THINK back 10 years. Where were you and what were you doing? We bet your life was very different than it is today.
It was pre-smartphones. Pre-Facebook. Heck, it was even pre-MasterChef.
Ten years ago this week, we began revolutionising the way South Australians follow the news.
After 148 years of being South Australia’s newspaper of record, The Advertiser launched the state’s first major breaking news website on Sunday, August 13, 2006.
An earlier Advertiser website had just been updated with newspaper stories every night. As a rolling news portal, adelaidenow.com.au was entirely different — and we’ve been bringing you the big stories that affect our state, as they happen, ever since.
Our digital news coverage is now unrecognisable from those early days. We’ve rolled out several major site redesigns, rebranded from adelaidenow to Advertiser.com.au in 2013, launched tablet and mobile apps, created stand-alone websites like TheSourceSA, won major international awards — and most importantly, kept our readers informed every day about the important stories affecting their lives.
Over the decade, new digital tools — broadband internet, web video, smartphones, social media — have completely revolutionised the business of news.
Just think about how your own news consumption has been fundamentally changed by technology. In 2006, you went to the news. In 2016, the news comes to you.
Information junkies can now live the 24/7 news cycle via tweets, Facebook posts, smartphone alerts, reporters going “Live” on social media — even news chatbots that cut in while you’re streaming your favourite shows.
Advertiser.com.au has been a leader in the use of these emerging digital storytelling tools.
In 2010, we were the first news organisation in Australia to produce live video for breaking news and agenda-setting interviews.
Our team has led the way in the use of social media in the newsroom, building strong online communities that give readers the power to participate in the newsgathering process, share their ideas and express their views.
If it matters to you, it matters to us.
We’ve been there when political leaders were toppled. We’ve been there when evil touched our community. We’ve been there when natural disasters wreaked havoc. We’ve been there in times of triumph and elation.
And in the next 10 years, when big news breaks — we’ll be there.
To celebrate a decade of award-winning digital journalism, we take a look back at our state’s evolution in that time — and 10 major local news events that still have implications today.
Michael Owen-Brown, Digital Editor & Greg Barila, Social Media Editor
TIMELINE: EVENTS THAT SHAPED THE NATION
SOUTH AUSTRALIA 2006-2016 — A STATE OF CHANGE
By Jackson Gothe-Snape
Work, work, work
On one hand, the last decade has been a story of lost economic opportunity. In June 2006, 515,900 South Australians had a full-time job. By June 2016, that number had grown by just 6700, taking the total to 522,600. But the economy hasn’t simply been idling. Despite an unemployment rate that stubbornly refuses to fall, SA has made huge strides in the past 10 years to transition from a manufacturing economy to a services economy. The state’s relatively stable number of full-time jobs has been maintained, despite full-time manufacturing employment dropping by a third since 2006 — the loss of some 30,000 jobs. Healthcare and social services jobs have grown to make up almost half of that shortfall, while professional services have increased by close to 10,000 full-time jobs.
We’re getting older
The growth in the number of healthcare jobs over the past decade has been closely linked to the ageing population. And these 10 years in South Australia’s history will be recognised as the moment the state began getting older, faster. Those who are part of the post-war population boom, commonly known as the Baby Boomers, have entered the Golden Age of retirement (65+), leading us into a new era in which the elderly must become a big part of the state’s economic future.
A population on the move
Growth on Adelaide’s northern fringe, in suburbs such as Munno Para West and Angle Vale, has outpaced the rest of the state in recent years as young families move in, lured by the promise of affordable land. In 2015, the region’s population grew by almost 6 per cent. But at the same time, SA’s “population centre” — the geographical point at which half the state’s population lives to the north and south and also east and west of that point — has been moving south. When last calculated in 2014, the population centre sat in Clearview, in Adelaide’s north. But it is moving south by a kilometre or two each year as the population of Port Augusta, Whyalla and Port Pirie declines and the Fleurieu Peninsula and Mount Gambier make population gains.
What mining boom?
The last decade brought a boom for the mining industry in Australia but South Australia missed out on much of the action. Of the more than 100,000 mining jobs created nationally, just 10,000 were in SA. The state’s failure to capitalise on the boom times was underscored by BHP Billiton’s decision, in 2012, to shelve plans for a $28b expansion of its Roxby Downs uranium mine, Olympic Dam. The expansion had promised 6000 jobs during construction. At the same time, states that did benefit from the boom — Western Australia and Queensland — have seen their economies slow far faster than South Australia’s. Governments in both states face major budget shortfalls and unemployment is on the rise. South Australia’s economy is still struggling, but some commentators suggest that missing the mining boom might not have been so bad after all.
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