They say a week is a long time in politics, and as we go to press, Australia is in the final throes of a general election campaign which accounts for the greater part of prime minister Julia Gillard’s tenure so far. I was on the road, literally shipping the GXpress operation back to Queensland as the night of the long knives evolved, and it seems eons from the meeting newspaper publishers had with the (then) top pollies to argue for a greater share of ‘creative advertising’ in print by government departments and agencies, under the auspices of The Newspaper Works banner. Credit to Sydney’s ‘Daily Telegraph’ which got the story into a special edition on the streets on Thursday morning, with 10,000 copies ready for distribution by 11 am. Dare I say there’s been plenty of ‘creative’ since the election was called, and it’s been good to have the minds of TV teams at Gruen Nation and Yes we Canberra (both on ABC) focussed on the inevitable aberrations. There’s also been the ABC itself, making a late start with 24-hour online coverage, but striving to prove that it is a viable alternative news publisher... at taxpayers’ expense. And the issue of production outsourcing and inter-publisher cooperation – close to Fairfax chief executive Brian McCarthy’s heart and said to be on the agenda for that Canberra get-together – has been eclipsed by the ‘would we be better off if we killed the Sydney and Melbourne metros?’ question. And that of McCarthy’s future, now that John B. Fairfax is leaving the board. It also seems to me that things have reached a sorry state when a board increasingly disconnected from the business of news publishing needs to call on external advisers to tell it how to do its job. Taking GXpress back to the Sunshine Coast fulfills a promise we made to ourselves when we headed south eight years ago. And the answer to the ‘why’ question is ‘because we could’. As we've been proving around the country and around the world lately, you can produce a couple of print magazines and maintain their websites anywhere there’s a decent internet connection. So far the experience has been a mixed one mostly for that reason: Schizophrenic Telstra for one, caused us pain and joy in equal measure, courteously handling the transfer of our phone numbers, establishing a new wireless internet connection... and then repeatedly saying ‘no’ when we asked to have the two services on a single bill (worth an advertised $20-a-month discount), ‘simply’ because the two accounts were on different billing systems. It took three quarters-of-an-hour of having our ears bashed by a recalcitrant customer service rep clearly from the old culture, before we were transferred to a younger colleague with a different attitude, who said ‘yes’, all you need is to complete this form (which we're still trying to do)... Then when we were right on deadline, the system fell over altogether! But the Noosa region is certainly beautiful, a point APN’s Peter Owen made at Publish Asia (and to me earlier in the year)... and it’s not hard to see why the lifestyle advantages win for their Centro centralised editorial production unit. We’re back in APN’s heartland incidentally, where the products are brighter – editorially and technically – than a decade ago, and even freesheets are stitched, making sure they don’t litter the beautiful Noosa biosphere. Back in Kuala Lumpur for Publish Asia – my last visit had been for the same gig in 2003 – we faced the cultural conumdrum of a contemporary western society in a Muslim country. Paradoxically, WAN-Ifra’s provided entertainment for the Asia Media Awards dinner was anything but covered up. A team of nubile belly-dancers appeared several times – so much so that even the male members of the audience seemed to have their attention elsewhere – and with scantier costumes on each occasion. I just wondered what they would wear for the journey home. As GXpress becomes increasingly a regional publication – and it’s good to have so much positive news to report to the north – more travel is an inevitable result. Brisbane is at least nearer to Asia, with daily flights to most of the capitals... but the overnight to Kuala Lumpur took a serious toll on my beauty sleep. After the PANPA future forum, the next stop is likely to be SEANG in Jakarta, which we have been supporting in the same way that we will (and do) support all other relevant industry events. Latest news from there is that this year’s location will draw a huge number of delegates... provided the logistics can meet the challenge. The wisdom of taking the conference around the region is something other event organisers are familiar with: In Kuala Lumpur, for example, more than 130 registered delegates – perhaps a third of the total complement – included large contingents from Star Publications,, New Straits Times Press and Utusan Melayu. Hopefully they all found enough worthwhile content in the event to want to travel the relatively small distance to Bangkok next year.