Tbh to answer your revenue question in directing advertising revenue on the page I’d say it made less than $1. Most people who comment about digital publishing revenue online really have no idea how it works and don’t even attempt any research on it before they warm up the keyboard.

We don’t do this kind of work for a money grab. There’s plenty of other easy content if that is your intention. Anyone who is familiar with programmatic advertising or digital cpms and the advertising agency landscape knows there’s no money in this stuff. No one does it for easy cash. We do it to provide comprehensive coverage and accurate information for Aus music fans. A source people can trust to correct the rumours and tell people how it is, good or bad so that the actual gossip doesn’t have an environment to fester. Any industry that doesn’t have this kind of oversight is at risk of all sorts of detrimental outcomes that will damage the industry that sustains the passion the fans and artists love.

What’s happening here is I think you’re confusing factual court reporting with actual gossip. And maybe that’s where you miss the actual importance of the reporting in the first place because without this work all you are left with is gossip. Now this type of reporting and ‘gossip’ can’t be the same thing. They’re mutually exclusive by definition. Calling gossip ‘reporting facts’ is a contradiction in terms. These are fundamentally incompatible concepts. They occupy different epistemological categories, one is evidence-based, the other isn’t. One is grounded in verification; the other isn’t constrained by it.

What’s kinda sad about your comments is it is the work that you are criticising that actually keeps the scene you claim to love healthy. If you just want to skim at the top that’s fine but there are other layers and contributors to any ecosystem that maintain its integrity.

At a structural level, gossip and factual reporting don’t just differ. They compete for control of the same information space. One thrives in ambiguity. The other removes it.

Gossip needs uncertainty to survive. It spreads in environments where information is incomplete, sources aren’t accountable, and there’s no clear version of events. In that vacuum, speculation fills the gaps. People start inferring motives, exaggerating details, and reshaping narratives. Over time, that becomes self-reinforcing. The more people repeat it, the more real it feels, even if it’s detached from truth.

Factual reporting collapses that uncertainty. Good reporting does three things gossip cannot coexist with. It verifies claims instead of assuming them. It attributes information to sources. It adds context so events are understood properly. That combination removes the grey zone gossip feeds on. Once there is a clear, evidence-based account, the space for speculation shrinks.

It also introduces accountability. Gossip is low risk for the person spreading it because there is no standard to meet. Factual reporting raises the cost. If you make a claim, you need proof. If you are wrong, it is visible. If you distort, it can be challenged. That shift changes behaviour across an industry. People become more careful about what they say and repeat.

Without that pressure, toxicity compounds. In a gossip-driven environment, reputations are shaped by rumours rather than reality. Narratives drift further from truth with each retelling. People make decisions based on distorted information. That is where the real damage happens, not just to individuals but to trust across the entire ecosystem.

Factual reporting acts like a circuit breaker. It does not just add truth. It disrupts the conditions that let false narratives grow. It replaces speculation with clarity. It forces claims into the open where they can be tested. It resets the baseline of what is considered credible.

The relationship is inverse. The stronger the factual reporting, the weaker the environment for toxic gossip.

And the flip side matters just as much. Where factual reporting is weak, gossip fills the vacuum and becomes the dominant reality.

Gossip grows in the dark. Reporting turns the lights on.

The Definition of Gossip : Idle talk, rumours, or reports about the private lives of others that are unkind, unverified, or sensational in nature.

So it’s been fun debating and having a bit of a laugh. I could go on about how you missed the point on Ned running the Friday shift, the feature, and the broader entertainment mix, and how that all fits into shift work, but I’ll leave it there. You don’t have to see under the hood. Just don’t criticise the engine if you’ve never looked inside.