There’s a romanticism to talking about the pre-Internet era newsroom that is always a thrill to hear veterans discuss. But, equally, it’s also deeply compelling to hear journos talk about embracing new tools and new ways of engaging news audiences.
That was the sweet spot that The Daily Telegraph’s Entertainment Editor Jonathon Moran hit as he led a conversation at SXSW Sydney on Thursday afternoon ‘DTTV- Typewriter to TikTok’. He spoke to veteran crime reporter Mark Morri about his early years on the paper, starting with a typewriter back in 1980, then progressed the conversation to discussing the modern newsroom with colleague Josh Hanrahan.
Morri and Hanrahan discussed at length how they engage with their audiences through a mix of text articles, but also videos recorded in the newsroom. It was interesting to hear them discuss how the two formats, as different as they are, still engage the audiences in similar ways and they’ve found that topic areas that work in one medium also perform well in the other. It spoke to the idea that at the end of the day, it’s all about the message and not the medium.
Mediaweek caught up with Jonathon Moran after the panel discussion.
Mediaweek: So much of SXSW is all about progression, about driving the culture forward. But the panel for the first half was very much about the history of a print publication. Why was it important to show that perspective?
Jonathon Moran: The point is to show that journalism might have changed in the way that we’ve delivered the news and the way people are consuming it, but those foundations are still there. All of those foundations are still there. The journalists are still there, and the journalists at The Telegraph are there making the calls, speaking to people, writing the stories.
Mediaweek: There’s a romanticism about a pre-internet newsroom. In this AI age, that romanticism really is a bit more aromatic.
Jonathon Moran: You’re going to a newsroom today, and we’re there. We are there making phone calls, and maybe it’s not as noisy as it was when I was first in a newsroom.
When I first went into one, it was three different televisions on with different news shows on and multiple radio stations on with 2GB and 2GB, and you’re monitoring what was going on. So, yes, it was a different beast, but we’re still there, and we still have the lights are on, and that’s not going to change. It’s not like all of a sudden the media are just going to be gone at all because it’s just ridiculous to even think that.
People are consuming media. They’re just consuming it in a different way. People might not read the newspaper, and I’m probably one of those last people that still loves reading a physical copy of a newspaper.
It’s a beautiful experience, and I particularly love it on a weekend when I’m sitting down and eating bacon and eggs for brekkie. I love that, but I also love now and really am embracing the non-physical copy of the newspaper, but I like scrolling through it on my phone. It helps me to just go: “Yep, I know what’s going on.”
I know what ran in the paper. It’s almost the first thing I do every morning before I have a shower is to just go: “This is where we’re at. This is where we’ve landed,” and I’ve set my day up so I know what’s going on.
Mediaweek: The conversation went on to talk about the integration of video with the news experience for those working a crime beat. As an entertainment reporter, how do you embrace that? And as an old-school journal, how comfortable are you with that video experience?
Jonathon Moran: We are a digital-first, video-based newsroom. And every story we tell has a video component to it, or almost every story has a video component to it, because, as I said, people are consuming it differently. They might want to watch a video with my words over the top of it and have it on silent while they’re getting a train home or a tram or whatever, or they might want to actually just watch a video of me talking. I hate my voice, but if that’s what helps people understand what’s going on, then fantastic. I think the video just provides an extra level of depth to what we’re deliberating.
And in the past decade, I think as print journalists, we’ve seen ourselves in print and digital and video and TV and radio. I’ve probably been one of the early adopters. Many years ago, I’d been doing professional radio shows for well over a decade and got on board with broadening those skills because I think it’s important.
People want to hear those stories in multiple different ways. I truly believe that all of these things marry together in this beautiful way that they’re not mutually exclusive. They’re all living in the same ecosystem together.
And print journalists are not print journalists anymore. They are part of the video world. They are part of the TV world.
I do television. I do radio. I do podcasts.
I’ve just published a book. It’s all about us all being a journalist in 2025, don’t you think?
Mediaweek: Where do you see that line between the audience wanting to hear people talking about celebrities and the act of actually experience the celebrities themselves?
Jonathon Moran: Everyone wants to be close to the celebrities. That’s just a fact.
That’s why celebrities are celebrities. But in terms of understanding what’s going on in their world, people like myself and others are the ones that can kind of dissect what’s going on. When Nicole and Keith announced their separation a couple of weeks ago, they weren’t going to talk any further than what we knew.
So people like myself were there to interpret the news and make it palatable for people and say this is what’s going on. Everywhere I go, people are asking me what really happened with Nicole and Keith. It’s because they want to know and they think I’ve got a direct call to Nicole and can ask her directly what’s going on.
Mediaweek: In terms of metrics focused on entertainment topics, are you really following those metrics closely or do you kind of have a gut feeling?
Jonathon Moran: I’ve been in the industry for a long time and I definitely have a gut feeling for what a good story is and I will fight for it.
We want to deliver light and shade. So we want to deliver a pretty pic. We want to tell people that the Victoria’s Secret fashion parade happened today, but we also want to tell people the latest crime news and the latest politics that’s going on as well.
There’s key pillars that people come to the Telegraph for. They come to us for sport and NRL and they come to us for celebrity and entertainment. Sydney Confidential is a huge driving force of the Daily Telegraph and what we do as is crime and as is state poll and so on.
Mediaweek: We used newspapers to stay connected to news, the culture, our communities. Do you think that’s still true in a digital age or do you think that news publications occupy a different role these days?
I think it’s in a different way but yes, it absolutely does. I need to know what’s going on at all times and I know other people do. My sister is a teacher based in Canberra and she turns on Sunrise.
When I talk to her and I’m driving to work in the morning she’ll be like, oh did you hear this happen? I’ll be like, yes I did, I just heard it on ABC. She’ll know what’s going on. She’s just consuming it on Sunrise or wherever else she’s getting it from.
Mediaweek: You finished this talk talking about the authority of news organisations. Who bestows that authority on a publication these days? Obviously The Daily Telegraph is a heritage brand, you’ve been around for some time so you bring that with generations of people reading it. Is it enough to just continue with authority because it has been bestowed on you in the past?
No, I think you have to work hard to continue that and you need to be true to your audience and respect the audience. Absolutely you need to keep that as your guiding light and you asked about what we deliver and who we deliver it to and what they want and whether we’re guided by the metrics. We’re guided by what they tell us, by what they’re clicking on as well, so we deliver them more of that, but we also want to deliver them things that they maybe haven’t necessarily seen us deliver traditionally.
It’s not for me to say who bestows the authority, but I know I am an authority. And probably one of the top authorities on celebrity in this country and I’ve worked damn hard to get there and I’ve spoken to a lot of people to get there. Like me, dislike me, agree with me, disagree with me, it doesn’t really matter. I’m there to tell a story.