Qantas finds money can’t buy love at Fairfax
Qantas finds money can't buy love at Fairfax | Plane Talking
It would be fair to say that relations between the independent media and Qantas have lost altitude recently, underlined by
this report in The Australian about the airline pulling its ads and paper purchases from Fairfax.
The position taken by Qantas appears to that it owns the narrative when it comes to what the media publishes about its affairs, and expects that when it buys ad space it buys the news reporting and analysis as well.
This isn’t confined to airlines. There are many enterprises who pay in house or external message managers astonishing fees for brokering access to favourable or compliant media and trying to isolate those who don’t buy the official line.
What Qantas choses to do with its ad spend is entirely its business.
However nothing will save an airline from being ridiculed when a spokesperson says for example that passengers could have continued to Sydney two nights ago without air conditioning while the jet from Dubai was crossing the Indian Ocean and was at risk of losing the pressurization and temperature controls that are critical to maintaining a safe cabin environment as well as a flight altitude matched to optimal fuel consumption.
Or last night, when a Qantas spokesperson said a flight to Dallas Fort Worth could have continued for a further 12 hours or so without functioning toilets, seat controls or inflight entertainment systems.
The main trigger for the Fairfax ad ban according to The Australian seems to be claimed unfair or inaccurate reporting and analysis of its financial affairs. As a follower of News and Fairfax financial reporting, both have at times been scathing as well as perceptive and accurate in their critical assessments of the Qantas group performance and the credibility of its management.
Qantas doesn’t have the guts to play hard ball with News. And it is highly unlikely to bring Fairfax into line. The survival of News and Fairfax depends on how they deal with on-line technology, with a near catastrophic decline in ad revenues in general already a major consequence of those challenges.
Like the airlines, the media has to deal with changed customer or reader expectations. Finding a market prepared to pay for higher quality and trusted, independent reporting and analysis is for the media similar to airlines keeping a customer base that will pay a premium for reliable, safe, and higher quality air travel.
In this continuing media crisis, the complaints of companies claiming ownership of the public narratives about their affairs are nowhere remotely as important as retaining readerships are for media companies facing extinction.
Nothing could be more fatal for the media than giving up its independence, and thus being abandoned by whatever readers it may continue to attract.