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One of Australia\u2019s most successful progressive media proprietors, Morry Schwartz, is getting back on the tools.<\/p>\n
The band behind Schwartz Media\u2019s success is breaking up, as the company\u2019s longstanding chief executive Rebecca Costello moves to a cross-town rival.<\/p>\n
Flying back from Venice to take up what he describes as an executive chairman role, Schwartz will soon step back into the commercial side of the media business, which has grown from a fringe intellectual publishing outfit to a mainstream independent news organisation. It\u2019s a task that he professes not to have much interest in, but will need to pick up until he finds a replacement for Costello.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously, I am a businessman, but when it comes to publishing, I really don\u2019t care,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
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Schwartz Media editor-in-chief Erik Jensen, owner Morry Schwartz, and outgoing CEO Rebecca Costello.<\/span>Credit: <\/span>SMH<\/cite><\/p>\n Schwartz, the eponymous founder, cuts a unique figure in a landscape dominated by far bigger players, particularly Rupert Murdoch\u2019s News Corp and Nine\u2019s titles (including this masthead), building his own empire off the back of a successful career in property development.<\/p>\n His media business, which houses The Saturday Paper, The Monthly <\/i>and 7am<\/i> podcast, has been run by Costello since 2006, working hand-in-hand for the past 12 years with Erik Jensen, who Schwartz hired to launch and edit The Saturday Paper <\/i>aged just 23.<\/p>\n Costello leaves in a few weeks to become Guardian Australia\u2019<\/i>s managing director. While some companies might have fought to prevent such a move, Schwartz said: \u201cI don\u2019t believe in holding people back.\u201d<\/p>\n The Saturday Paper, <\/i>which went to print in March 2014, launched less than a year after Guardian Australia, <\/i>both pitching themselves as the premier progressive voice in the market.<\/p>\n Jensen, now editor-in-chief across all Schwartz titles, puts a wider lens to it, saying The Saturday Paper <\/i>today contends with The Australian, The Age <\/i>and Sydney Morning Herald.<\/i><\/p>\n Meanwhile, Schwartz is more philosophical in his approach.<\/p>\n \u201cI really think from the editorial side out. If I feel what we produce is good, and if people around me think it\u2019s good, then I\u2019m happy.\u201d<\/p>\n Quality writing drives Schwartz, who takes a more active role in his publishing company Black Inc. \u2013 The Quarterly Essay<\/em> being among its titles \u2013 highlights the recent Killing for Country<\/i> book by David Marr as \u201can important contribution to the country\u201d.<\/p>\n Driven by editorial rather than commercial imperatives, Schwartz\u2019s publishing ambitions have been fruitfully nurtured by his property endeavours.<\/p>\n \u201cThe only way to do it was to make money elsewhere, so I made money in property. I don\u2019t do much of it any more,\u201d Schwartz said.<\/p>\n Launching The Saturday Paper <\/em> in 2014, then-communications minister Malcolm Turnbull quipped Schwartz was \u201cnot some demented plutocrat pouring more and more money into a loss-making venture that is just going to peddle your opinions\u201d. (Turnbull later denied this was reference to Rupert Murdoch, of whom Schwartz is a known critic.)<\/p>\n Rupert Murdoch is the subject of Schwartz\u2019s new special podcast series.<\/span>Credit: <\/span>The New York Times<\/cite><\/p>\n But despite the progressive bias, Schwartz is a believer in holding the line on centrism, calling it \u201ca great place to aim for\u201d, noting the company tries to publish everything with impartiality.<\/p>\n \u201cWe don\u2019t opine on anything,\u201d he said, though he has strong opinions on refugee policy, climate change, and, more recently, advocating for Yes in the Voice to parliament referendum.<\/p>\n \u201cIt feels that the country needs healing,\u201d Schwartz said of the referendum\u2019s result,\u201cwe will try to just promote decency and centrism.\u201d<\/p>\n One knotty issue is Schwartz Media\u2019s perceived hesitancy around the subject of Israel and Palestine.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s highly complex, and highly emotional subject,\u201d Schwartz said. \u201cMy life is private, and I keep it that way. I don\u2019t think anyone really does know my positions. They\u2019re complex,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not our prime objective to cover international news. We do it, but our primary objective is to cover Australian news. When big international events happen, of course we cover them as carefully as we can.\u201d<\/p>\n November\u2019s edition of the Jewish Quarterly, <\/em>which Schwartz publishes,<\/strong> was set to be a 112-page critique of Israel\u2019s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu by Isreali author and Netanyahu biographer Anshel Pfeffer, but Schwartz pulled it weeks before it was due to hit the shelves.<\/p>\n Schwartz denies the decision was related to heightened turmoil in the Middle East. He said the essay became out of date \u201cbecause of all the judicial overhaul business [announced in Israel].\u201d<\/p>\n November\u2019s scrapped edition of Jewish Quarterly<\/span><\/p>\n Costello, who has been crucial in driving Schwartz Media\u2019s commercial product, leaves at an important time for independent media, with a depressed advertising market and consumers having less spare cash for subscription journalism.<\/p>\n The Saturday Paper <\/i>pitches its reader profile as \u201cpremium\u201d \u2013 those living in the inner city with an average age of 43, an average of $420,000 in savings or investments, and 82 per cent university educated \u2013 according to a 2022 media kit.<\/p>\n Roy Morgan figures show a monthly print readership of 285,000, with web and app readership of 435,000, while the high-flying podcast 7am, <\/em>launched in 2019, is Australia\u2019s top rating daily news podcast.<\/p>\n In September, it had just under 400,000 listeners and 1.25 million downloads, tapering off slightly from the podcast boom in the pandemic years.<\/p>\n Until a new CEO is appointed, Schwartz will be getting back into the day-to-day of the business.<\/p>\n \u201cI get involved in general direction, we have meetings, we talk about society,\u201d he said, but in terms of editorial, \u201cyou hire an editor, and you trust them\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cI suppose I\u2019ll be an executive chair for a bit.\u201d<\/p>\n With a loyal audience, Schwartz said Costello had built the commercial product \u201cbeautifully\u201d, with the business now in a \u201ccomfortable place\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen I think about the way in which our titles have succeeded, they\u2019ve succeeded because of how they\u2019ve told stories, and in that way, it really is quite simple,\u201d Jensen said. \u201cWe believe completely in our journalists, and we believe completely in our audiences.\u201d<\/p>\n As for Costello, she is just as philosophical as Schwartz on her exit.<\/p>\n \u201cSeventeen years is 17 years,\u201d she said. \u201cI don\u2019t own Schwartz, so that is a pretty amazing tenure in this day and age in any job in whatever industry, so for me, it was timing and opportunity and it all coming together at the right moment.\u201d<\/p>\n Whoever he hires to replace Costello, Schwartz said the company would stick to its course.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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A crucial departure<\/h3>\n