Fairfax launched its new "opinion" site today over at National Times.
The website looks as though it will have fantastic content and has the potential to be a powerful forum for political debate.
Blogs by Tom Arup (environment), Michael Epis (politics, sport, culture), Karl Quinn (culture and the arts), and John Birmingham (social commentary, bucket bongs, egomania, the drudgery of marriage, QLD) promise to provide fun and vibrant forums for discussions with a nicely varying degree of seriousnesss. Add to this a roster of high quality, publicly respected journalists such as Michelle Grattan and Kenneth Davidson, the site looks a powerful online news and opinion publication.
Still, the question needs to be asked... Why it is neceassary to start a splinter-site to deal with real political issues and argument?
Should this not be one of the primary functions of The Age's main website?
It seems to me that by sequestering serious political debate and discourse from the main news site, Fairfax is opening the way for the focus of their online figurehead to be dragged in the direction of empty, sensationalist news and masses-pleasing fluff sections such as travel, beauty, entertainment, and the cars guide.
I am feeling that National Times should be the coverpage for Fairfax, and the Age online's current cover should be a secondary site, located at www.theage.com/tabloidmagazine..
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