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Digital news world mourns a pioneer
SIMON JOHANSON
March 24, 2010
THE Age lost its longest-serving online journalist when Michelle Johnson died unexpectedly at the age of 31 on Monday.
Her loss will not only be felt by shocked colleagues, but by many readers of The Age online.
Michelle began working on The Age's website at night while studying at RMIT in the late 1990s. She later became an integral part of a small, close and creative Fairfax digital team that pushed media boundaries in a new, digital age.
She was an accomplished writer and multimedia practitioner who worked on almost all online news and features desks in her 12 years at The Age, including a long, successful stint as online entertainment editor.
Her daily Trash Talk blog and her weekly light-hearted look at the capricious world of global entertainment and celebrity lifestyles in a similarly named video show, endeared her to a large online audience.
A love of travel and shopping took her to Italy for her honeymoon last year with husband Robbie Stojcevski. She greatly valued the concept of family and was a devoted, bubbly and humorous friend to colleagues, as well as a passionate Collingwood supporter.
Her sudden death after a medical emergency was all the more tragic as Robbie and Michelle were expecting their first child. The baby, a boy named Charlie, died yesterday. Michelle had been due to take a year's maternity leave from this week.
''Michelle was in many ways a pioneer, one of the first journalists to join the online desk of a major Australian newspaper,'' said the editor-in-chief of theage.com.au, Mike Van Niekerk.
'''Her loss is a great tragedy for all of us, but our thoughts and wishes are with her husband, Robbie, and her family.''
SIMON JOHANSON
March 24, 2010
THE Age lost its longest-serving online journalist when Michelle Johnson died unexpectedly at the age of 31 on Monday.
Her loss will not only be felt by shocked colleagues, but by many readers of The Age online.
Michelle began working on The Age's website at night while studying at RMIT in the late 1990s. She later became an integral part of a small, close and creative Fairfax digital team that pushed media boundaries in a new, digital age.
She was an accomplished writer and multimedia practitioner who worked on almost all online news and features desks in her 12 years at The Age, including a long, successful stint as online entertainment editor.
Her daily Trash Talk blog and her weekly light-hearted look at the capricious world of global entertainment and celebrity lifestyles in a similarly named video show, endeared her to a large online audience.
A love of travel and shopping took her to Italy for her honeymoon last year with husband Robbie Stojcevski. She greatly valued the concept of family and was a devoted, bubbly and humorous friend to colleagues, as well as a passionate Collingwood supporter.
Her sudden death after a medical emergency was all the more tragic as Robbie and Michelle were expecting their first child. The baby, a boy named Charlie, died yesterday. Michelle had been due to take a year's maternity leave from this week.
''Michelle was in many ways a pioneer, one of the first journalists to join the online desk of a major Australian newspaper,'' said the editor-in-chief of theage.com.au, Mike Van Niekerk.
'''Her loss is a great tragedy for all of us, but our thoughts and wishes are with her husband, Robbie, and her family.''
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