The Sydney Ideas Quarterly website, yesterday

The Australian “serious media” landscape has been looking rather bleak of late, if you believe some of the recent knicker-knotting over the goings-on at The Monthly. For some observers, there seems to be a lot more than just jobs and egos at stake in the unseemly spat between those loyal to former editor Sally Warhaft and those loyal to publisher Morry Schwartz and editorial board member Robert Manne.

Of course, long-format public affairs writing in Australia doesn’t rest entirely with The Monthly. But as Guy Rundle opines in Crikey, The Monthly’s woes highlight what’s really required from Australian journals of record – “Big Ideas”. These must be challenging, urgent and critical discussions of global issues, writes Rundle (formerly of left-leaning political and cultural publication Arena).

Enter the Sydney Ideas Quarterly. Enter very quietly – The Enthusiast hadn’t heard of this new quarterly magazine until yesterday, when its website launched. It’s something of a dark horse.

The magazine is the project of freelance journalist Minh Bui Jones, who brought it to the Graduate School of Government at the University of Sydney. The school’s director, former West Australian premier Geoff Gallop, responded enthusiastically and will officiate at the magazine’s launch. Bui Jones will edit the magazine on a part-time basis, assisted by a team of university staff.

Bui Jones is a former SBS and Sydney Morning Herald journalist and was deputy editor of Thailand’s Asia Times Online. Sydney Ideas Quarterly isn’t the first publication he has founded: in 2001 he co-founded international politics and business magazine The Diplomat with David Llewellyn-Smith and Sung Lee.

From the website, Sydney Ideas Quarterly appears to reflect Bui Jones’s interest in foreign affairs, and some contributors have impressive international backgrounds. Rebutting Kevin Rudd’s flagship essay for The Monthly on the global financial crisis are former Economist editor Bill Emmott, Brown University political economist Mark Blyth and former World Bank president James Wolfensohn. Other contributors are senior University of Sydney academics.

“Australians read a lot of quality magazines from America and Britain but we don’t have one here, apart from The Monthly,” Bui Jones told The Australian yesterday. “Also, I thought it was important for the oldest university in this country to have an intellectual flagship publication.”

Curious about which particular magazines Bui Jones might be modelling his new creation on, its stance on reader feedback (given The Monthly’s much-criticised lack of a letters section) and what he sees as its overarching editorial aims, we contacted him yesterday. But he was tight-lipped about specifics.

“Sydney Ideas Quarterly, as a magazine, sees itself as a place for good articles, photos and illustrations,” Bui Jones told The Enthusiast. “It aspires to be a useful magazine. If our magazine gets read then that’s gratification enough, but if the issues we covered contribute to public debates, et cetera, that’s a bonus.”

Sophie Cunningham, editor of literary quarterly Meanjin, hadn’t heard of Sydney Ideas Quarterly either, but was interested to find out more about the publication and its relationship with the University of Sydney. “How serious they are depends on how much money they have behind them,” Cunningham told The Enthusiast.

Sydney Ideas Quarterly was also news to New Matilda editor Marni Cordell. “I generally welcome all new entrants into the independent/non-corporate media scene – if for nothing other than selfish reasons,” she laughed. “If there is no ’sector’ to speak of there are no jobs for people like me!”

Cordell says a foreign affairs focus is always risky for an Australian magazine. “In my experience it’s difficult, but not impossible, to get Australians interested in international stories,” she told The Enthusiast. “International stories on New Matilda have always been less well read than national ones – importantly, though, that doesn’t stop us from publishing them. I think it’s natural, as a reader, to ask: what does this have to do with me? I think the challenge as an editor is to provide the answer to that question.”

For Cordell, a new magazine attached to a university could be as much a liability as a benefit, although she was quick to point out the advantages in terms of financial stability. “Political sensitivities arise from time to time when you’re trying to publish stories that push boundaries from within an academic institution,” Cordell said. “The good thing about ‘censorship’ taking place within a university – as opposed to a private company – however, is that more often than not the fact that it is taking place becomes public knowledge. So at least you know that it’s going on.”

At this early stage, both Cunningham and Cordell interpret Sydney Ideas Quarterly as a peer and competitor for the Griffith REVIEW, which explicitly steps back from the day-to-day news agenda to provide a space for authors to reflect at length on the significance and consequences of issues, trends and policies. The Enthusiast contacted the Griffith REVIEW for comment on this story, but did not receive a response before deadline.

One thousand print copies of Sydney Ideas Quarterly will make their debuts next Monday for $8 in selected Sydney bookshops, and it will be officially launched on 22 May, during the Sydney Writers Festival.

Edit, 13 May: We’ve now heard back from Griffith REVIEW editor Julianne Schultz. Happily, she’s been aware of the Sydney Ideas Quarterly for some time, and maintains a friendly working relationship with the University of Sydney’s Geoff Gallop.

“I am very excited that in the time we have been publishing Griffith REVIEW the market for long form journalism, essays, and related writing which engages with contemporary issues and debates in a range of styles, and opens the field to many more voices has grown so significantly,” Schultz told The Enthusiast today. “We knew there was a gap when we started Griffith REVIEW and I know we have played an important part in seeding the market.”

Schultz points out that Griffith REVIEW isn’t strictly a magazine, but more like a curated anthology. “We don’t call it a mook, but some have suggested we should adopt that word as a book/magazine hybrid.” For Schultz, this enables the publication to have a longer shelf life than a monthly or quarterly magazine: “There are essays that we published six years ago which are still relevant today; that is one of the differences with our approach.”

Additionally, says Schultz, Griffith REVIEW isn’t as parochial and big-picture as some other Australian publications. “We explicitly engage with the personal dimensions of these big issues, are truly national in approach, publish short fiction and provide space for more new and emerging writers,” she argues.

In any case, she doesn’t see Sydney Ideas Quarterly as “simple competition”. Rather, it’s a function of universities’ central role and mission: “informing and leading public discussion … There is no monopoly on this, so I wish them every success. Minh is a very talented editor, he did an excellent job starting The Diplomat and the resources of Sydney University in terms of talent are fantastic. Australia’s largest city needs this.”

Overall, Schultz is buoyant about the expansion of what we could dub the ‘essays and ideas’ publishing market. “The growth of this sector indicates something that I have known for a long time: Australians are hungry for intelligent writing about the big issues,” she said. “They know what is being written elsewhere in the world and need a local take on these subjects. We have hugely talented writers and thinkers in this country; more people need to be able to access their work.”

The Enthusiast will be watching developments in the world of ’serious journalism’ with great interest.