The media business has modified enormously since David Armstrong started his profession as a junior reporter for The Australian newspaper in Sydney in 1969, and never for the higher. Superficiality and a “gotcha” mentality by too many journalists, he says, has lowered the bar in Australia.
However he additionally says there are vivid spots in Southeast Asia amongst newspapers which have a powerful regional protection and an excellent combine between print and on-line editions.
In Australia. Armstrong was editor of The Australian and The Canberra Instances newspapers and The Bulletin journal, working instantly with media magnates Rupert Murdoch, Kerry Packer and Kerry Stokes earlier than shifting to Hong Kong in 1993 as editor of the South China Morning Publish.
He was managing director of The Bangkok Publish and all through, he labored the delicate line between publishers and journalists and ensured income whereas masking the largest tales over half a century starting from the dying of Princess Diana to the 9/11 assaults in america.
On the Myanmar Instances, he was an editorial advisor and energetic within the transition-to-democracy interval – earlier than the 2021 coup and the civil conflict. Armstrong additionally served on a number of boards and was chairman of the Publish Media Ltd, which lately closed its flagship masthead, the Phnom Penh Publish.
In Bangkok, he spoke with The Diplomat’s Luke Hunt in regards to the position of newspapers and their influence – or lack of – on public pondering. That features election wins and losses by Australian prime ministers Gough Whitlam, Malcolm Fraser and Malcolm Turnbull.
Armstrong is at the moment the chairman of UCA Information and writes a fortnightly column about Asia media for Pearls and Irritations, printed by Melbourne College.