And now we're about to find out whether Crikey is also Australia's first halfway viable online publishing business. For anyone who hasn't followed the lengthy Crikey saga, it goes like this. Mayne was barred from a tax-policy press conference held by the Kennett Government's Labor Party replacement, the Bracks Government. This line accidentally provoked the suspicion that the accredited print, radio and television journalists cause the government very little trouble at all. Premier Bracks warning that allowing Australia's Internet media into tax-policy press conferences would cause unacceptable overcrowding.
Online publishing is now, it seems, officially unhip.
As so often, this adventure brought master self-publicist Mayne yet more attention. With his first year in business just finishing, he must now persuade subscribers to renew - one of the toughest tasks in publishing. Making Internet publishing pay would be quite a feat. A profitable Crikey would demonstrate that the Internet could play an important role in Australian public debate. Instead, as best I can tell, he willingly trashed his career because he believed that it was the best way to promote accountability in governments, businesses and news media.