Crikey‘s makeover

Crikey says: Thank you for the emails and feedback about the revamped website and Crikey Insider — we’ve been inundated. Apologies that we can’t reply to you all individually, but we’re reading everything that you’re saying and taking it on board (both the good and bad!). We’re working on fixes for a couple of concerns raised. If you’re having any trouble, please send us an email and we hope you enjoy poking around the new site.

New world with no news professionals

Niall Clugston writes: Re. “Brave News World: media is dead — long live media” (yesterday) Yes, media is emerging into a new world, but is it a news world?

There seems to be a blithe assumption that market forces will sort it out and that “Eventually something will crawl out of the primordial soup”. The same thinking that brought us the GFC. Except markets don’t seem to operate in cyberspace.

As it stands now, this new world seems to have very few news professionals. Put that together with very few members of political parties and very few members of social movements, and what do you get? Civilisation reincarnated as a transit lounge.

Polling Abbott news

Mick Callinan writes: Re. “Abbott’s unpopular, but less so with the voters Labor needs“. Let me start by saying I am caked-on Labor, have voted for them all my voting life (since Gough’s re-election in 1974) and cannot imagine voting for anybody else. Now, two predictions, one that must be tested, and one that I hope will be tested. First, I predict that the coalition will win the next election, and Tony Abbott will be our next prime minister, some time in 2013. Second, I predict that if a poll is conducted 12 months later, asking “Who did you vote for in the last federal election?”, the figures will show a minimum 15% drop. In other words, a lot of people will tell lies, and deny they voted for Abbott.

I’d just LOVE to see that poll, ‘cos if you think he’s unpopular now, just wait.