It’s the "news" site thousands of Australians turn to for their daily dose of satire - and now the bosses at The Betoota Advocate are headed to Canberra to deliver the skinny on what it’s like to write for the nation’s “oldest and most favourite newspaper”.
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Ahead of their visit to the capital, Bree Winchester asks editors Errol Parker and Clancy Overell to weigh in on the Canberra versus Queanbeyan debate, and what The Canberra Times should be doing to get its online readership up.
Bree: G’day boys. Let’s get the important question covered first: Queanbeyan or Canberra?
Clancy: Oh, definitely Queanbeyan. They’re not culturally confused like Canberrans - they know who to support during State of Origin. And there’s probably more people of note who’ve come out of Queanbeyan than Canberra ...
Errol: You’ve got Mark Webber - he's a really good driver.
Clancy: Brad Haddin, Campese - you’ve got a whole lot of people. Who's Canberra got? Jackie Chan?
Bree: Even he hates Canberra.
Errol: Yeah I know - cause he had to bloody well live there!
Clancy: We have our very own version of Queanbeyan in Betoota, it’s called The Flight Path District. It’s actually even got a mosque! A Greek club, it’s got a lot of loud houso kids that are really good at doing wheelies, a couple of bowling clubs with good Chinese, that kind of thing.
Bree: You’re a hugely successful media company, what are your tips for The Canberra Times on how to increase online readership?
Errol: Move to a bigger city.
Clancy: Don’t give all your Canberra news out to The Age and Fairfax and The Brisbane Times, so everyone's gotta come to Canberra.
Errol: Close down the Fyshwick McDonald's so your journos don’t spend as much time there when they should be at their desks working.
Bree: Why do people love to hate on Canberra?
Clancy: It’s the very, very obvious and very visible sense of self importance that comes with living in the bowl. I’m not sure what it is, the bush is a very pretty place, but it also has that - how do you say - '80s era of self-promotion.
Bree: You both cover an incredible range of topics for the Advocate, where did you do your journalistic training?
Clancy: For me, I was lucky enough to have been promised a job in Betoota because my family were involved - like all good media companies, I had a job promised to me.
Errol: I worked at the Gold Coast Bulletin, spent time in Hong Kong and the UK as well. That was probably where I got my taste for journalism really - at the "red tops" - The News of the World and The Sun. That’s where I really got my taste for quality journalism and I just haven’t been able to shake the bug since.
Clancy: He's taught a lot of us how to get into phone messages and all kinds of stuff since he left the UK.
Bree: Are you going to be sending a journalist to the press gallery anytime soon?
Errol: Well we do have one there at the moment but they’d rather keep their identity close to their chest.
Clancy: They're in that room with Keating Media - whatever that is. They’ve found a desk in there and we’ve got a couple of sleeper cells in with Buzzfeed. But the only reason we have to do this, Bree, is because we’ve applied many times for the press gallery and [the ABC’s] Eliza Borrello is keeping us out.
Errol: We almost had an in with Speersy from Sky but we got railroaded by the ABC yet again.
Bree: Fairfax journos were recently scalded for referring to the PM as ScoMo - what are your thoughts?
Errol: Good. Have some goddamned respect. He's the 30th prime minister of this country - not some tip rat.
Bree: What can Canberrans expect from the roadshow in November?
Errol: Basically we're gonna take away a bit of the mystery surrounding our publication and how we’ve been able to keep our heads above water. We haven’t had to merge with anyone yet - we’re an online news company that continues to buck the trends.
And we'll be giving the average Australian a little bit of insight into our town and how it works, the people, the suburbs, all the districts and what not.
Clancy: Like, we’ll explain how when we write about The Flight Path District, it relates to people from Queanbeyan or Campbelltown or Logan in Brisbane. And it’s the same for when we write about Betoota Grove …
Errol: That’s the equivalent of Red Hill or Manuka or Kingston ...
Clancy: Yeah, they’re the dads with the New York Yankee baseball hats and the the hummer prams.
Errol: We want everyone in Canberra to come - well, except for Eliza Borrello. The night before we're doing the Hamer Hall in Melbourne so we'll be on fire by the time we get to the ‘Berra.
Clancy: And what’s the joint we'll be going to afterwards? Where we’ll go and have a drink afterwards? Four floors of ... ?
Errol: Yeah Mooseheads. Either that or we'll take Clancy to Cube.
Clancy: What's that?
Errol: You'll see.
The Betoota Advocate Roadshow, Friday, November 30, Llewellyn Hall. Tickets from www.tegdainty.com
