Journalist & Podcaster
During his 23-year career with The Age and Sydney Morning Herald newspapers, Richard Baker has emerged as one of Australia’s most creative, engaging and groundbreaking investigative journalists.
His work on corruption, crime, social affairs, business, politics, national security and indigenous affairs has had national and international repercussions, sparking criminal prosecutions at home and abroad, leading to legislative change and giving a voice to those without one.
Richard has won Australia’s most prestigious journalism honour, a Walkley Award, on five occasions and in 2017 was named Australian Journalist of the Year with his long-time investigative partner and friend, Nick McKenzie. He has also won 15 Melbourne Press Club Quill awards.
When it comes to creating compelling and unique audio, Richard’s catalog is world class.
2016’s Phoebe’s Fall reached number one on Australia’s ITunes podcast chart and led to changes to Victoria’s Coroners Act. It was recognised by the New York Festival’s best audio competition with a gold award and also won best longform audio categories at the Melbourne Press Club and Sydney’s Kennedy journalism awards.
In 2018, Wrong Skin reached number two on Australia’s ITunes podcast chart and won gold at the New York Festival’s best audio competition and was named podcast of the year at the Australian Podcast Awards. It also took out the Melbourne Press Club’s podcasting award and was recommended by the New York Times as a prime example of Australian true crime.
2019’s The Last Voyage of The Pong Su reached number one on Australia’s ITunes podcast chart, won gold at the New York Festival’s best audio competition and won the Melbourne Press Club’s podcasting award. The podcast was licensed by the BBK for its BBC Sounds platform and has been optioned by a major production company for screen adaptation.
Richard has also featured on Melbourne’s top rating breakfast program on radio station 3AW for several years and has taught investigative journalism as part of the University of Melbourne’s Masters program. In 2022, he became Swinburne University’s journalism school’s inaugural Liffman fellow.