Michael West (journalist)

Michael West is an Australian investigative journalist.

He is the founder of MichaelWestMedia, a news website specializing in investigative journalism in the areas of business, finance, tax, and energy.

Early life and education

Michael is the son of the late Rod West, the former headmaster of Trinity Grammar School in Sydney.[1][2]

Prior to journalism, Michael worked for a number of years as a stockbroker.[3]

He has received the honorary title of adjunct professor from the University of Sydney.[3]

Journalism career

West's career in journalism began at the The Australian Financial Review.[3] He later wrote a column at The Australian newspaper titled 'Margin Call',[4] for which he was praised by the founder of Crikey, Stephen Mayne; as being 'one of the few financial journalists out there having a go at some of the business practices employed by the likes of Macquarie Bank and Babcock & Brown'.[5] In 2005, he won the business journalism Walkley Award for his article at The Australian titled "Allstate".[6][7]

He later became business editor and commentator at the Sydney Morning Herald. At the SMH his writing was particularly focused upon the Australian tax interests of multinational companies including Twitter, Google, and Facebook.[8] His stories about tax evasion by multinationals, and corruption in the Australian electricity sector[9] contributed to the establishment of two Senate Inquiries.[3]

In May 2016, Michael was part of an estimated 30 forced redundancies made by Fairfax Media.[8] In an interview, Michael described the situation at Fairfax as 'grim' and accused the publisher of pursuing a click-bait strategy.[10]

In July 2016 West launched his own website, MichaelWest.com.au. The primary focus of the site is investigative pieces.[10] West has also been a regular contributor to The Saturday Paper since 2016.[11]

See also

References
  1. Brown, Malcolm (2016-02-01). "Obituary: Headmaster who inspired thousands of pupils and teachers". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 2020-08-04.
  2. "Michael West forgets to mention his Alex Malley connection". Australian Financial Review. 2017-06-18. Retrieved 2020-08-04.
  3. "Michael West". Sydney Democracy Network. Retrieved 2020-08-04.
  4. "MARGIN CALL.(Finance)", The Australian (National, Australia), News Limited: 044, 1999-12-15, retrieved 4 August 2020
  5. "Michael West puts the heat on Babcock". Crikey. 2005-09-30. Retrieved 2020-08-04.
  6. "Walkley Winners Archive". The Walkley Foundation. Retrieved 2020-08-04.
  7. "Michael West's sweet revenge". Crikey. 2005-12-01. Retrieved 2020-08-04.
  8. Hayes, Alex (2016-05-16). "Fairfax lays off more senior journalists". Mumbrella. Retrieved 2020-08-04.
  9. developer@themonthly.com.au (2014-07-01). "Power corrupts". The Monthly. Retrieved 2020-08-04.
  10. Miranda Ward (2016-05-30). "Axed Fairfax journalist Michael West to launch own investigative journalism website". Mumbrella. Retrieved 2020-08-04.
  11. "Michael West". The Saturday Paper. 2 July 2016. Retrieved 28 September 2020.
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