by Margo Kingston

Margo's archive is here [1]

Well before blogging becomes a byword on the web, journalist Margo Kingston launches a pioneering weblog from Canberra. 'Webdiary' is a notebook of  happenings in the capital but quickly becomes a valuable forum for debate on the health of the nation. The site is highly commended by Walkley Award judges in 2001. 10th anniversary- a brief history of smh.com.au [2], Thursday April 21, 2005

Recently, my understanding of the nature [3] of Webdiary and that of Fairfax suddenly and dramatically diverged, and as a result I ended my relationship with smh.com.au.

Webdiarists, please feel free to ask any questions you like about what happened and why in comments to this statement. I will answer all bona fide questions unless I am unable to do so due to legal considerations arising from the termination of my contract to write for, edit and publish Webdiary for smh.com.au for three years.

I’ve loved and honoured what I believed Fairfax stood for in our democracy since I was a teenager in Sir Bjelke-Petersen’s Queensland, and have fought for the preservation of that belief throughout stints at the Times on Sunday, The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald.

I am profoundly grateful to all those at the Sydney Morning Herald who helped give me a blank page on smh.com.au and let me go for it for five years, and who strengthened Webdiary through their time, effort and creativity. I’ll name only one, Tom Burton, without whom Webdiary would not have been born or turned 1, 2, 3 or 4 – or 5 on the 4th of July [4].

I have never worked harder than in those five years, and have never been so inspired by my line of work, due to the chance it gave me to communicate directly with readers on equal terms, and thus collaborate with them in the shaping and growing of our Webdiary.

The confidence I’ve gained through my professional and personal relationships with Webdiarists has empowered me, with their help, to take this step into the unknown. Why are they helping? Check out the opening statements of  Harry Heidelberg, Marc MacDonald [5], PF Journey [6], Jack Robertson [7], Craig Rowley [8], Jozef Imrich [9], Ian McPherson [10], David Roffey [11], Hamish Alcorn [12], Russell Darroch [13], and Polly Bush [14].
 

These are temporary digs. We have begun to build our new home, and hope to open it for your inspection and suggestions within a month.

Webdiarists, to continue the debate on Webdiary's latest pieces click the August archive and scroll down. And please feel to send me an email if you've got something to say that's not for publication.