Crikey doesn’t get offered many junkets. We can’t understand why …

Still, we’ve been doing more with less for years. Bigger newsrooms are only now discovering the joy. Now they’re cutting corners where ever they can. If someone’s offering a free flight, a few nights of accommodation, you jump at it.

The travel sections of the major newspapers are littered with stories of subsidised luxury. No wonder they all sound so excited to be there. Last month we reported on the plane-load of journalists flown to a Chinese economic forum courtesy of mining magnate Andrew Forrest who didn’t tell their readers. Yesterday, we revealed sports journalists are being shuttled around the country — even around the world — thanks to the sporting administrators they report on.

Perhaps this is just the new way of doing business — and if it’s disclosed readers can make up their own minds. But too often it isn’t. Matthew Knott reports today the Press Council is watching closely and ready to strike.

There is a mounting cost to the declines in commercial media models. For readers, that is, and the public information sphere. Be ever-vigilant, as much as you can. And stick with us — we’ll call it out where we see it.