The Centre for Media History at Macquarie University and the Copyright Agency Cultural Fund hosted the 2018 Brian Johns Lecture on Monday 7 May 2018, at the State Library of New South Wales, Sydney. Morry Schwartz AM, the esteemed book and journal publisher, delivered this year's lecture.

Brian Johns AO (1936-2016) had a lifelong commitment to Australian literature, broadcasting, digital media and the visual arts. “Amongst his many roles, he served as publishing director of Penguin Australia, managing director of the ABC, CEO of SBS, and director of the Copyright Agency”, CMH Director Virginia Madsen said. “The CMH and the Copyright Agency are proud to recognise his achievements with this important annual lecture.” Established in 2015 to honour Brian Johns, the lecture is now in its fourth year. The inaugural lecture was delivered by then ABC Managing Director Mark Scott.

Morry Schwartz’s speech – Slow News: Thinking in Public – addressed how 'fast news’, and day-to-day journalism speeding on its never-ending treadmill, is in trouble. “Newsrooms are depleted, papers are closing down, fake news abounds, a torrent of unverified information assaults us on social media”, Schwartz says. But “slow news” might be better at addressing all this than fast news”. Schwartz explores how “'slow news' takes on an important function: to assist the failing press, to slow down the news cycle and to make sense of key events and issues in depth. Slow news explains, analyses, and offers background and considered opinion on events and movements. It informs the public in depth and gives it access to our best and brightest in the process of 'thinking in public'.” The talk addressed the challenges that thinking in public faces today.

Morry Schwartz AM is a publisher of Australian books, journals and periodicals. His company Schwartz Publishing operates Black Inc. books and La Trobe University Press. It also publishes the journals Quarterly Essay and Australian Foreign Affairs. Its sister company, Schwartz Media, publishes The Monthly magazine and The Saturday Paper. He is Adjunct Professor of Journalism at RMIT.