Eric Beecher's Crikey to launch investigative reporting arm

Eric Beecher’s Private Media will launch an investigative journalism team in April backed by John B Fairfax and Cameron O’Reilly that will expand independent online news publication Crikey.

The new reporting arm is expected to focus on “inquiry journalism” with deep investigative reporting and behind-the-story articles and will focus strongly on obtaining subscribers at a time when media business models are being challenged globally.

Eric Beecher, founder of Private Media.Credit: Photo: Angela Wylie

Politics, business, social issues and justice, environment and “corruption in all its forms” will be focus areas, Mr Beecher said. Private Media also owns business-focused title SmartCompany and public sector news title The Mandarin.

“We won’t talk about the size of the investment, but it will be 10 news reporters and an editor and existing staff,” he said. The team, which is currently being hired and will eventually total 12 to 14 people, is expected to be spread out across Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra.

He points to the growing subscribers at Nine Entertainment Co’s mastheads (including The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and The Australian Financial Review), the New York Times’ Australian arm and The Guardian’s donations model as showing a “real appetite” from Australians to pay for in-depth reporting. Mr Beecher is a former Herald editor.

“We’re looking at a two to three year plan. We’re reasonably cautious and realistic, we’re being prudent about it,” he said.

Subscribers to Crikey, which was launched in 2000, will have access to the new investigative unit’s articles. The name of the product will be released at launch.

Mr O’Reilly and Mr Fairfax have long been major investors in Private Media and will be backing the new project, though have not disclosed the size of their investment.

Mr O’Reilly said he considered investigative journalism a “long-term investment” and had invested in Private Media twice before.

“We’ve gone through a period of scorched earth [in media] and everyone believes there’s no future for journalism ... It’d be great to see models like these being successful,” he said.

“This type of journalism is more relevant than ever. We’re not speculatively investing in this project we understand the risks.”

Mr O’Reilly, alongside Mr Beecher and other members of the team, undertook a global trip to find digital models that worked online.

“We went and explored whether there are any models around the world that work in digital media. It’s very, very hard but some are doing it,” he said.

In particular, he pointed to 2016 US-founded news site Axios founded by former Politico chiefs and France-based Mediapart.

“They’ll never have the commercial scale that newspapers used to have but can still be profitable. It’s very encouraging,” Mr O’Reilly said.

“We started [talking about] this project a year ago. It’s not about being better than any existing journalism. There is room for more diverse views."

Mr Fairfax said in a statement that the best way to ensure journalism plays an important role in society is to “find a financially viable business model around its delivery”.

On Christmas Eve, Mr Beecher registered a new company called the Public Interest Journalism Initiative with the Australian Securities and Investment Commission. This is a separate initiative that looks to fund journalism philanthropically, a source close to Private Media said.

The registration listed Mr Beecher, Walkley Award winning reporter and academic Margaret Simons, Ramsay Foundation head Glyn Davis, Adam Ferrier, Leslie Falkiner-Rose, Marilyn Warren, Eric Rule and Karen Mahalo as directors.