MATT Deighton has been appointed editor of the Mercury.
The announcement was made yesterday by News Corp Australia’s chief executive, Julian Clarke.
Mr Deighton becomes editor of the Mercury after serving as assistant editor of the Daily Telegraph in Sydney and formerly as editor in chief of South Australia’s Messenger Community Newspapers.
He replaces Andrew Holman, who yesterday was named as editor of Adelaide’s Sunday Mail.
Mr Clarke said: “During his time at Messenger newspapers, Matt led a succession of successful community initiatives, including ‘Know Your Neighbour’ — which aimed to break down isolation and foster community spirit — and ‘Jobs 1001’, a campaign that created more than 1000 jobs across the country.
“His efforts were duly recognised with Messenger twice named Newspaper of the Year at the PANPA awards.”
Mr Deighton said he was thrilled to be given the opportunity to edit the Mercury.
“I think my absolute passion for community journalism, combined with my experience at the coalface of metro papers, stands me in good stead to edit the Mercury,” he said.
Mr Deighton joined News in 1989 as a cadet at Leader Newspapers in Melbourne and most recently was assistant editor on the Daily Telegraph where he helped co-ordinate community-based campaigns.
Mr Holman yesterday paid tribute to his staff, saying it had been an “absolute privilege to work alongside them in one of the country’s truly amazing states”.
http://www.themercury.com.au/news/tasmania/news-appoints-matt-deighton-as-new-mercury-editor/story-fnj4f7k1-1226808043270
• Betrayal in Journalism: Who Owns the Story? Presented by Michael Gawenda. Thursday, 28 February 2013.
“Every journalist who is not too stupid or too full of himself to notice what is going on knows what he does is indefensible” Janet Malcolm
Every writer of non-fiction knows what the renowned American writer Janet Malcolm is talking about. They may not agree with her, but they know that the issues she raised in her book ‘The Journalist and the Murderer’ are in many ways fundamental to journalism, indeed to all non-fiction writing. When people consent to tell their story to a journalist, do they understand what they are consenting to?
Their story, inevitably, will become the writer’s story, owned by the writer and as a result, they will almost inevitably feel betrayed. They will feel that the writer has ‘stolen’ their story, broken the contract they thought they had with the journalist. Those who have become the subject of the story may feel violated and lied to by the writer. But even without lies, even with the best intentions, the relationship between the writer and their subject is a fraught and difficult one.
Journalists, good journalists understand that and still persist.
That’s what they do. That’s what it means to be a journalist and a writer. In this lecture, Michael Gawenda explores these complex ethical issues, using examples from his own long career as a journalist, author and editor.
Listen to the lecture (MP3): http://content.lecture.unimelb.edu.au:8080/ess/echo/presentation/36977d5b-62ac-48ed-a079-a017e46cb273/media.mp3
