Tag Archives
Make Google & Facebook support public interest journalism
By LAWRENCE GIBBONS Everyone recalls the great news blackout of 2021. Earlier this year, Facebook prevented Australians from posting news stories on their platform. The move came in response to a proposed new law giving the Treasurer Josh Frydenberg the power to force Facebook and Google to bargain with Australian media companies, big and small. […]
All news is fake news to Facebook
By LAWRENCE GIBBONS Facebook has refused to let the City Hub promote a news story written by the preeminent investigative journalist Wendy Bacon. The censored report criticised changes to state planning guidelines which will pave the way for the Star casino (with possible links to organised crime) to build a new high-rise development in Pyrmont. […]
Pet hate
By VANESSA LIM The question of who polices off-leash dogs, especially those that maul other dogs, has been raised again following an increase in attacks across Sydney, including the latest victim, Celebrity Chef Colin Fassnidge. On Sunday 4 August, Fassnidge’s two dogs, a shih tzu terrier and a dalmation, were attacked by three aggressive dogs […]
The Issue with Issuu
By MICHAEL HITCH Does this image seem inappropriate to you? Does it offend you? Are you uncomfortable with the human body? The issue of censoring women’s bodies and specifically, their breasts, rears its ugly head again after the City Hub newspaper’s online back issue was censored by digital publishing platform, Issuu. When City Hub uploaded […]
Star Observer moves in with City Hub
BY ALEC SMART Sydney Star Observer magazine, which has been documenting the activities of the gay and lesbian community for 40 years, went into Voluntary Administration last month. The title has been acquired by Out Publications, a new company established by Lawrence Gibbons, the publisher of City Hub newspaper. The oldest LGBTIQ+ newspaper in the […]
City acquires Customs House
BY LAWRENCE GIBBONS The City of Sydney has purchased the heritage listed Customs House at Circular Quay from the Australian federal government, ensuring the popular building will remain in public hands. Located at the site where the First Fleet is thought to have arrived in 1788, it has been home to the Customs House for […]
Australia’s small and regional newspapers come up short
By Lawrence Gibbons Australia has long had one of the most concentrated levels of media ownership in the world. Following recent changes to cross-media ownership laws, further consolidation has resulted in two corporations, Nine and News, now maintaining an outright duopoly over the majority of commercial news coverage in Australia. When the law was changed […]
More Danny, less Nanny
By Lawrence Gibbons More than a thousand people spilled off the footpath outside the Sydney City Police Area Command on Sunday 13 January to protest the arrest of the high profile free speech advocate Danny Lim. Three armed officers forcibly detained the 74-year-old activist at Barangaroo on the previous Friday. Lim was holding a sign […]
Printing the news and raising hell weekly; not weakly
By Lawrence Gibbons Twenty-three years ago this week the first edition of the City Hub appeared on Sydney’s streets pledging “to print the news and raise hell”. Today the City Hub remains the last independent inner city weekly newspaper. To mark the paper’s anniversary, the founder reflects on the importance a free press has played […]
The Powerhouse math doesn’t stack up
OPINION -- BY LAWRENCE GIBBONS The Baird government’s intention to sell the existing Powerhouse Museum site in Ultimo to developers is economic and cultural vandalism on an unprecedented scale. No modern day global city in living memory has bulldozed a museum in the historic heart of the city in order to relocate its cultural collection […]
