Fairfax Media’s The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age have launched a new brand campaign featuring several high profile journalists expressing their dedication to independent, quality journalism.

The campaign focuses on the importance of independent journalism and uses the brands’ positioning “Independent. Always.” and the tag line “Our passion for truth means you always know what’s really going on.”

The brand campaign will include print, cinema, outdoor, radio, digital and social media executions and a microsite featuring the journalists’ films at smh.com.au/independentalways and theage.com.au/independentalways.

In one of the ads, The Sydney Morning Herald Walkley-award winning investigative journalist Kate McClymont says: “There will always be evil, and it’s our job not to turn away.” In another, The Age’s investigative team Nick McKenzie and Richard Baker said: “We shine a light in dark places.”

Other journalists featured in the first phase of the campaign include Peter FitzSimons, Caroline Wilson, Adele Ferguson, John Silvester, Terry Durack, Amber Robinson, Ardyn Bernoth, Anthony Dennis, Jo Tovey and Andrew Webster.

Fairfax Media’s Australian publishing media director consumer marketing Vicki Aristidopoulos said: “Our readers are independent thinkers. They don’t want to be told what to think. They like to be presented with quality, balanced journalism that lets them make up their own minds about all the things that matter: big journalistic investigations, sport, food reviews, culture and art.

“This new campaign reinforces the strong position we hold in independent, quality journalism and that’s why we have an engaged audience of 7.15 million people across all out platforms.”