This was published 4 months ago
What was the biggest news event of the past year?
By Bevan Shields and Liam Phelan
When you look back at 2023, what big news events do you recall?
For many of us, the first thing that springs to mind is the Voice referendum on October 14. Others might cite the NSW state election on March 25. You can bet Premier Chris Minns would. Some might even list the coronation of King Charles on May 6.
However, for Herald subscribers, our most read story of the year was the awful Hunter Valley bus crash on June 11. At about 11.30pm, a bus taking home the wedding guests of Maddy Edsell and Mitchell Gaffney overturned on a roundabout near Greta, killing 10 people and injuring 25 others.
Driver Brett Button has since been charged with 10 counts each of dangerous driving and negligent driving causing death, nine counts each of dangerous driving and negligent driving causing grievous bodily harm, and 25 counts of causing bodily harm by misconduct. He has yet to enter pleas to the charges.
This horrible crash captured the attention of not just NSW residents, but the nation and even readers outside Australia. It was an event that gave us all pause for thought, how a moment of joy and love can instantly turn to heartbreak and horror.
Tributes to the victims of the Hunter Valley bus crash at the memorial site.Credit: Rhett Wyman
As news of the accident spread, our newsroom quickly raced to respond, with reporters, photographers, designers, editors and producers all swinging into action. These events involve a team effort across our entire newsroom.
They are also a real-time balancing act of catering to our readers’ desire for every snippet of information about what happened, while at the same time making sure we do not intrude on people’s grief and overstep the mark in terms of privacy. I recall a rival organisation got an extraordinary close-up photograph of the bus wreckage, but they obtained it by sneaking past a police cordon into an area that was unsafe and potentially part of a crime scene.
Our reporters and photographers followed the rules and still brought you fast, accurate and insightful coverage. You can read the extraordinary report by our chief reporter Jordan Baker here, written the day after the crash.
Our combination of fast and accurate live blogging and thoughtful news and analysis is what sets us apart as a media organisation, and we are proud of the work we did covering what turned out to be the most read news story of the year.
Labor leader Chris Minns with his wife Anna as he claimed victory in the NSW state election in March.Credit: Janie Barrett
While tragedies like the Hunter Valley crash happen infrequently (thank goodness) and cannot be planned for, other big news events involve hours of careful planning and research.
Our coverage of the March state election was the second-most read news story for subscribers and kept our team of state political reporters, led by Alexandra Smith and bolstered by the rest of the newsroom, on their toes. We kept a close eye on key seats involved, tried to burst the politicians’ natural inclination to spin and focused on issues we know you care about.
The Voice referendum was arguably the most important national political story of the year and attracted our biggest single daily general audience for our live blog, which started before polls opened and continued throughout the day and well into the night.
However, while the blog was popular with subscribers, you actually read more of our news stories and analysis. You can read Peter Hartcher’s excellent post-mortem here.
Sam Kerr after the Matildas lost to England during the World Cup.Credit: Getty
While our top-performing stories tend towards the serious and the tragic, it’s important to note that we offer a wide range of content at the Herald, and other top yarns include our blog on the Matildas versus England match at the Women’s World Cup and Sydney’s richest and poorest postcodes.
We think this year has also been a bit of a milestone for the Herald in terms of producing groundbreaking investigative journalism that has had a profound impact for the better on Australian society. You should have received a newsletter last week about “The stories that made a difference” in 2023.
These stories include the defamation decision against disgraced soldier Ben Roberts-Smith. This landmark civil law case followed our series of investigative pieces by Nick McKenzie and Chris Masters into the actions of Roberts-Smith as a member of the SAS in Afghanistan.
The fact the judge ruled in favour of our journalism and found that, on the balance of probabilities, we had proven that Roberts-Smith was a war criminal involved in the killings of Afghan civilians sent a loud message across the media landscape.
If you meticulously research your stories, focus on facts and avoid sensationalism, it’s still possible to produce journalism that holds the most powerful people in our society to account and raises important matters of public interest. Roberts-Smith has appealed against the findings. You can rest assured we will continue to defend our journalism robustly, both in the courts and out.
Another McKenzie highlight of 2023 was the Trafficked series that led to the deportation of an alleged people trafficking kingpin and to the Nixon review which exposed shortcomings in the immigration system.
On the sporting field, Tom Decent’s expose on Wallabies coach Eddie Jones interviewing for the Japanese national coaching role just before the World Cup in France showed extraordinary courage in the face of Jones’ belligerent and frequent denials. If you haven’t seen it, check out the video compilation of his denials here. However, history proved us right and the great inside story of how events unfolded is required reading.
Our chief investigative reporter Kate McClymont produced two huge investigations this year. First was her series of reports on brain surgeon Charlie Teo that revealed the harm he has done to numerous patients. McClymont copped a significant backlash for taking on Teo, but the subsequent disciplinary hearings and negative findings firmly backed up her work. Teo was found to have lacked insight and judgment, and to have failed to properly explain the risks of his work to his patients.
Charlie Teo had a lot of his supporters as he faced an inquiry into his professional conduct.Credit: Nick Moir
Just this month, we published McClymont’s major investigation into powerful broadcaster Alan Jones, airing the claims of multiple people who allege he indecently assaulted them. Our initial investigation encouraged even more people to speak out. Jones has denied all the claims and is threatening legal action against the Herald, but we stand by our work.
Another significant result of our journalism has been the Minns government’s introduction of a trial of cashless gaming cards in NSW. While Labor didn’t go as far as the Liberal Party, which made an election promise to go straight to mandatory cashless gaming, nonetheless it’s true to say it’s extremely unlikely this trial would have happened without our “State of Addiction” series of articles, published before the state election.
As well as focusing on the local – you can look forward to some great Sydney series coming next year – we are also committed to national and international coverage.
Foreign affairs correspondent Matthew Knott and award-winning photographer Kate Geraghty have had a busy 2023, making a trip together to the Middle East to cover the latest Israel-Hamas conflict.
Photographer Kate Geraghty and journalist Matthew Knott travelled to Israel and the West Bank to capture the unfolding conflict in the Middle East.Credit: Kate Geraghty
Our newsroom also has a focus on sport, culture, lifestyle, food and travel. This year we added both Traveller and Good Food to our home page, which means we’re able to better showcase lighter, less serious stories.
The most popular food story of the year was a fun piece by dietician Suzie Burrell that rated all the new “milks” that abound these days. Our top travel story was a list of the 10 beach towns that are better than Byron Bay. Let’s hope many of you are either in those towns or heading there shortly.
This is our last editor’s note for 2023. We will be back in January to give you the inside running on what our priorities are for the new year, how our newsroom operates and some of the debates and decisions we make behind the scenes.
We hope you have a relaxing and enjoyable break (bear in mind our newsroom and website will keep rolling, even on Christmas) and we look forward to keeping you informed and engaged in 2024. Happy holidays!
Bevan Shields and Liam Phelan.