Welcome to the new-look newmatilda.com. We’re excited to be launching a brand new website just in time for what will no doubt be a very interesting year in politics.
newmatilda.com began in August 2004 with the ambitious aim of "changing Australia", in an era when being a critic of the Howard regime made you an elitist, an extremist or a nutcase. Remember when it was somehow daggy to care about things like human rights and climate change?
We won’t take all the credit — but my how the mood can change.
During the election campaign John Howard said that when you change the government you change the country. I would argue that the country changed long before the government did. newmatilda.com was one of the few publications to chart that shift.
newmatilda.com is proud of its activist past, but as the country has changed, so have we. 2008 marks the beginning of a new era for Australia and a new era for the site.
So what can you expect from newmatilda.com v2?
More irreverence. Check out today’s articles by new resident smartarses Jen Mills and Helen Razer for a taste.
More on-the-ground correspondents such as Sharona Coutts, who’ll be ‘our girl in America’ during the US election campaign, and Jose Borghino who will be reporting for us from Europe.
More local perspectives on global issues. We don’t have the cash to fly someone in, but we can offer you a growing network of local contacts from around the world who will give you a unique take on events as they happen.
Less whining and more keeping the bastards honest.
The popular PollieGraph blog, launched last year for the Federal election, will continue to go behind the scenes of Australia’s political establishment.
And of course we’ll be rounding out the debate by bringing you more of the in-depth political analysis that you’ve come to know us for, by regulars such as Mark Bahnisch and Anthony May.
We hope you like the new site, which was built and designed by the very talented Digital Eskimo. Some of the exciting new features include the Daily Cartoon, From the Archives and the Featured Contributor. Regulars will notice that the Discussion Forum from the old site has been scrapped in favour of comments appearing directly under articles.
This is the first stage in our relaunch, it is by no means a finished product, and we’ll be relying on your feedback to take us to stage two. Please feel free to report bugs, tell us when links are broken and give us feedback about what you do and don’t like by emailing enquiries@newmatilda.com.
A big thanks to Peter Cossey at Digital Eskimo who has survived on very little sleep for the past week to get us live!
Happy reading!
Marni Cordell
Editor
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