Game, set and match to The Canberra Times

Despite Melbourne hosting the Australian Open men’s final, The Age newspaper couldn’t get the event on its front page.

Interest in the final helped the Open to a record attendance of 728,763 spectators. Picture: Daniel Pockett/Getty.

In coverage of the Australian Open men’s final, it was game, set and match to The Canberra Times, which had it all over its sister publication The Age. The Canberra newspaper bested its bigger Melbourne Fairfax stablemate — it actually got a report of veteran Roger Federer’s win over Rafael Nadal onto its front page.

In contrast The Age, which unlike The Canberra Times prints offsite, couldn’t seem to bend its ridiculously early print deadlines for the match, which finished at 11.17pm on Sunday in The Age’s own hometown. The Sydney Morning Herald was no better.

News Corp publications reported on the match in their later editions, with The Australian getting updated reports into half of its daily print run.

Interest in the final helped the Open to a record attendance of 728,763 spectators and was a ratings smash for Channel Seven, with 3.6 million viewers across rural and metro audiences — the biggest in a decade.

Fairfax didn’t supply a comment, but in such circumstances the company is always keen to point out its online flexibility in covering breaking news events. Nevertheless, inability to cover the biggest story in town is a pretty stark illustration of cost-cutting leading to a severe case of diminishing returns.

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— john (@John_Hanna) January 29, 2017

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— john (@John_Hanna) January 29, 2017