Crikey is an Australian electronic magazine comprising a website and email newsletter available to subscribers. Crikey was described by the former Federal Opposition Leader

Mark Latham Mark William Latham (born 28 February 1961) is an Australian politician and media commentator, currently serving as a member in the New South Wales Legislative Council. He previously served as the leader of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) and ...

as the "most popular website in Parliament House" in ''

The Latham Diaries ''The Latham Diaries'' () is a political memoir by the former Federal Parliamentary Australian Labor Party (ALP) leader, Mark Latham. The book, published in 2005 by Melbourne University Press, attracted a great amount of criticism. Much of the ...

''. In 2014 it had around 17,000 paying subscribers.

History

Stephen Mayne

Crikey was founded by the

activist shareholder An activist shareholder is a shareholder who uses an equity stake in a corporation to put pressure on its management. A fairly small stake (less than 10% of outstanding shares) may be enough to launch a successful campaign. In comparison, a full t ...

Stephen Mayne Stephen Mayne (born 23 July 1969) is an Australian Walkley Award winning journalist, local government councillor, and self-described shareholder activist. Career Journalism Mayne worked for a number of media outlets and was a media adviser t ...

, a journalist and former staffer of then

Liberal Liberal or liberalism may refer to: Politics * a supporter of liberalism ** Liberalism by country * an adherent of a Liberal Party * Liberalism (international relations) * Sexually liberal feminism * Social liberalism Arts, entertainment and m ...

Victorian premier The premier of Victoria is the head of government in the Australian state of Victoria. The premier is appointed by the governor of Victoria, and is the leader of the political party able to secure a majority in the Victorian Legislative Assembly ...

Jeff Kennett Jeffrey Gibb Kennett (born 2 March 1948) is a former Australian politician who was the 43rd Premier of Victoria between 1992 and 1999, and currently a media commentator. He was previously the president of the Hawthorn Football Club, servi ...

. 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 Christian Gregory Kerr (24 March 1965 – 1 December 2021) was an Australian conservative political staffer turned political commentator, a co-founder of the online news service Crikey and journalist and columnist for ''The Australian''. Kerr wa ...

(who originally wrote under the pseudonym "Hillary Bray"),

Guy Rundle Guy or GUY may refer to: Personal names * Guy (given name) * Guy (surname) * That Guy (...), the New Zealand street performer Leigh Hart Places * Guy, Alberta, a Canadian hamlet * Guy, Arkansas, US, a city * Guy, Indiana, US, an unincorpo ...

, Charles Richardson,

Bernard Keane Bernard Keane is an Australian journalist for Crikey.Danby, Michael.Crikey’s Bernard Keane too keen on conspiracy theories, The Australian, 6 October 2014. He has been Crikey's political correspondent since 2008. He is also the author of seve ...

, 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 ALP

senator A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the e ...

Nick Bolkus Nick Bolkus (born 17 July 1950) is a former Australian Labor Party politician. He was a member of the Senate from July 1981 to June 2005, representing the state of South Australia. Early career Bolkus was born in Adelaide and educated at Adel ...

over false statements published about them by Crikey. Staff of

Treasurer A treasurer is the person responsible for running the treasury of an organization. The significant core functions of a corporate treasurer include cash and liquidity management, risk management, and corporate finance. Government The treasury o ...

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 government of John Howard from 1996 to 2007. He is the longest-serving treasurer in Australia ...

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 news media that influence many people and both reflect and shape prevailing currents of thought. Chomsky, Noam, ''"What makes ma ...

Private Media Partners

On 1 February 2005, it was announced that Stephen Mayne had sold Crikey to

Private Media Partners Private or privates may refer to: Music * "In Private", by Dusty Springfield from the 1990 album ''Reputation'' * Private (band), a Denmark-based band * "Private" (Ryōko Hirosue song), from the 1999 album ''Private'', written and also recorded ...

, a company owned by the former editor-in-chief of ''

The Sydney Morning Herald ''The Sydney Morning Herald'' (''SMH'') is a daily compact newspaper published in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, and owned by Nine. Founded in 1831 as the ''Sydney Herald'', the ''Herald'' is the oldest continuously published newspaper ...

'',

Eric Beecher Eric Beecher is an Australian journalist, editor and media proprietor. He was editor of the '' Sydney Morning Herald'' for four years and for three years was editor-in-chief of the Herald and Weekly Times group. Career In 1990, he founded Tex ...

, for A$1 million. Under the agreement, Mayne has occasionally written for the email newsletter. Under Private Media Partners' stewardship, the publication had 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'' 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". 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-Australian businessman and mass media heir. He is the executive chairman of Nova Entertainment, co-chairman of News Corp, executive chairman and CEO of Fox Corporation, and the fo ...

to sue, Lachlan Murdoch commenced defamation action against Crikey for an article by

that suggested that "Murdoch" was an “unindicted co-conspirator” in the

January 6 United States Capitol attack On January 6, 2021, following the defeat of then-United States President, U.S. President Donald Trump in the 2020 United States presidential election, 2020 presidential election, a mob of his supporters attacked the United States Capitol, U ...

References

External links

*{{Official website, http://www.crikey.com.au/ Australian political websites Australian news websites

History

Stephen Mayne

Private Media Partners

See also

References

External links