Remember the free newspaper, mX? It was published by Rupert Murdoch. But it was the most un-Murdoch publication in the history of Murdoch publications. It had wit, charm and irony and wasn’t trying to turn anyone toward fascism.
Shamefully, I’d almost forgotten mX existed until last week when the comedian Mark Humphries tweeted:
Afternoon commuters could pick up a copy of mX at train stations or tram and bus stops in most capital cities between 2001 to 2015.
It was a jewel in a pretty stodgy mainstream media landscape and contained many readable sections - but my favourites were Overheard and Here’s Looking At You.
Overheard was where commuters texted in funny conversations they heard on public transport:
Here’s Looking At You was where readers sent in compliments to people they’d seen on public transport:
The astrology section was titled Should I Get Out of Bed Tomorrow and all the best stories were in the What The section. But you could also get hard news in the Boring But Important pages.
It made News Limited employees in their 20s, like me, who had slaved away for years at this mostly tight-arsed company, feel like there was something that spoke to them. And that was important because up until mX came along, it was compulsory to write like you were 80 years-old. For instance, at the Sunday Herald Sun you weren’t allowed to use the words “like” or “get”. In their place, you had to use “such as” and “attain”. And you also couldn’t use contractions, because they “looked ugly on the page”. So the play, All’s Well that Ends Well, had to be written as All Is Well That Ends Well.
But mX’s founding editor, Phil Gardner, didn’t buy into that straightjackeded weirdness. Phil was one of two South Africans in the company’s Melbourne office. He was the moderately cool one. The other was:
Phil didn’t mind giving eccentric voices a chance. After he’d turned mX into an award-winning success, he became editor of the Sunday Herald Sun, which I worked for. When he first took on the job, he was looking for someone on staff to write a column. And I just happened to be walking past the outgoing editor’s office as he and Phil were spit-balling names for potential columnists and Phil said: “What about Adam Zwar?” And the outgoing editor said: “No fucking way!”
I got the column.
The point of that story is the guy who allowed this to go in his paper -
- thought I had potential.
Miss you mX.
My Dad a journo who edited his own small town country newspaper including his own column (and later worked for News) would’ve loved Mx (sadly after his time).