THE NORTH COAST Tuesday April 1, 2008 #22.42
AUSTRALIAN I N C O R P O R AT I N G T H E B Y R O N S H I R E E C H O
22,700 copies every week
New-look Echo proud to form part of worldwide corporation
Council to create ‘super surf break’ for Byron Bay
Echo Publications Pty Ltd, the local company which produces the Byron Shire Echo, has been sold to News Limited, the Australian arm of Rupert Murdoch’s multi-national media empire. In making the announcement on Tuesday this week, publisher David Lovejoy admitted that the newspaper he helped found in 1986 was finding economic conditions very trying in the twenty-first century. ‘We were basically just running out of room to expand,’ he said. ‘We were waiting for the state government to amalgamate councils so that Byron Shire could become larger, but since Frank Sartor took over planning, Maquarie Street has been dead against the idea of large, powerful local governments. ‘We also tried expanding by tendering for the Byron Shire Council advertising,’ he said, ‘but the panel of Council staff deputised to decide the issue considered that the larger circulation and broader appeal of The Echo would attract too much attention to Council activities, and so they left the advertising where it was.’ The newspaper will continue to operate from Mullumbimby and
Byron Shire Council voted 8-2 last week to create a ‘super surf break’ for Byron Bay. Preliminary plans show an artificial reef made from geotextile fabric filled with sand running from The Pass to just north of Becton’s North Beach subdivision, which is expected to create a very long surfing break and protect the township from some of the impact of sea level rise. Council’s director of marine engineering Peter Bedford said the artificial reef is ‘probably the largest project Council has ever undertaken, dwarfing even Mullumbimby’s hydroelectric scheme in the 1920s’. Asked how Council expected to fund the project, which is expected to cost around $230 million, Mr Bedford told The Echo, ‘Fortunately the Department of Lands has agreed to cooperate in a joint venture which has far-reaching financial implications and the federal Office of Climate Change has agreed to provide start-up capital. ‘With government support we can then introduce a loan regime. That will become unnecessary, however, once the artificial reef is in place. The drawback of waters will enable us to remove the Main Beach carpark rock wall and reclaim the former Esplanade which used to run down in front of Childe Street at Belongil. ‘That land can then be redeveloped for a combination of affordable housing and a boutique retail area, a sort of mini Darling Harbour. Some of the existing Belongil householders will lose a direct sea vista but the trade-off is greater protection from inundation. Another side benefit is that the longer break will reduce antagonisms in the surf between various marine interests.’ The project is expected to begin in February 2009 and be completed by April 1, 2014.
Byron Bay, and the new owners have promised that no jobs will be lost. However, it is likely that larger headquarters will be needed, and suitable sites are being explored. ‘Naturally we are sad that the association between the newspaper and the Shire for nearly a quarter of a century has come to an end,’ said Mr Lovejoy, ‘but of course we had to consider the bottom line before all other considerations. News Limited is a huge and experienced organisation and it may well be that, through predatory pricing and the promotion of correct political ideas, it can reduce the unnecessary number of media outlets and control the confusing variety of opinion obtaining in the area, which has tended to stifle healthy economic development.’ Current Echo editor, Michael McDonald, has been given a contract which stipulates that the job will remain his, for as long as no other News Limited journalist is interested in moving to Byron Bay. Mr McDonald said he was very pleased with the fair and open way negotiations had been handled. ‘They showed me the instru-
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Rupert Murdoch, right, examines the former Telstra site in Station Street, Mullumbimby, for possible use as the new headquarters of the revamped Echo with, from left, Council’s director of acquisitions Mary Robbins, Deputy Mayor Ross Tucker, Mr Murdoch’s personal assistant Mitzi Bloomfield, Mayor Jan Barham and Echo publisher David Lovejoy. Photo Jeff Dawson
ments,’ he said, ‘and that was fair enough.’ Echo photographer Jeff Dawson is also very happy that his services will be retained by the new management. ‘It’s exciting to work for the big guys in the business,’ he said, ‘there’s so much to learn. Already I’ve been given a list of the people I’m not allowed to photograph – relatives, friends and executives of Mr Murdoch, people like that. It will make my job much easier.’ Despite the obvious advantages that the new deal brings to Byron Shire, there were a few negative voices to be heard after the announcement was made. Crystal Gormpetal, an environmentalist and mother of three, said that Rupert Murdoch had a history of ruthless intervention in politics wherever he owned newspapers. ‘Do we really want Mr Murdoch ringing up from New York and telling the mayor how to vote on Council issues?’ she said. ‘We had enough of that from the previous Echo owners.What is needed is a communityfunded editorial collective to take
over the newspaper. Failing that, a Shirewide boycott of News Limited would soon show these corporate thugs what’s what.’ It was left to Byron Shire Councillor Ross Tucker to inject some commonsense into the matter. ‘This is similar to Mallams being taken over by Woolworths,’ he said. ‘It can only help the town to have big corporations come in and syphon money out to Sydney and Melbourne. You cannot stop progress, and if small country businesses have to disappear so that prices can be cheaper, so be it. The only criticism of the deal comes from people who were opposed to The Echo expanding in the first place.’ Asked if the enormous commercial presence of Murdoch in the town would not affect his newsletter the Saturday Star, Cr Tucker explained that his partner Harold Ross would continue to produce The Star even at his own expense in order to preserve a vehicle for broadcasting his opinions. ‘Harold has a lot in common with Rupert,’ he said.