Make Or Break: Take A Peek Under The Hood Of 'The Betoota Advocate'

In an era of fake news and facts too ugly to be true, without much difference in between, the public needs a paper with “authenticity that rivals only the salt on the sunburnt earth” of Queensland Channel Country. Whether or not The Betoota Advocate - skipping past straight news, listicles and hot takes in favour of satirical takedowns - fills that space exactly, its tongue in cheek, aim for the throat reportage has struck a chord with Australian readers.

That Betoota is a West Queensland ghost town (the last resident died ten years before the paper’s ‘online revival’), has done nothing to slow down Editor-at-large Errol Parker and Editor Clancy Overell. Since the pair first took The Betoota online in 2014, it has attracted close to a million followers across the social media sphere. They’ve sipped tea and tins with “budding spaceman” Sir Richard Branson and conducted a live interview with Prime Minister-at-the-time Malcolm Turnbull. Who then accused them of conspiring to make him look like a pisshead. And then helped them launch their book, Betoota’s Australia. In the last four years, they’ve even broadened their brand to include time-honoured media endeavours such as podcasting, outfitting and brewing. 

Now, in the latest step forward for the growing outlet, Parker and Overell are taking the secret of their successes on the road.

“We don’t really want to give too much away,” says Parker. “But this show is about us sort of lifting the curtain a bit on our organisation, and about how we’ve sort of navigated our way from being a very old, traditional sort of media outlet to being one that’s able to grow and thrive in this very challenging environment for journalism and news at the moment.”

“A lot’s kind of happened in media over the last year,” says Overell. “Of course you’ve got the Fairfax merger with Channel Nine, you’ve got Channel Ten with a few layoffs, and the whole kind of landscape as we know it is changing as people try and find answers. And it’s kind of been the opposite for us, we’ve been growin’, as a regional, independent newspaper. So we thought we would share a little bit of that because, you know, the time is now for ‘make or break’ for Australian media.”

Though Overell does reveal that the tour will explore “the background of our newspaper, and our town, and our processes” - along with a specially picked guest at each location - his partner stays tight-lipped on what those processes might be. "Well that’s kind of the crux of the show, you know,” says Parker. “I guess it’s - you have to approach these things with an open mind, and it’s important not to discredit things too early."

"You know, you’ve got to bounce between each spectrum, almost like you’re always fluid about where you sit. Who you’re reporting on and who you’re skewerin’.”

“We have the town that we kind of represent and, you know,” says Overell. “Our readers kind of come first and foremost - and the perspective, as you may have learned, is a bit different in Betoota on what is happening in the more metropolitan areas, what’s happening in Canberra. So what you’re essentially seeing is a perspective, I guess you could say, and it’s just our take on what’s happening in the country. And it appears to translate around the country.”

The Betootan perspective is usually simple enough to interpret, the pair have a preternatural ability to hit the nail on the head – be it political (“Pauline Hanson Tells Great Barrier Reef It’s Ok To Be White”), social science (“‘I’m The Big Dog’” Says Bloke Who Isn’t The Big Dog”), or just a slice of the humdrum Australian day-to-day (“Finally A Bubbler With A Bit Of Fucken Go About It”). The broadness of their coverage in itself is another large part of their appeal, and even as they expand much of it still comes with Overell’s or Parker’s byline.

“We have a growing team,” shares Overell. “But it doesn’t matter what capacity you’re running at, you’ve gotta kind of stay glued to it. And you’ve got to develop - it’s kind of like the age-old way with journalism - you’ve got to have your little book, you’ve got to have your sources, your whistle-blowers. And you’ve also gotta be reading the room, I guess. So it doesn’t really matter if you’ve got, you know, two people, you could still be churning out news stories all day long. For everyone. And a bit of everything.

That 'everything and everyone' sentiment seems to echo The Betoota’s promise to deliver “real and apolitical news” on The Betoota 'about page'.

“I think it’s important to really tell every side to every story,” says Parker, “and to make sure that everyone is sort of fairly represented in the reporting of news.”

“Saying things like ‘apolitical', and ‘just’ and ‘fair'," says Overell, "kind of can often align you with centrism, which we also aren’t that either. You know, you’ve got to bounce between each spectrum, almost like you’re always fluid about where you sit. Who you’re reporting on and who you’re skewerin'”

The Betoota Advocate's Errol Parker and Clancy Overell tour from 3 Nov.