Three of Australia’s leading independent media creators say audiences are increasingly placing their trust in individuals over institutions, as mainstream media struggles with bureaucracy, declining credibility and an inability to keep pace with changing audience consumption patterns. Abbie Chatfield also set the record straight on “wild” speculation about her radio ambitions.
Speaking at Cairns Crocodiles, presented by Pinterest, a panel featuring Osman Faruqi, Abbie Chatfield and moderated by Osman Faruqi, Abbie Chatfield, unpacked why they had moved away from traditional media companies and structures and decided to go it alone, launching podcasts, newsletters and creator-led businesses.
Chatfield, whose It’s A Lot with Abbie Chatfield podcast recently left the LiSTNR platform to join Acast, said the move was driven by a desire for greater creative freedom and ownership.
“It got to a point at about year three where I kind of thought, okay, I think it’s time for me to take another step into starting a business and being independent and having more creative freedom,” she said.
While Chatfield praised LiSTNR and SCA for their support, she said independence offered a level of agility and experimentation that larger organisations struggled to accommodate.
“The hard part with being in the network is that you are kind of locked into their resourcing,” she said. “Now that I have my own producer… I can say, ‘Don’t do that. Do this instead’.”
Chatfield also revealed ambitions to expand beyond her own shows and build a podcast network featuring new talent.
“I think we’ve got enough of Abbie Chatfield,” she joked. “I need to get other people to do things I love.”
@bandt.com.au #abbiechatfield at Carins Crocodiles for the second time 🐆 #cairnscrocodiles #podcast #pinterest #interview ♬ I’m Every Woman – Chaka Khan
For Faruqi, who had a successful career working at Nine’s newspapers and the ABC before co-founding independent media platform Lamestream, the breaking point was a mix of bureaucracy and missed digital opportunities.
“What I found at Nine was a much bigger audience, a lot more money, a lot of great opportunities to do things, but a lot of bureaucracy,” he said.
Faruqi recalled pitching the idea for an ABC TikTok account nearly a decade ago, only for it to take years to materialise.
“It took two-and-a-half years for that idea to work its way through all the layers of ABC bureaucracy,” he said.
A matter of trust
He also argued major publishers had failed to adapt to the way younger audiences consume media.
“Nine did not have a bespoke YouTube team,” he said. “This is how most people are understanding the world around them, and the bigger media companies weren’t there.”
The panel argued that trust in mainstream media—rightly or wrongly—is at an all time low and that audiences now feel more connected to individual creators than to legacy media brands.
“If you poll people and ask them what are the least trusted institutions in Australia, it is like used car salesmen at the bottom and then media companies,” Faruqi said.
By contrast, podcasters build direct relationships with audiences through intimacy, consistency and transparency.
“There is nothing like the connection between a podcast host and their audience,” he said.
Fran, the co-host of the We Used to Be Journos podcast alongside Antoinette Lattouf, said audiences were increasingly “trusting individuals rather than institutions” and that creators who launched independently often had more skin in the game.
“We have all, to some extent, taken a risk and put our necks out there,” she said. “You are the lawyer, you are the editor, you are the HR department.”
Faruqi added legal risks remained one of the biggest barriers for independent journalism.
“We know so much about the most powerful people in this country that we can’t report because even if it’s true, if they sue us… it could take us five years and tens of millions of dollars,” he said.
Meanwhile, Chatfield wanted to correct the record on her recent stint filling in on Kiis FM’s vacant breakfast radio slot after the Kyle & Jackie O Show was hooked.
Despite headlines suggesting she had “lost” a future in radio after the fill-in role ended, Chatfield said the media narrative had been wildly exaggerated and that she was only ever filling in for two weeks.
“I’m not doing breakfast radio. I’m exhausted,” she said. “So it was very bizarre that then was headline after headline after headline, saying that I had ‘lost my job’ or there was ‘no future for me in Australian radio’ (when I was always only filling in for two weeks’.”
