There was a strong sentiment that elder abuse, particularly financial exploitation, is an emerging crisis that deserves greater coverage and public education. The rise of elder abuse cases was associated with current cost-of-living pressures and there was an expectation that this problem will become more common. ‘Elder abuse, specifically around finances and people stealing from or guilting their parents to give them an early inheritance, is a big emerging issue and something I think the media needs to increase public awareness around. Whether it’s the current cost of living crisis or related to housing affordability or a combination of issues, it does appear to be more common and frequent.’ ‘Perhaps there is a correlation because of the current economic stress, but elder abuse and inheritance impatience appear to be more prevalent. I think this is something the media generally needs to be mindful of and provide a more educative role.’ Interviewees observed that subscribers and other audience members were generally not interested in stories about ageing or ageism; there is limited appetite for these stories and they do not rate highly. They also said positive stories around ageing were harder to find and negative ones were sometimes ‘confronting’. Content broader than topics of perceived self-interest were considered more popular with audiences, including older audiences. ‘It scares the shit out of people to be quite frank, so it’s never popular. Aged care for example are never positive stories – people being mistreated, lack of funding, they aren’t particularly nice stories.’ ‘Stories about ageing, particularly access to and quality of aged care, financial security in retirement aren’t generally well read. They can be confronting issues and I think our readers don’t necessarily want to think about those things.’ ‘It’s not content that people always like to consume but also there’s not always a lot of content to report on.’ ‘It absolutely isn’t given the coverage it deserves because it’s both complicated and often distressing. Reports on elderly people being mistreated in aged care facilities aren’t uplifting or feel-good stories. ‘We have a very high audience average age of 75 on TV and 45 on digital. The funny thing is, the things that rate the highest apart from politics generally are stories on schools, universities, and any health story. They are very interested in stories about the next generation.’ Qualitative interviews 23