In March, Independent Australia appointed a new editorial board, created a new layout and broke major international stories, all of which helped it to almost double its readership in the month.
The decision was made in March to approach Barry Everingham, Tess Lawrence and Dr Glenn Davies to join IA as editors to help broaden IA's outlook and bring new content and ideas into the journal. Fortunately, all agreed to become formal parts of IA. In addition, during March IA also broke several stories that have been republished all over the world and changed its website to a fresh new magazine format. These moves have paid instant dividends, with Independent Australia increasing its visitor numbers from 9,931 in February to 19,330 in March and its hits from 17,204 to 33,466.
IA is not yet challenging the mass media for visitor numbers, but if this sort of growth continues, it may not not be too long before it does.
Independent Australia Editorial Team
The new editorial group for Independent Australia abounds with knowledge, experience and talent.
Newly appointed as Senior Correspondent is Barry Everingham, whose articles have been a feature and drawcard at IA since it began on June 13, 2010. Barry has decades of experience in the popular press as a broadcaster and journalist with such organisations as the ABC, Australian United press, The Australian, Channel 10, Radio 2UE, Melbourne’s 3AW, 3UZ, MSNBC along with innumerable others reporting from Australia, New York, London and most places in between. Barry has also published several popular books, appears frequently on TV and radio as one Australia's sharpest political commentators and has interviewed political leaders and A-list celebrities from every part of the world. Independent Australia is incredibly fortunate indeed to have Barry's input in a senior editorial position.
Now also with IA as Contributing-Editor-at-Large is hard-working investigative journalist Tess Lawrence whose recent article on Interpol's Red Notice on Julian Assange went viral in March and has been internationally republished including on US based wesbite TruthOut. Our meteoric growth is in no small way attributable to her innovative thinking, local and international contacts, trusted and trusting sources, forensic investigative work and the ability to spot a potential front page story in a seemingly innocuous sentence. Tess is a generous talent spotter, bringing powerful writers and stories to IA. Tess has wide media experience, both in Australia and overseas, including filing from the Middle East,Ethiopia, North Africa, the US, UK, India and Indonesia. As a media strategist and analyst, she works with legal firms, individuals and organisations and continues to work on several high profile projects, including pro-bono campaigns concerned with human rights and social justice. She is committed to assisting the marginalised and disenfranchised to have a public voice. She has won awards and citations for her work in both print and electronic media and has authored and edited several books and publications, including 'Headlines' that featured interviews with the Dalai Lama, Mother Teresa, Nancy Reagan, Cher, Jeremy Irons, Joe Frazier and Zsa Zsa Gabor.
A key part of Independent Australia's success has been its focus on Australian history and identity, topics seldom seen these days in the popular press. Now driving this part of Independent Australia's agenda is Australian History editor Dr Glenn Davies. Like Barry Everingham, Glenn has been submitting stories to Independent Australia virtually since the day the site began and his acute analaysis of Australia's often forgotten history of Australian republicanism has been a feature of these pages during that time. Glenn has been studying the republican debate in Australia for over 20 years. He received his PhD in 2005 from University of New England on the history of Australian republicanism, and has written academic articles and national curriculum project units on Australian history. Since 1991 he has taught ancient and modern history in a number of state high schools around Queensland and has written five secondary school history textbooks. In 2001, he established his own education publishing imprint, Digital Spring Media. He is currently Head of Social Science at Caboolture State High School and a member of the Queensland History Teachers’ Association State Executive. He has also been an Aurealis Award Short Story Judge.
Continuing as Managing Editor is the founder of Independent Australia, David Donovan, whose experience as a freelance journalist and commentator have seen his reports and articles aired and published all over Australia and in many parts of the world. He is also the vice-chair of the Australian Republican Movement and a regular commentator on radio and television.
Independent Australia looks forward to continuing to publish stories overlooked, or deliberately ignored, by the other media organisations and providing hard-hitting commentary that holds the powerful to account without fear or favour. We will continue exploring Australia's history and writing stories that paint the true picture of what it is to be an Australian. And we will be fighting for full Australia independence in every arena. We will continue to try to protect the weak, innocent and powerless. We hope you will be there to share our journey, help us and experience our continued growth and further transformation.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Australia License
