Having already interviewed hyperlocal bloggers in the US and the Netherlands, this week’s Hyperlocal Voices profiles an Australian blogger: The Worst of Perth. Launched 3 years ago to criticise a local newspaper, the blog is approaching a million views this year and has the an impact on the local political scene.

Who were the people behind the blog, and what were their backgrounds?

Just me. I have a background in stand-up comedy and photography amongst many things, with a bit of dabbling in graphic design and art too.

I used to work for quite a while in video production, (as well as a few occasions as best boy/lighting assistant in a tax write-off kung fu/zombie movie or two). I currently work for Curtin University and am also a student of Mandarin.

What made you decide to set up the blog?

Heh. Well, amusingly from an online journalism point of view, my very first motivation was to label a senior print journo “Australia’s worst journalist”!

Perth has a single daily newspaper, The West Australian, (circ I think about 250 000 daily) which has in many people’s opinion not been best served by being the monopoly daily provider. The paper and its journalists used to be a frequent target of TWOP, but not so much anymore.

The reason for this is at the heart of what’s happening to journalism around the world. Because The West was the only daily paper, in pre-news blog times, people used to be passionate about its faults.

Now no-one really cares how bad it is, because they can get their real news elsewhere. The paper hasn’t got any better, in fact it’s consistently worse, but the difference now is that nobody really cares that much. Continue reading →