February 2005, it was announced that Stephen Mayne had sold Crikey to
Private Media Partners (later Private Media
), a company owned by the former editor-in-chief of ''
The Sydney Morning Herald
''The Sydney Morning Herald'' (''SMH'') is a daily Tabloid (newspaper format), tabloid newspaper published in Sydney, Australia, and owned by Nine Entertainment. Founded in 1831 as the ''Sydney Herald'', the ''Herald'' is the oldest continuous ...
'',
Eric Beecher, for
A$1 million. Under the agreement, Mayne has occasionally written for the email newsletter.
Under Private Media's stewardship, the publication aimed for a more "professional" style by avoiding the use of in-house nicknames and other idiosyncrasies of the original Crikey. In February 2006, ''
The Age
''The Age'' is a daily newspaper in Melbourne, Australia, that has been published since 1854. Owned and published by Nine Entertainment, ''The Age'' primarily serves Victoria (Australia), Victoria, but copies also sell in Tasmania, the Austral ...
'' reported that a co-founder and writer, Hugo Kelly, had been sacked on the grounds of professional misconduct, but Kelly maintained that Crikey had folded to political pressure and it had "no guts".
Several staff members left in the period 2013–2014, including senior reporter Andrew Crook and media editor Matthew Knott. The cartoon ''
First Dog on the Moon'' was published on Crikey until 2014, when writer
Andrew Marlton moved to ''
Guardian Australia
''Guardian Australia'' is the Australian website of the British global online and print newspaper, ''The Guardian''.
Available solely in an Online newspaper, online format, the newspaper's launch was led by Katharine Viner in time for the 201 ...
''. In March 2014, Crikey editor Jason Whittaker became the founding editor of Private Media's new publication
The Mandarin.
In 2022, following a war of words in which Crikey invited media proprietor
Lachlan Murdoch
Lachlan Keith Murdoch (; born 8 September 1971) is a British and Australian businessman and mass media heir. He is the son of the media Business magnate, tycoon Rupert Murdoch. He is the executive chairman of Nova Entertainment, chairman of N ...
to sue, Murdoch commenced defamation action against Crikey for an article by
Bernard Keane that suggested that Murdoch was an "unindicted co-conspirator" in the
January 6 United States Capitol attack
On January 6, 2021, the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C., was attacked by a mob of supporters of Donald Trump, President Donald Trump in an attempted self-coup,Multiple sources:
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. On 21 April 2023, Murdoch dropped legal proceedings against Crikey.
In response, the chief executive of Private Media, Will Hayward, claimed victory, saying the decision amounted to a "substantial victory for legitimate public interest journalism".
Description
Crikey is an Australian online news outlet, comprising a website and email newsletter available to subscribers. It aims to "explain and dissect the news agenda for an intelligent, skeptical, socially and politically aware audience... to understand the news from a truly independent perspective".
Sophie Black is editor-in-chief.
Private Media
Private Media is an independent media company. , it publishes four brands: Crikey,
The Mandarin (since 2014
[), SmartCompany, and Inc.Australia.][ (Beecher is also chair of Solstice Media, which publishes InDaily and the superannuation-funded general news site, '' The New Daily''.][)
Private Media formerly owned Daily Review (2013–2015) and Women's Agenda (2012–2016).][ ]
See also
* Journalism in Australia
References
External links
*
{{Online news in Australia
Australian political websites
Australian news websites
2000 establishments in Australia