Open letter to the Fairfax Corporation Hi there,

I understand that at the moment you are going through the tedious and exhaustive process of finding a replacement for Mr Gawenda.

Let me help you. Stop what you are doing and get on the phone to me. I'm your man. I'm the breath of fresh air in the newspaper industry that will save The Age and Fairfax from itself.

At the moment The Age is irrelevant. Circulation is on the slide, most of the interesting writing is reprints from the Guardian or Washington Post, and the HeraldSun keeps on being the paper of choice for young educated people who Should Know Better.

Whoever gets the task of leading The Age into the future (hint - me) has to turn it all around. No more treading water. Time to make the paper relevant again.

So what would I do to make The Age the best paper in Melbourne again? First up, I'd have a go at turning it into the tabloid-broadsheet format being trialled in England. Have you ever tried to read The Age on the tram or train? You can't. It's too freaking wide. And for no good reason either - have a look at the amount of whitespace. Acres of it. All wasted. For people who like to read a newspaper on public transport, believe me, The Age is not the first choice of commuters.

Second, The Age is living off it's past reputation. Fairfax can't really afford to have correspondents dotted across the globe anymore, so to plug the holes you've just been lifting the best writing from overseas publications. It's a crock and it shows contempt for the readers. But what's the alternative? Well, every day another thousand or so people decide they should be sharing their thoughts with the rest of world via their web logs. A lot of them are complete shite, but there are some excellent ones, covering a wide variety of topics. So cherrypick the best ones, and get them to write for The Age. There's enough attention-hungry wannabes out there that you wouldn't even have to pay them very much.

Next. Part of the reason The Age is losing to the HeraldSun is because you're still conflicted about what to do with the Rise of Celebrity. Personally I think the Rise of Celebrity is a cancer on society that poisons everything it touches, but unfortunately it's here to stay for the forseeable future. So you need to have some kind of celebrity news, but it can't poison the real news. So quarantine it in it's own little section (maybe one or two pages), call it The Celebrity Bullsheet, and that way you can rip into them whilst still feeding the depraved desire so many people have for reading about Brad Pitt's nipple.

Another important thing to do is hire some reporters who can actually find out the big stories in this slippery city. The HeraldSun is doing better with investigative reporting, so The Age has to regain the initiative. Send the journos out the door and tell them not to come back until they've got the story for the front page. People need a reason to pick up the paper from a newsstand, and that reason is usually the headline. The Age has the dullest headlines in Australia.

Every day I see smart people, young people, professional people, with their heads buried in the HeraldSun. They should know better, but they don't. They instinctively know The Age has nothing in there for them. You have to win these people back NOW, or you'll lose them FOREVER.

So don't be afraid. Pick up the phone, give me a call, drop me a line, whatever. Do it now while I'm still available. I've never run a newspaper before, but from the looks of things neither have the last few people you hired.

Cheers,
Adrian.  ¶ 8:54 AM