Inequality author – Max Rashbrooke
Journalist and author of the brilliant ‘Inequality‘, Max Rashbrooke is tipped to take over as editor of Scoop once Alistar Thompson steps down to pursue a career in European journalism. Rashbrooke is a talented writer and researcher who will take the helm at Scoop at a time of upheaval and change for the 16 year old press release aggregate site.
Scoop is still trying to raise money after the thousands previously raised didn’t get it anywhere beyond the much hyped chrysalis stage. More hungry caterpillar than butterfly, Scoop does create some original material like Gordon Campbell’s excellent blogs, but beyond that it’s still a press release site. Rashbrooke will need to get a redesign of the 16year old site and attempt to lift its domestic internet traffic to the levels of the other left wing blogs if it hopes to ‘take back’ the news.
The appointment of Rashbrooke may open Scoop up to previous funders jaded by Thompson, recently Wellington journalist Patrick Smellie was breathlessly trying to woo Selwyn Pellet – who’d previously lost $250 000 in Scoop – about the changes in an attempt to get him back. The Scoop advertising cartel hasn’t been selling any adverts on The Standard or Public Address for some time now and revenue streams need to be strengthened if Scoop is to continue past being a press release catchment site.
The internal machinations of Scoop matter as fewer and fewer news sources of any credibility are left existing in NZ, good luck to Max.
This is good news! Not many others have Max’s combination of empathy and journalistic ability.
I’ve long been a fan of Gordon Campbell’s columns on Scoop. I’ve also been a major fan of Werewolf which is published by Scoop at each new moon & edited by Gordon Campbell.
I think that although Scoop’s original content is sometimes limited, what Scoop does publish is of an extremely high quality. It’s more like the old school journalism that many people fondly remember before clicks truly mattered & even commercial newspapers devoted inches to uneconomical but important issues. This is why I have donated some money to Scoop through the crowd funding campaign.
In terms of the media releases it publishes, I find these very useful at times for undertaking independent research on certain topics – I’d give TPPA as a great example. This is because Scoop published all the releases from all different sides f the debate in their original format. It is very time-consuming to use that database to maximum effect, but on issues I have cared about a great deal it has been valuable. (for example, where else could I have found this: http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL1511/S00029/ruminations-on-the-problems-with-the-resource-management-act.htm).
I am hoping that Scoop will be in a position to slowly start funding the production of more investigative journalism of exceptional quality. I guess the key ingredients are funding and quality editorial oversight. Impartiality adds something too.
I agree that Rashbrooke would be good for Scoop, or Gordon Campbell if he was willing, and combined with other writers already at Scoop (for example Lyndon Hood) there will be a really strong and different thinking team of journalists who can be motivated to expose the truth (or even write very strange satire).
All the best!
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