Young - Paper emperors the rise of Australias newspaper empires

SALLY YOUNG is professor of political science at the University of Melbourne. She is the author of four previous books on Australian media and politics, including works on political journalism (How Australia Decides, 2011), press photography (Shooting the Picture, with Fay Anderson, 2016) and political advertising (The Persuaders, 2004).

To Jay, Abi and Megan.

Like the very best newspapers, you illuminate,
entertain and inspire me every day.

And with my love and thanks to Kathy, Harold, Frances and Joe.

A UNSW Press book

Published by

NewSouth Publishing

University of New South Wales Press Ltd

University of New South Wales

Sydney NSW 2052

AUSTRALIA

newsouthpublishing.com

Sally Young 2019

First published 2019

This book is copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study, research, criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright Act, no part of this book may be reproduced by any process without written permission. Inquiries should be addressed to the publisher.

ISBN9781742234984 (paperback)

9781742244471 (ebook)

9781742248936 (ePDF)

A catalogue record for this book is available from the National Library of Australia

Design Josephine Pajor-Markus

Cover design Hugh Ford

Cover images News stand in a railway station showing billboards publicising the opening of Parliament House in Canberra and an advertisement for Lustre Silktex stockings, Melbourne, 1927. National Library of Australia

All reasonable efforts were taken to obtain permission to use copyright material reproduced in this book, but in some cases copyright could not be traced. The author welcomes information in this regard.

This research was supported under the Australian Research Councils Future Fellowship scheme (project number FT130100315). A Future Fellowships Establishment Grant and a Faculty of Arts Publication Subsidy Scheme were provided by the University of Melbourne.

LIST OF FIGURES

LIST OF TABLES

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Over several years, five wonderful research assistants helped with different aspects of the research for this book Maria Rae, Amanda McKittrick, Jessica Megarry, Rodney Kirkpatrick and Tom Roberts. I am very grateful for their excellent work. Maria Rae found material and summarised the secondary literature in a very helpful way that kick-started the project. Amanda McKittrick and Jessica Megarry patiently collected election editorials from newspapers. Rodney Kirkpatrick gave me the benefit of his incredible knowledge of newspaper history, including by reading and commenting upon drafts of all chapters, and also made valuable editorial suggestions. Tom Roberts read the two main chapters on Keith Murdoch and generously shared his knowledge of KM. In addition, James Curran kindly read the first chapter and provided information on British newspaper history. Any errors or omissions that remain in the book despite all of this excellent support are my responsibility alone.

I also wish to thank Phillipa McGuinness at UNSW Press/ NewSouth Publishing for her unflagging enthusiasm and patience, even as this project became larger than expected, Emma Hutchinson and Fiona Sim for their project and editorial support, and an anonymous reviewer who provided important feedback and suggestions.

This book could not have been written without the incredible TROVE digitised newspaper service from the National Library of Australia (NLA). Both are national treasures. The Australian Dictionary of Biography was another crucial resource. I have drawn information and inspiration from the work of pioneers in Australian newspaper and media history, as indicated in the bibliography. The largest gap in scholarship and primary material in Australian newspapers relates to the Herald and Weekly Times (HWT) arguably the most important media company in our history. I sought access to the HWTs records, but permission was not granted. It is regrettable that an organisation that writes the first draft of history is not more open to later drafts, and I hope this might be rectified in the future. In the meantime, RM Youngers unpublished manuscript, and private correspondence in archives, tells part of the companys story.

Many people helped me in one way or another for this book, including providing information, source material, or relating their experiences in interviews, and I wish to thank: John Bednall, Eric Beecher, Margaret Boothman (ASIC), Carl Bridge, Moss Cass, Stan Correy, James Curran, John Dahlsen, William L (Bill) Denison, David Dunstan, Geoff Gallop, Peter Gardener, Dorothy Gollner, Murray Goot, Bridget Griffen-Foley, Peter Kennedy, Stuart Macintyre, Robyn McClelland (Clerk Assistant (Committees), House of Representatives), Ranald Macdonald, Andrew Male, Patrick Martin (Port Pirie Recorder), Nicholas Miller (State Records of South Australia), Lyndon Moore, National Library of Australia Manuscripts and Oral History staff, Joan Newman, Janette Pelosi (State Records Authority of NSW), Natasha Petrovic (Office of the Clerk Assistant, Department of the House of Representatives), Chris Read (State Library of South Australia), Debra Reeves (Parliamentary Library, Parliament of Victoria), Tom Reynolds (State Records Office of Western Australia), Beryl Schahinger (South Australian Genealogy & Heraldry Society Inc.), Gavin Souter, Shannon Sutton (National Library of Australia), Julie Sweeten (Mitchell Library), Rodney Tiffen, Edward Vesterberg (State Library of NSW), Georgina Ward (University of Melbourne Archives), Peter Yule and others who wished to remain anonymous.

Estimates of historical currency into present day equivalents were calculated using the website Measuring Worth: https://www.measuringworth.com/australiacompare/.

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