Graham Hovey Lecture 2010, Knight-Wallace Fellows at The University of Michigan

The Odd Couple: Newspapers and the Internet—Will They Ever Get Along? 

Gerard Ryle ’06 and his wife Kimberley Porteous ’06S - respectively, news editor and multimedia editor of The Sydney Morning Herald — delivered KWF’s first joint Hovey Lecture on September 10.

Video: Gerard's address

Video: My address

Walkley nomination

Holy cow!

Sexual Warfare in the Democratic Republic of Congo is up for a Walkley award, Australia's top journalism prize, for Best Online Journalism. Winners announced on November 26.

And my very clever tomcat is up for the Best Non-Fiction Book award for Firepower.

What others have said about Sexual Warfare:

• Duckrabbit: Multimedia -Sexual Warfare, Rape in the Democratic Republic of Congo, July 7


• New York Times Lens: Must See: Compelling Web Sites, July 20


• Innovative Interactivity: Sydney Morning Herald knows great multimedia design, July 27

Celebrating over Lebanese takeaway and Mumm

League's annus horribilis

Because I didn't get my fix of bad boys with the biker story: presenting Rugby League's Annus Horribilis. It's the football code that keeps on giving.

The Bikie Wars

Our uber-labour-intensive project on Australia's bikie wars. Lotsa cool graphics. Even did the music for this one! www.smh.com.au/bikies

Sexual Warfare

My latest project is live on The Sydney Morning Herald website: Sexual Warfare: rape in the Democratic Republic of Congo. My ode to MediaStorm's style of multimedia. With superb photojournalism from Kate Geraghty.

Wives of War: Heroism at Home

Here's my latest project, launched in time for Anzac Day. Women from three generations talk of the price they paid and are still paying for Australia's defence contribution: Wives of War: Heroism at Home

I'm physically wrecked after this! Editing the stories took so much time and emotional energy, but I'm very pleased with the result.

It's the first multimedia production produced by The Sydney Morning Herald (or Fairfax Media for that matter) where the video and stills were all shot by a member of the newsroom staff, photographer Brendan Esposito, and the first production where all video editing was done inside the newsroom, by yours truly. Everything was shot on the same camera as well: the Canon 5D.

Beautiful Noise

My MediaStorm workshop piece, Beautiful Noise, is finally live. Enjoy!

Behind the scenes of a MediaStorm workshop

In December 2008 I took an Advanced Multimedia Workshop at MediaStorm in NYC, producing Beautiful Noise with Eric Maierson, Brian Storm, Morag Livingstone and Mariele Paley. Here's a pictorial journal of the week-long process.

Jetlag-busting breakfast at Heartbeat in the W Hotel. Sadly not where I was staying, but close by. Flickering open fire and a gorgeous smell of the signature W candles.


Christmas at the Rockefeller Center


Decadent takeaway zucchini and pine nut lasagna from One Lucky Duck takeaway near Union Square, over the Times review of the Metropolitan Museum's Byzantine and Medieval galleries I'd swooned over that afternoon (before the jetlag struck).


The street view from my hotel room.


Where the magic happens


DUMBO view from the window


Two-thirds of the best workshop team ever (Morag Livingstone and Mariele Paley) with our minder/mentor, Eric Maierson


Saks holiday lighting spotted on the walk home from the subway


Workshop group begins reporting in the East Village


Morag, Eric and Mariele shadow Evelyn's every move


In the public garden


Old meets new in the gentrified East Village


Takeaway sopes cactus from Hecho en Dumbo while we worked into the night


Another early morning, another wait at Bleecker Street for the subway back to my hotel bed


Working mac 'n' cheese lunch from Bubby's


Morning juices from the fabulous Forager's Market kept me bright-eyed and bushy-tailed


Burning the midnight oil (pic by Morag)


Best workshop team ever have their wrap party at Zum Schneider


Final feed was a portobello mushroom quesadilla at JFK airport

We're innovative, we're interactive

Fan mail from a very cool multimedia blog, Innovative Interactivity, for our Exit Iraq project. Christmas came early!

Making print media look smarter

From Monocle magazine: how the audio slideshow will save journalism.

Exit Iraq

Here's my latest multimedia project - released to coincide with Australian combat troops pulling out of Iraq, fulfilling an election promise made by our new PM. Take a look at Exit Iraq from The Sydney Morning Herald team. It was a muy intense seven days working day and night to put this together in time once we got word of the top-secret pullout date. Finally feeling human again now that I've caught up on my sleep and am eating real food... no more Fairfax canteen chocolate cookies for this chicken!

Bushwhacked!

Check out what we've done for US President George Bush's visit to Sydney next week for the APEC summit: you can give him an Australian makeover.


All part of the cool APEC multimedia we've put together for the Sydney Morning Herald.

Being a Muslim

Here's a preview of my latest project, you lucky devils. Going live tonight as part of a five-day series running in the Sydney Morning Herald titled "Islam in Australia". I was lucky enough to interview four terrific Muslims about their faith, and the misconceptions people have about their community. Here's hoping it goes some way towards building tolerance and harmony.

See the multimedia here.

No Webby for us

... but we were made "official honorees", which is better than a poke in the eye.

The First Wave: Beyond a White Australia

My latest project, about Australian immigration history, went live on Friday night. The museum, immigration and local history sets all love it, and the national multicultural broadcaster SBS produced a story on it as well. I just wish we could have secured the rights to run 20 seconds of an incendiary newsreel of the SS Misr's arrival (which berated the government for accepting displaced persons from Greece, Italy, Malta and central Europe who weren't "of our own stock"). But I'm happy it's done - now I can catch up on my sleep :-).


And socialising too - like this degustation dinner we're going to on Sunday night at Three Clicks West. They had me at "Terrine of roast peppers and potato with goats’ cheese mousse and toasted brioche". Or the "Baked cauliflower custard with mustard pickled vegetables, cauliflower tempura and Gruyere beignet". Or the "Pressed mushroom and potato pave with wild mushroom ragout, bread sauce,
crispy leeks and braised kohlrabi". Autumn's the most rewarding time for gustatory pleasures!

Walkley night

Thanks for your hundreds of sweet congratulatory messages; they all meant so much to me. And now, finally, are the photos you've been asking for. You all saw the biffo but you would have had to be particularly keen to sit through the entire awards telecast on SBS to see us take to the stage.

Here's the official shot. Paul (the correspondent) is on the far left, Darren (my video/audio producer) and Matt (the designer/Flash programmer) are to the left of me:


And here are Darren and me with Gerard and my editor, David, as the night wore on:


And here's what we won for: The War of Ideas. (And here's what the judges said).