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 as the "most popular website in Parliament House" in ''
The Latham Diaries''. In 2014 it had around 17,000 paying subscribers.
History
Stephen Mayne
Crikey was founded by the
activist shareholder 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 to ...
, a journalist and former staffer of then
Liberal 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, serving ...
. 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
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 el ...
Nick Bolkus over false statements published about them by Crikey.
Staff of
Treasurer Peter Costello 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 mai ...
".
Private Media Partners
On 1 February 2005, it was announced that Stephen Mayne had sold Crikey to
Private Media Partners, a company owned by the former editor-in-chief of ''
The Sydney Morning Herald'',
Eric Beecher, 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 found ...
to sue, Lachlan 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.
See also
*
Daily Review (website)
*
Journalism in Australia
Journalism in Australia is an industry with an extensive history. Reporters Without Borders placed Australia 26th on a list of 180 countries ranked by press freedom in 2020, ahead of both the United Kingdom and United States. Print media in the ...
References
External links
*{{Official website, http://www.crikey.com.au/
Australian political websites
Australian news websites