Editor Marni Cordell says key staff have been poached by rival outlets and that NM is 'a victim of its own success'

This article is more than 6 years old

This article is more than 6 years old

The independent news website New Matilda is set to close, citing a difficult financial situation and increased competition from other media outlets.



Marni Cordell, editor of New Matilda and owner of the business which publishes it, said she could no longer run the site, which “probably means the end of NM”.

In a letter to readers, Cordell said she had not taken a regular wage since January, passing income from New Matilda’s paid subscribers to younger staff in the hope they could help the site thrive.

“However, recently key staff have been poached by outlets that are able to pay much more than we are,” she said. “That’s put NM in a position that it can’t recover from. It’s time for me to move on to a more stable job. I can’t afford another year.

“I love New Matilda and the community of readers and subscribers who make it possible. (Journalist) Gideon Haigh once described the site as ‘an experiment in how cheaply a news outlet can run’, and I think he summed up its spirit perfectly.”

Cordell said New Matilda had given young writers a break, produced some “ground-breaking journalism” and doubled its subscriber base in the past four years.

“New Matilda is certainly not a failed venture,” she said. “If anything, it’s a victim of its own success. We’re a small operation that can’t afford to compete with our larger competitors for staff and writers.

“A high churn rate is a fact of life for small publishers – but as the media environment changes, hanging on to good people is getting harder than ever.”

Cordell said she was open to any “serious business proposal” to take over the site, as long as its archive was maintained. If no prospective proprietor comes forward, the site will be archived following its coverage of the federal budget next week.

New Matilda was founded in 2004 as a left-leaning, independent alternative to Australia’s established media groups. In 2010, Cordell temporarily shut down the site, claiming it was unsustainable due to a dip in the advertising market, only to relaunch it as a subscription-based outlet.

A campaign to raise $175,000 via crowdfunding was successful, enabling the site to carry on.

Cordell said in 2011: “We know this campaign was watched closely by people in the industry who were curious as to whether an Australian audience would pay for online content. New Matilda readers have shown that they value independent media and are prepared to pay for it.”