A New Zealand blogger has landed a mainstream print media editorship. Cameron Slater, who writes a blog called Whale Oil Beef Hooked, has become the editor of Truth, a weekly tabloid newspaper.
Regarded as "scandal mongering" and "scurrilious", the paper carries Page 3 girl pictures and salacious stories.
Slater, who is no stranger to controversy himself, says he plans to shift the emphasis to more hard news and opinion pitched at the "working bloke" and written in a "blunt and forthright manner".
His Whaleoil blog is far more popular than the online version of Truth, which sells about 10,000 copies per issue in print.
Slater – the son of a former National Party president, John Slater – has been fined for breaching name suppression orders in a series of cases involving high profile defendants.
But he has a wide following and has pledged to transform Truth with an injection of his own irreverent style. He says: "No bastard wants to read old news – they can get that online. We'll be more of a views-paper that promises to deliver REAL news, REAL opinion.
"The people are numb from the eyes down with the diet of PR'd crap they get now. I will not do it to them anymore – it's not right."
Sources: National Business Review/Wikipedia
