Rachel Smalley: Everyone profits from Tostee interview, except Warriena Wright's family

The 60 Minutes current affairs' franchise will air the Gable Tostee interview this month.

He was found not guilty of the murder of Warriena Wright, the 26-year-old New Zealand woman who fell to her death from the balcony of Tostee's Gold Coast apartment.

There are so many questions to ask him.

And it will give viewers a glimpse inside this man's mind. Why did he go for a walk after wright fell from the balcony? Why didn't he go to her? How was it that his Tinder date was dead at the bottom of his apartment building, and he was out eating pizza. And what was he doing that prompted her to scream "No" 33 times?

The interview is exclusive. And to ensure that exclusivity and to fend off the other broadcasters, 60 Minutes has reportedly paid Tostee a six figure sum.

A young woman loses her life in controversial circumstances, and the man who was with her at the time is paid what's believed to be at least $100,000 to reveal what happened that night.

Well, according to him.

Warriena Wright can't defend herself of course, or put forward her side of the story.

But that's not really the issue here. The issue is not Tostee profiting from a woman's death. If you're going to dangle a six-figure sum in front of him, of course he's going to take it.

The issue is the media paying for stories.

If not 60 Minutes, then it would have been another broadcaster. They all would have bid for this story. And it's at that point that it no longer becomes journalism.

Listen: Newstalk ZB's Rachel Smalley argues broadcasters shouldn't pay Tostee money for an interview.

If you're getting the cheque book out, you've lost all credibility at that point.

60 Minutes was one of the world's greatest current affairs brands. But that brand was severely damaged earlier this year, in Lebanon, after a botched attempt to snatch an Australian woman's children in a street.

You would think 60 Minutes would be doing what it can to repair its reputation -- but now they're back in damage control for paying Tostee a six-figure sum.

Much of the anger is directed at Tostee right now. People are enraged that he's profiting from a woman's death.

And I understand that anger, but that anger should be directed at the broadcasters who have placed Tostee in this position.

They have enabled Tostee to profit from Warriena Wright's death.

If they didn't get the cheque book out, Tostee wouldn't be in a position to cash in.

But to what degree are we, the viewers, responsible as well?

Do we have an increasing morbid curiosity about stories like this? Or has that always been the case?

The Tostee interview will pull a big audience. Huge audience. There will be so much interest in this. And that will pull in advertisers too, and that brings in much-needed revenue for the broadcaster as well.

So really there are so many who are profiting in some way from a young woman's death.

Viewers, advertisers, broadcasters. Except, of course, Warriena Wright's family.

It is they who lost the most, and are left with nothing.