Author: Andrew Dodd, Professor of Journalism, Director of the Centre for Advancing Journalism, The University of Melbourne

The most unsettling thing about the closure of Network Ten’s The Project is that it might come to be seen as the moment commercial network television gave up on young audiences for news programming. If that’s what’s happening, it’s a worrying thought. Bringing news and current affairs to young audiences is exactly what The Project has done so well over its 16-year lifespan, and it’s hard to imagine how the channel will replace it in ways that work for audiences already disengaged with mainstream media. The Project will be missed. Perhaps not by those such as a caller to ABC…