Age journalist tells his tale

The Age deputy editor and co-author of the Underbelly series was invited by former colleague and The Standard editor Steve Kelly to speak at yesterday’s Business Leaders’ Luncheon in Warrnambool.

Rule started his reporting career as a 17-year-old cadet for the Gippsland Times before successful reporting stints at The Age and The Herald.

His entertaining speech focused on the many colourful characters he had interviewed from British comedian Peter Cook to Melbourne crime figure Carl Williams.

“Steve Kelly’s a former colleague of mine and we go way back to 1989 and we sub-edited together during the first Gulf War,” Rule said.

“He’d just come from London and was slim with dark hair— how times have changed.

“Steve called me a while back to speak at The Standard’s business lunch and I took up the invitation straight away.”

Rule’s first foray into reporting was assisted by several school essays he wrote while attending Gippsland Grammar School in the early 1970s.

His flair for words was noticed by the Gippsland Times were he worked as a cadet reporter before gaining an arts degree at Monash University.

The Age snapped up Rule in 1979 and he went on to work with afternoon broadsheet The Herald before producing television documentaries.

He returned to The Age to write for its Good Weekend magazine, writing award-winning profile stories.

Rule co-wrote Leadbelly: Inside Australia’s Underworld with fellow Age journalist John Silvester which led to the Nine Network’s Underbelly series.

He won Australian journalism’s most prestigious award, the Gold Walkey, in 2001, for an investigation into allegations of rape directed at ATSIC chairman Geoff Clark.

“To think back on the changes to the newspaper industry, from hot metal as a 17-year-old at the Gippsland Times to the mass technological revolution we’ve had has been interesting,” Rule said.

“My editor in Gippsland came from the times of hand-set type which links back to the era of Charles Dickens and when I made it to The Age, computer monitors were in their infancy, so progress in technology is something I have witnessed first-hand.”

Rule said the newspaper industry was grappling with immense changes in relation to reader demand and technology.

“There will always be demand for the written word but the question will be what format it will take.”