Catalyst is a student magazine published at RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia. The magazine is produced by the RMIT University Student Union. Catalyst is published five times a year and had a readership of approximately 58,000 in 2009 - up from 15,000 in 2004. The implementation of voluntary student unionism in 2006 had a significant impact on the viability of student newspapers across Australia, compulsory studentunion membership fees having been the major source of income for most. Today, Catalyst's funding is drawn jointly from the university and advertising revenue. Catalyst benefits from its proximity to the RMIT School of Media and Communication, which runs a highly regarded journalism program. In turn Catalystalumni are active in the Australian media. Notable former editors of Catalyst include journalists Dewi Cooke, Dan Harrison, Patricia Karvelas of The Australian and Elizabeth Gallagher. The first edition of Catalyst, published by what was known then as the Melbourne Technical College Students’ Representative Council, appeared on 18 May 1944. Editions have also appeared under the names Revolution Catalyst and The Unaustralian. In 2014 Catalyst established its podcast Cataclysm with each episode centring around a theme. Previous podcast themes have included animals, the body and secrets. Each episode of Cataclysm also includes a series of regular segments alongside the themed feature stories. Mid-2015 saw one of Cataclysm's popular segments "Politics on the Couch" spawn a webseries collaboration between Catalyst and RMITV entitled "Politics at the Belleville". The program was hosted by the same talent as the podcast segment and was released every Friday afternoon.
Art of Shoplifting controversy
In 1995, Catalyst reprinted a controversial article from Rabelais Student Media, its La Trobe University counterpart, entitled – one of seven student newspapers to do so. Although the Rabelais editors responsible for the original article were prosecuted for ignoring the ban on its publication issued by the state's Chief Censor; the editors of the other seven newspapers were not targeted by the authorities. Charges against the Rabelais editors were later dropped.
