After a gap of more than six weeks through the summer holidays, the Australian Sports Commission on Monday released the first 2023 edition of its Daily Sports News publication.
Unique among Federal Government departments and agencies in producing a publication that competes with independent and private sector publishers, Daily Sports News, produced by the Commission’s Clearinghouse for Sport division, advises that it is “a current awareness service covering Australian and international news, events, major announcements, latest research and analysis in sport”.
While the six-week gap in publication during the summer holidays says much about the Commission’s internal work ethos, for the remaining 45 or more weeks of the year, Daily Sports News takes on a role competing with publications such as Ministry of Sport, Sponsorship News, Austadiums and this publication.
In addition, in the lifetime of Daily Sports News, the online publications SportsLink and Sports Business News have declined (disappearing in the case of Sports Business News) - quite likely as a result of the presence of Daily Sports News.
Its unique position sees it vacuum up releases by small sporting organisations (who often feel a press release sent to Clearinghouse for Sports satisfies their media relations), duplicates sporting news published by mainstream media as well as featuring, sometimes obscure, global announcements. For example, over recent days it published news of the Medal Design Competition for the next edition of the Youth Olympic Games in the South Korean city of Gangwon in 2024 and Parks and Leisure Australia calling for abstracts for its 2023 VIC/TAS Conference.
In addition, it appears to favour international publications, Inside the Games (ITG) in particular, being known to publish ITG content based upon earlier reporting by Australian publications.
Daily Sports News, which is emailed to recipients, also carries industry job vacancies, also competing with other publications.
Daily Sports News’ content has also grown considerably from when it was first launched and it would appear to be a large-scale daily production that must be a major undertaking by the Sports Commission staff who produce it.
Competitive Neutrality
However, most of all, as a Federal Government agency, the production of Daily Sports News by the Australian Sports Commission appears to be contrary to the Federal Government's approach to what is called ‘competitive neutrality’.
As defined by the Federal Department of Treasury “competitive neutrality requires that government business activities should not enjoy net competitive advantages over their private sector competitors simply by virtue of public sector ownership.”
In this instance, Daily Sports News enjoys a massive competitive advantage against private operators and during a period in with the Sports Commission is under financial pressure, surely its resources would be better directed elsewhere within the organisation.
Nigel Benton is the co-founder and Publisher of Australasian Leisure Management, Australia and New Zealand’s only magazine for professionals in all areas of the leisure industry. Having established the magazine in 1997, shortly after his relocation to Australia, he has managed its readership rising to over 11,500 and its acceptance as the industry journal for professionals in aquatics, attractions, entertainment, events, fitness, parks, recreation, sport, tourism and venues.
Among a range of published works and features, his comments on a Blog (blogspot) from 2007 to 2011, when this website went live in its current form, may be interesting to reflect back on.
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