The Age
Encyclopedia
The Age is a daily broadsheet
newspaper, which has been published in Melbourne
, Australia
since 1854. Owned and published by Fairfax Media
, The Age primarily serves Victoria, but is also available for purchase in Tasmania
, the Australian Capital Territory
and border regions of South Australia
and southern New South Wales
and is delivered in both a hardcopy and online format. The newspaper shares many articles with other Fairfax Media metropolitan daily newspapers, such as The Sydney Morning Herald
.
The Age was founded by three Melbourne businessmen, the brothers John Cooke and Henry Cooke who had arrived from New Zealand
in the 1840s, and Walter Powell. The first edition appeared on 17 October 1854.
The Age currently has an average weekday circulation
of 190,600, increasing to 275,000 on Saturdays (in a city of 4 million). The Sunday Age has a circulation of 225,400. The paper currently has a Monday to Friday readership average of 668,000, reaching an average of 857,000 on Saturdays. The Sunday Age attracts an average of 695,000 readers.
, a Scottish-born businessman, and James McEwan, an ironmonger and founder of McEwans & Co, for 2,000 pounds at auction. The first edition under the new owners was on 17 June 1856. From its foundation the paper was self-consciously liberal
in its politics: "aiming at a wide extension of the rights of free citizenship and a full development of representative institutions," and supporting "the removal of all restrictions upon freedom of commerce, freedom of religion and - to the utmost extent that is compatible with public morality - upon freedom of personal action."
Ebenezer Syme was elected to the Victorian Legislative Assembly
shortly after buying The Age, and his brother David Syme
soon came to dominate the paper, editorially and managerially. When Ebenezer died in 1860, David became editor-in-chief, a position he retained until his death in 1908, although a succession of editors did the day-to-day editorial work. In 1891 Syme bought out Ebenezer's heirs and McEwan's and became sole proprietor. He built up The Age into Victoria
's leading newspaper. In circulation it soon overtook its rivals The Herald and The Argus
, and by 1890 it was selling 100,000 copies a day, making it one of the world's most successful newspapers.
Under Syme's control The Age exercised enormous political power in Victoria. It supported liberal politicians such as Graham Berry
, George Higinbotham
and George Turner
, and other leading liberals such as Alfred Deakin
and Charles Pearson furthered their careers as The Age journalists. Syme was originally a free trade
r, but converted to protectionism
through his belief that Victoria needed to develop its manufacturing industries behind tariff
barriers. In the 1890s The Age was a leading supporter of Australian federation and of the White Australia policy
.
After Syme's death the paper remained in the hands of his three sons, with his eldest son Herbert Syme becoming general manager until his death in 1939. Syme's will prevented the sale of any equity in the paper during his sons' lifetimes, an arrangement designed to protect family control but which had the effect of starving the paper of investment capital for 40 years. Under the management of Sir Geoffrey Syme (1908–42), and his chosen editors Gottlieb Schuler
and Harold Campbell
, The Age failed to modernise, and gradually lost market share to The Argus and to the tabloid The Sun News-Pictorial
, although its classfied advertisement sections kept the paper profitable. By the 1940s the paper's circulation was smaller than it had been in 1900, and its political influence also declined. Although it remained more liberal than the extremely conservative Argus, it lost much of its distinct political identity.
The historian Sybil Nolan writes: "Accounts of The Age in these years generally suggest that the paper was second-rate, outdated in both its outlook and appearance. Walker described a newspaper which had fallen asleep in the embrace of the Liberal Party; "querulous," "doddery" and "turgid" are some of the epithets applied by other journalists. It is inevitably criticised not only for its increasing conservatism, but for its failure to keep pace with innovations in layout and editorial technique so dramatically demonstrated in papers like The Sun News-Pictorial and The Herald."
In 1942 David Syme's last surviving son, Oswald Syme, took over the paper. He modernised the paper's appearance and standards of news coverage (removing classified advertisements from the front page and introducing photographs, long after other papers had done so). In 1948, convinced the paper needed outside capital, he persuaded the courts to overturn his father's will and floated David Syme and Co. as a public company, selling 400,000 pounds worth of shares, enabling a badly needed technical modernisation of the newspaper's production. A takeover attempt by the Warwick Fairfax family, publishers of The Sydney Morning Herald, was beaten off. This new lease on life allowed The Age to recover commercially, and in 1957 it received a great boost when The Argus ceased publication.
became chairman of the company. He was the first chairman to hand over full control of the paper to a professional editor from outside the Syme family. This was Graham Perkin
, appointed in 1966, who radically changed the paper's format and shifted its editorial line from the rather conservative liberalism of the Symes to a new "left liberalism" characterised by attention to issues such as race, gender and the environment, and opposition to White Australia and the death penalty. The Liberal
Premier of Victoria, Henry Bolte
, called The Age "that pinko rag," a view conservatives have maintained ever since. Former editor Michael Gawenda in his book American Notebook wrote that the "default position of most journalists at The Age was on the political Left.".
Perkin's editorship coincided with Gough Whitlam
's reforms of the Australian Labor Party
, and The Age became a key supporter of the Whitlam government which came to power in 1972. Contrary to subsequent mythology, however, The Age was not an uncritical supporter of Whitlam, and played a leading role in exposing the Loans Affair
, one of the scandals which contributed to the demise of the Whitlam government.
After Perkins's early death in 1975 The Age returned to a more moderate liberal position. It supported Malcolm Fraser
's Liberal government in its early years, but after 1980 became increasingly critical and was a leading supporter of Bob Hawke
's reforming government after 1983. But from the 1970s the political influence of The Age, as with other broadsheet newspapers, derived less from what it said in its editorial columns (which relatively few people read) than from the opinions expressed by journalists, cartoonists, feature writers and guest columnists. The Age has always kept a stable of leading editorial cartoonists, notably Les Tanner
, Bruce Petty
, Ron Tandberg
and Michael Leunig
.
In 1966 Macdonald took the fateful step of allowing the Fairfax's to acquire a stake in the paper, although an agreement was signed guaranteeing the editorial independence
of The Age. In 1972 Fairfax bought a majority of David Syme shares, and in 1983 bought out all the remaining shares. David Syme and Co. became a subsidiary of John Fairfax and Co. Macdonald was denounced as a traitor by the remaining members of the Syme family (who nevertheless accepted Fairfax's generous offer for their shares), but he argued that The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald were natural partners and that the greater resources of the Fairfax group would enable The Age to remain competitive. By the 1980s a new competitor had appeared in Rupert Murdoch
's national daily The Australian
. In 1999 David Syme and Co. became The Age Company Ltd as part of John Fairfax Holdings Ltd., finally ending the Syme connection.
The Age was published from offices in Collins St until 1969, when it moved to 250 Spencer St (hence the nickname "The Spencer Street Soviet" favoured by some critics). In 2003, The Age opened a new printing centre at Tullamarine
. The Headquarters moved again in 2009 to Collins Street opposite Southern Cross Station.
Currently there are two editions of The Age printed nightly. The NAA edition, for interstate and country Victorian readers and the MEA edition, for metropolitan areas. These two editions are printed in three separate editions, the earliest for country and interstate readers, the second edition for metropolitan and the final late edition THA, also for metropolitan areas carrying late or breaking stories not covered in the first two editions.
Friday's edition of the newspaper now includes a racing liftout which includes extended form and analysis for Saturday's major race meetings.
Like its Fairfax stablemate The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age announced in early 2007 that it would be moving from a broadsheet format to the smaller Berliner
size, in the footsteps of The Guardian
and The Courier-Mail
. Both The Age and the Herald dumped these plans later in the year without explanation, to the amusement of The Australian's Chris Mitchell
, who called the about-face "a bit embarrassing".
In 2009, The Age suspended its columnist Michael Backman
after one of his columns condemned Israeli tourists as greedy and badly behaved prompting criticism that he was anti-semitic
. However a Press Council complaint against The Age for its handling of the complaints against Backman was dismissed.
, Magic1278 radio, The Australian Financial Review
Group, and Fairfax Community Network. Media House was designed by Bates Smart
and built by Grocon
for $110 million. The building was formally opened in October 2009.
and "The Age" in Electra Bold type. The crest features the French words "Dieu et mon droit" (in English: "God and my right"). According to The Ages art director, Bill Farr: "No one knows why they picked the royal crest. But I guess we were a colony at the time, and to be seen to be linked with the Empire would be a positive thing." The original 1854 masthead included the Colony of Victoria crest. In 1856, that crest was removed and in 1861, the Royal coat of arms was introduced. This was changed again in 1967, with the shield and decoration altered and the lion crowned. In 1971, a bold typeface was introduced and the crest shield rounded and less ornate. In 1997, the masthead was stacked and contained in a blue box (with the logo in white). In 2002, in conjunction with an overall revamp of the paper, The Age masthead was redesigned as it currently appears.
Since the 1980s The Age, despite the loss of its corporate independence, has remained a successful and influential newspaper. It has a range of high quality writers and contributors. The investigative team have broken a number of major stories. Its arts and lifestyle content - increasingly important in all newspapers as the leading role in news coverage is lost to television and the internet - is generally regarded as comprehensive.
paper and is a member of the Publisher's National Environment Bureau (PNEB).
journalist Andrew Jaspan
. Jaspan aroused controversy by initially not appearing to know that The Age was published in Melbourne, sacking Gerard Henderson
, a prominent conservative columnist, from the paper and by making remarks critical of Douglas Wood
, an Australian who was held hostage and tortured in Iraq. Jaspan accused Wood on ABC radio of being boorish and coarse for speaking harshly about those who kidnapped and tortured him.
The generally left-wing The Age is frequently compared with Britain's leftist Guardian
newspaper. Henderson, writing in the Murdoch owned
competitor, The Australian, is one of many to describe it as "The Guardian on the Yarra
".
Following the appointment of Andrew Jaspan
as editor, The Age has taken a prominent campaigning role in relation to some issues, for example by launching a campaign to Free David Hicks
(a prisoner at Guantanamo Bay
) in February 2007 and in relation to global warming.
According to The Guardian newspaper, former Fairfax chief executive Fred Hilmer
wrote in his memoirs that "he struggled to cope with a left-leaning editorial culture at papers such as The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, and was surprised that journalists saw themselves as advocates rather than simply reporters."
Hilmer said that "Fairfax's default position was to turn left and be agenda-driven... Journalists often conducted campaigns where they persisted in covering stories long after readers had lost interest."
The Age is known for often reporting on corruption in religion. In one controversy, on 19 March 2010 The Age reported that the Vienna Boys Choir “has been caught up in accusations that pedophile priests systematically abused their choristers", even though the complaints were made against teachers and older pupils of the choir, which is a private organisation. Crikey
accused The Age of outright "fabrication".
Broadsheet
Broadsheet is the largest of the various newspaper formats and is characterized by long vertical pages . The term derives from types of popular prints usually just of a single sheet, sold on the streets and containing various types of material, from ballads to political satire. The first broadsheet...
newspaper, which has been published in Melbourne
Melbourne
Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...
, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
since 1854. Owned and published by Fairfax Media
Fairfax Media
Fairfax Media Limited is one of Australia's largest diversified media companies. The group's operations include newspapers, magazines, radios and digital media operating in Australia and New Zealand. Fairfax Media was founded by the Fairfax family as John Fairfax and Sons, later to become John...
, The Age primarily serves Victoria, but is also available for purchase in Tasmania
Tasmania
Tasmania is an Australian island and state. It is south of the continent, separated by Bass Strait. The state includes the island of Tasmania—the 26th largest island in the world—and the surrounding islands. The state has a population of 507,626 , of whom almost half reside in the greater Hobart...
, the Australian Capital Territory
Australian Capital Territory
The Australian Capital Territory, often abbreviated ACT, is the capital territory of the Commonwealth of Australia and is the smallest self-governing internal territory...
and border regions of South Australia
South Australia
South Australia is a state of Australia in the southern central part of the country. It covers some of the most arid parts of the continent; with a total land area of , it is the fourth largest of Australia's six states and two territories.South Australia shares borders with all of the mainland...
and southern New South Wales
New South Wales
New South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...
and is delivered in both a hardcopy and online format. The newspaper shares many articles with other Fairfax Media metropolitan daily newspapers, such as The Sydney Morning Herald
The Sydney Morning Herald
The Sydney Morning Herald is a daily broadsheet newspaper published by Fairfax Media in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1831 as the Sydney Herald, the SMH is the oldest continuously published newspaper in Australia. The newspaper is published six days a week. The newspaper's Sunday counterpart, The...
.
The Age was founded by three Melbourne businessmen, the brothers John Cooke and Henry Cooke who had arrived from New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
in the 1840s, and Walter Powell. The first edition appeared on 17 October 1854.
The Age currently has an average weekday circulation
Newspaper circulation
A newspaper's circulation is the number of copies it distributes on an average day. Circulation is one of the principal factors used to set advertising rates. Circulation is not always the same as copies sold, often called paid circulation, since some newspapers are distributed without cost to the...
of 190,600, increasing to 275,000 on Saturdays (in a city of 4 million). The Sunday Age has a circulation of 225,400. The paper currently has a Monday to Friday readership average of 668,000, reaching an average of 857,000 on Saturdays. The Sunday Age attracts an average of 695,000 readers.
Syme family
The venture was not initially a success, and in June 1856 the Cookes sold the paper to Ebenezer SymeEbenezer Syme
Ebenezer Syme was a Scottish-Australian journalist, proprietor and manager of The Age.Syme was born at North Berwick, Scotland, third son of George Alexander Syme, schoolmaster, and his wife Jean, née Mitchell. Ebenezer Syme's younger brother was David Syme...
, a Scottish-born businessman, and James McEwan, an ironmonger and founder of McEwans & Co, for 2,000 pounds at auction. The first edition under the new owners was on 17 June 1856. From its foundation the paper was self-consciously liberal
Liberalism
Liberalism is the belief in the importance of liberty and equal rights. Liberals espouse a wide array of views depending on their understanding of these principles, but generally, liberals support ideas such as constitutionalism, liberal democracy, free and fair elections, human rights,...
in its politics: "aiming at a wide extension of the rights of free citizenship and a full development of representative institutions," and supporting "the removal of all restrictions upon freedom of commerce, freedom of religion and - to the utmost extent that is compatible with public morality - upon freedom of personal action."
Ebenezer Syme was elected to the Victorian Legislative Assembly
Victorian Legislative Assembly
The Victorian Legislative Assembly is the lower house of the Parliament of Victoria in Australia. Together with the Victorian Legislative Council, the upper house, it sits in Parliament House in the state capital, Melbourne.-History:...
shortly after buying The Age, and his brother David Syme
David Syme
David Syme was a Scottish-Australian newspaper proprietor of The Age and regarded as "the father of protection in Australia" who had immense influence in the Government of Victoria.-Early life and family:...
soon came to dominate the paper, editorially and managerially. When Ebenezer died in 1860, David became editor-in-chief, a position he retained until his death in 1908, although a succession of editors did the day-to-day editorial work. In 1891 Syme bought out Ebenezer's heirs and McEwan's and became sole proprietor. He built up The Age into Victoria
Victoria (Australia)
Victoria is the second most populous state in Australia. Geographically the smallest mainland state, Victoria is bordered by New South Wales, South Australia, and Tasmania on Boundary Islet to the north, west and south respectively....
's leading newspaper. In circulation it soon overtook its rivals The Herald and The Argus
The Argus (Australia)
The Argus was a morning daily newspaper in Melbourne established in 1846 and closed in 1957. Widely known as a conservative newspaper for most of its history, it adopted a left leaning approach from 1949...
, and by 1890 it was selling 100,000 copies a day, making it one of the world's most successful newspapers.
Graham Berry
Sir Graham Berry KCMG , Australian colonial politician, was the 11th Premier of Victoria. He was one of the most Radical and colourful figures in the politics of colonial Victoria, and made the most determined efforts to break the power of the Victorian Legislative Council, the stronghold of the...
, George Higinbotham
George Higinbotham
George Higinbotham was a politician and was a Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Victoria, which is the highest ranking court in the Australian State of Victoria.-Early life:...
and George Turner
George Turner (Australian politician)
Sir George Turner, KCMG, PC , Australian politician, was the 18th Premier of Victoria and the first Treasurer of Australia in the federal Barton Ministry....
, and other leading liberals such as Alfred Deakin
Alfred Deakin
Alfred Deakin , Australian politician, was a leader of the movement for Australian federation and later the second Prime Minister of Australia. In the last quarter of the 19th century, Deakin was a major contributor to the establishment of liberal reforms in the colony of Victoria, including the...
and Charles Pearson furthered their careers as The Age journalists. Syme was originally a free trade
Free trade
Under a free trade policy, prices emerge from supply and demand, and are the sole determinant of resource allocation. 'Free' trade differs from other forms of trade policy where the allocation of goods and services among trading countries are determined by price strategies that may differ from...
r, but converted to protectionism
Protectionism
Protectionism is the economic policy of restraining trade between states through methods such as tariffs on imported goods, restrictive quotas, and a variety of other government regulations designed to allow "fair competition" between imports and goods and services produced domestically.This...
through his belief that Victoria needed to develop its manufacturing industries behind tariff
Tariff
A tariff may be either tax on imports or exports , or a list or schedule of prices for such things as rail service, bus routes, and electrical usage ....
barriers. In the 1890s The Age was a leading supporter of Australian federation and of the White Australia policy
White Australia policy
The White Australia policy comprises various historical policies that intentionally restricted "non-white" immigration to Australia. From origins at Federation in 1901, the polices were progressively dismantled between 1949-1973....
.
After Syme's death the paper remained in the hands of his three sons, with his eldest son Herbert Syme becoming general manager until his death in 1939. Syme's will prevented the sale of any equity in the paper during his sons' lifetimes, an arrangement designed to protect family control but which had the effect of starving the paper of investment capital for 40 years. Under the management of Sir Geoffrey Syme (1908–42), and his chosen editors Gottlieb Schuler
Gottlieb Schuler
Gottlieb Frederick Henry Schuler was an Australian journalist, editor of The Age for 26 years from 1900....
and Harold Campbell
Harold Campbell
Captain Sir Harold Campbell, GCVO DSO Royal Navy , was Equerry to the King George VI and then to Queen Elizabeth II 1936–1954.He was Private Secretary to the Duke of York 1933–1936, and Deputy Comptroller in 1936. When the Duke became King, Campbell was appointed to his Household as Groom of the...
, The Age failed to modernise, and gradually lost market share to The Argus and to the tabloid The Sun News-Pictorial
The Sun News-Pictorial
The Sun News-Pictorial, commonly known as The Sun, was a morning daily tabloid newspaper in Melbourne, Australia established in 1922 and closed in 1990.It was part of The Herald and Weekly Times Ltd stable of Melbourne newspapers...
, although its classfied advertisement sections kept the paper profitable. By the 1940s the paper's circulation was smaller than it had been in 1900, and its political influence also declined. Although it remained more liberal than the extremely conservative Argus, it lost much of its distinct political identity.
The historian Sybil Nolan writes: "Accounts of The Age in these years generally suggest that the paper was second-rate, outdated in both its outlook and appearance. Walker described a newspaper which had fallen asleep in the embrace of the Liberal Party; "querulous," "doddery" and "turgid" are some of the epithets applied by other journalists. It is inevitably criticised not only for its increasing conservatism, but for its failure to keep pace with innovations in layout and editorial technique so dramatically demonstrated in papers like The Sun News-Pictorial and The Herald."
In 1942 David Syme's last surviving son, Oswald Syme, took over the paper. He modernised the paper's appearance and standards of news coverage (removing classified advertisements from the front page and introducing photographs, long after other papers had done so). In 1948, convinced the paper needed outside capital, he persuaded the courts to overturn his father's will and floated David Syme and Co. as a public company, selling 400,000 pounds worth of shares, enabling a badly needed technical modernisation of the newspaper's production. A takeover attempt by the Warwick Fairfax family, publishers of The Sydney Morning Herald, was beaten off. This new lease on life allowed The Age to recover commercially, and in 1957 it received a great boost when The Argus ceased publication.
1960 - 2011
Oswald Syme retired in 1964, and his grandson Ranald MacdonaldRanald MacDonald
Ranald MacDonald was the first man to teach the English language in Japan, including educating Einosuke Moriyama, one of the chief interpreters to handle the negotiations between Commodore Perry and the Tokugawa Shogunate.-Early life:MacDonald was born at Fort Astoria, in the Pacific Northwest of...
became chairman of the company. He was the first chairman to hand over full control of the paper to a professional editor from outside the Syme family. This was Graham Perkin
Graham Perkin
Edwin Graham Perkin was an Australian journalist and newspaper editor.Perkin was born at Hopetoun, Victoria, elder son of Herbert Edwin Perkin, baker, and his wife Iris Lily, née Graham, both Victorian born. Graham grew up at Warracknabeal and was educated at the local high school...
, appointed in 1966, who radically changed the paper's format and shifted its editorial line from the rather conservative liberalism of the Symes to a new "left liberalism" characterised by attention to issues such as race, gender and the environment, and opposition to White Australia and the death penalty. The Liberal
Liberal Party of Australia
The Liberal Party of Australia is an Australian political party.Founded a year after the 1943 federal election to replace the United Australia Party, the centre-right Liberal Party typically competes with the centre-left Australian Labor Party for political office...
Premier of Victoria, Henry Bolte
Henry Bolte
Sir Henry Edward Bolte GCMG was an Australian politician. He was the 38th and longest serving Premier of Victoria.- Early years :...
, called The Age "that pinko rag," a view conservatives have maintained ever since. Former editor Michael Gawenda in his book American Notebook wrote that the "default position of most journalists at The Age was on the political Left.".
Gough Whitlam
Edward Gough Whitlam, AC, QC , known as Gough Whitlam , served as the 21st Prime Minister of Australia. Whitlam led the Australian Labor Party to power at the 1972 election and retained government at the 1974 election, before being dismissed by Governor-General Sir John Kerr at the climax of the...
's reforms of the Australian Labor Party
Australian Labor Party
The Australian Labor Party is an Australian political party. It has been the governing party of the Commonwealth of Australia since the 2007 federal election. Julia Gillard is the party's federal parliamentary leader and Prime Minister of Australia...
, and The Age became a key supporter of the Whitlam government which came to power in 1972. Contrary to subsequent mythology, however, The Age was not an uncritical supporter of Whitlam, and played a leading role in exposing the Loans Affair
Loans Affair
The Loans Affair, also called the Khemlani Affair, is the name given to the political scandal involving the Whitlam Government of Australia in 1975, in which it was accused of attempting to borrow money illegally from Middle Eastern countries by bypassing standard procedure as dictated by the...
, one of the scandals which contributed to the demise of the Whitlam government.
After Perkins's early death in 1975 The Age returned to a more moderate liberal position. It supported Malcolm Fraser
Malcolm Fraser
John Malcolm Fraser AC, CH, GCL, PC is a former Australian Liberal Party politician who was the 22nd Prime Minister of Australia. He came to power in the 1975 election following the dismissal of the Whitlam Labor government, in which he played a key role...
's Liberal government in its early years, but after 1980 became increasingly critical and was a leading supporter of Bob Hawke
Bob Hawke
Robert James Lee "Bob" Hawke AC GCL was the 23rd Prime Minister of Australia from March 1983 to December 1991 and therefore longest serving Australian Labor Party Prime Minister....
's reforming government after 1983. But from the 1970s the political influence of The Age, as with other broadsheet newspapers, derived less from what it said in its editorial columns (which relatively few people read) than from the opinions expressed by journalists, cartoonists, feature writers and guest columnists. The Age has always kept a stable of leading editorial cartoonists, notably Les Tanner
Les Tanner
Les Tanner was an Australian cartoonist and journalist.Les Tanner was born in Sydney and began his career at The Daily Telegraph in 1942...
, Bruce Petty
Bruce Petty
Bruce Petty is one of Australia’s best known political satirists and cartoonists. He is a regular contributor to Melbourne's The Age newspaper...
, Ron Tandberg
Ron Tandberg
Born in 1943, Ron Tandberg is an Australian illustrator and political cartoonist who has contributed to The Age newspaper since 1972.Ron's credits include ten Walkley awards for the best cartoon.-References:...
and Michael Leunig
Michael Leunig
Michael Leunig , typically referred to as Leunig, is an Australian poet, cartoonist and cultural commentator. His best known works include The Adventures of Vasco Pyjama and the Curly Flats series...
.
In 1966 Macdonald took the fateful step of allowing the Fairfax's to acquire a stake in the paper, although an agreement was signed guaranteeing the editorial independence
Editorial independence
Editorial independence is the freedom of editors to make decisions without interference from the owners of a publication. Editorial independence is tested, for instance, if a newspaper runs articles that may be unpopular with its advertising clientele....
of The Age. In 1972 Fairfax bought a majority of David Syme shares, and in 1983 bought out all the remaining shares. David Syme and Co. became a subsidiary of John Fairfax and Co. Macdonald was denounced as a traitor by the remaining members of the Syme family (who nevertheless accepted Fairfax's generous offer for their shares), but he argued that The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald were natural partners and that the greater resources of the Fairfax group would enable The Age to remain competitive. By the 1980s a new competitor had appeared in Rupert Murdoch
Rupert Murdoch
Keith Rupert Murdoch, AC, KSG is an Australian-American business magnate. He is the founder and Chairman and CEO of , the world's second-largest media conglomerate....
's national daily The Australian
The Australian
The Australian is a broadsheet newspaper published in Australia from Monday to Saturday each week since 14 July 1964. The editor in chief is Chris Mitchell, the editor is Clive Mathieson and the 'editor-at-large' is Paul Kelly....
. In 1999 David Syme and Co. became The Age Company Ltd as part of John Fairfax Holdings Ltd., finally ending the Syme connection.
Tullamarine, Victoria
Tullamarine is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 17 km north-west from Melbourne's central business district. Its Local Government Area are the Cities of Hume, Brimbank and Moreland. At the 2006 Census, Tullamarine had a population of 6,541....
. The Headquarters moved again in 2009 to Collins Street opposite Southern Cross Station.
Currently there are two editions of The Age printed nightly. The NAA edition, for interstate and country Victorian readers and the MEA edition, for metropolitan areas. These two editions are printed in three separate editions, the earliest for country and interstate readers, the second edition for metropolitan and the final late edition THA, also for metropolitan areas carrying late or breaking stories not covered in the first two editions.
Friday's edition of the newspaper now includes a racing liftout which includes extended form and analysis for Saturday's major race meetings.
Like its Fairfax stablemate The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age announced in early 2007 that it would be moving from a broadsheet format to the smaller Berliner
Berliner (format)
Berliner, or "midi", is a newspaper format with pages normally measuring about . The Berliner format is slightly taller and marginally wider than the tabloid/compact format; and is both narrower and shorter than the broadsheet format....
size, in the footsteps of The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
and The Courier-Mail
The Courier-Mail
The Courier-Mail is a daily newspaper published in Brisbane, Australia. Owned by News Limited, it is published daily from Monday to Saturday in tabloid format. Its editorial offices are located at Bowen Hills, in Brisbane's inner northern suburbs, and it is printed at Murarrie, in Brisbane's...
. Both The Age and the Herald dumped these plans later in the year without explanation, to the amusement of The Australian's Chris Mitchell
Chris Mitchell
Chris Mitchell is an Australian journalist and is editor-in-chief of The Australian. He began his career on the former afternoon tabloid, The Telegraph, in 1973 and after working on The Townsville Bulletin, The Daily Telegraph and the Australian Financial Review, became editor of The Australian in...
, who called the about-face "a bit embarrassing".
In 2009, The Age suspended its columnist Michael Backman
Michael Backman
Michael Backman is an Australian-born writer who now resides in London. Much of his writing relates to Asia’s economies, business, culture and politics.- Writing and ideas :...
after one of his columns condemned Israeli tourists as greedy and badly behaved prompting criticism that he was anti-semitic
Anti-Semitism
Antisemitism is suspicion of, hatred toward, or discrimination against Jews for reasons connected to their Jewish heritage. According to a 2005 U.S...
. However a Press Council complaint against The Age for its handling of the complaints against Backman was dismissed.
Media House
The Age headquarters, known as Media House, is shared with other Fairfax business units including: 3AW radio3AW
3AW is a talkback radio station in Melbourne, Australia on 693 kHz AM. It began transmission on 22 February 1932 as Melbourne's fifth commercial radio station.-History:...
, Magic1278 radio, The Australian Financial Review
The Australian Financial Review
The Australian Financial Review is a leading business and finance newspaper in Australia.Fairfax Media publishes it in a compact format six days a week, Monday to Saturday....
Group, and Fairfax Community Network. Media House was designed by Bates Smart
Bates Smart
Bates Smart is Australia's second oldest architectural firm, established in 1853 by Joseph Reed as the practice Reed and Barnes. JPE Design Studio in Adelaide founded in 1851 by Daniel Garlick is the oldest continuing architectural practice in Australia....
and built by Grocon
Grocon
Grocon Pty Ltd is a large Australian construction company based in Melbourne, Australia. It is owned by the Grollo family.-History:Grocon grew from a small family concreting business established by Luigi Grollo in the 1950s, to a major building company in the 1980s with his sons Rino & Bruno...
for $110 million. The building was formally opened in October 2009.
Masthead
The Age masthead has received a number of updates from 1854 to present day. The most recent update to the design was made in 2002. The current masthead features a stylised version of the Royal coat of arms of the United KingdomRoyal coat of arms of the United Kingdom
The Royal coat of arms of the United Kingdom is the official coat of arms of the British monarch, currently Queen Elizabeth II. These arms are used by the Queen in her official capacity as monarch of the United Kingdom, and are officially known as her Arms of Dominion...
and "The Age" in Electra Bold type. The crest features the French words "Dieu et mon droit" (in English: "God and my right"). According to The Ages art director, Bill Farr: "No one knows why they picked the royal crest. But I guess we were a colony at the time, and to be seen to be linked with the Empire would be a positive thing." The original 1854 masthead included the Colony of Victoria crest. In 1856, that crest was removed and in 1861, the Royal coat of arms was introduced. This was changed again in 1967, with the shield and decoration altered and the lion crowned. In 1971, a bold typeface was introduced and the crest shield rounded and less ornate. In 1997, the masthead was stacked and contained in a blue box (with the logo in white). In 2002, in conjunction with an overall revamp of the paper, The Age masthead was redesigned as it currently appears.
Ownership
In 1972 John Fairfax Holdings bought a majority of David Syme shares, and in 1983 bought out all the remaining shares.Since the 1980s The Age, despite the loss of its corporate independence, has remained a successful and influential newspaper. It has a range of high quality writers and contributors. The investigative team have broken a number of major stories. Its arts and lifestyle content - increasingly important in all newspapers as the leading role in news coverage is lost to television and the internet - is generally regarded as comprehensive.
The Age Print Centre
The Age was published from its office in Collins Street until 1969, when the newspaper moved to 250 Spencer street. In 2003, The Age Print Centre was opened at Tullamarine. The centre produces a wide range of publications for both Fairfax and commercial clients. Among its stable of daily print publications are The Age, The Australian Financial Review and The Bendigo Advertiser. The Age Print Centre uses Norske SkogNorske Skog
Norske Skogindustrier ASA or Norske Skog, which translates as Norwegian Forest Industries, is a Norwegian pulp and paper company based in Oslo, Norway and established in 1962...
paper and is a member of the Publisher's National Environment Bureau (PNEB).
Controversies
In 2004 Gawenda was succeeded as editor by BritishUnited Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
journalist Andrew Jaspan
Andrew Jaspan
Andrew Jaspan, a British journalist, was appointed in October 2004, as Editor-in-Chief of The Age, a broadsheet daily newspaper published in Melbourne, Australia. Prior to this appointment, he was the founder and editor of the Sunday Herald in Scotland from 1999 to 2004...
. Jaspan aroused controversy by initially not appearing to know that The Age was published in Melbourne, sacking Gerard Henderson
Gerard Henderson
Gerard Henderson is a conservative Australian newspaper columnist for The Sydney Morning Herald.. He is also Executive Director of the Sydney Institute, a privately funded current affairs forum. His wife Anne Henderson is Deputy Director.-Education:Henderson attended the Jesuit Xavier College in...
, a prominent conservative columnist, from the paper and by making remarks critical of Douglas Wood
Douglas Wood
Douglas Wood , is an Australian construction engineer who had worked with the American military, and was held hostage in Iraq for six weeks between May and June 2005, before being rescued.-Early life:...
, an Australian who was held hostage and tortured in Iraq. Jaspan accused Wood on ABC radio of being boorish and coarse for speaking harshly about those who kidnapped and tortured him.
The generally left-wing The Age is frequently compared with Britain's leftist Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
newspaper. Henderson, writing in the Murdoch owned
News Limited
News Limited is one of Australia's largest diversified media companies. The publicly listed company's interests span newspaper and magazine publishing, Internet, Pay TV, National Rugby League, market research, DVD and film distribution, and film and television production trading assets.News Limited...
competitor, The Australian, is one of many to describe it as "The Guardian on the Yarra
Yarra River
The Yarra River, originally Birrarung, is a river in east-central Victoria, Australia. The lower stretches of the river is where the city of Melbourne was established in 1835 and today Greater Melbourne dominates and influences the landscape of its lower reaches...
".
Following the appointment of Andrew Jaspan
Andrew Jaspan
Andrew Jaspan, a British journalist, was appointed in October 2004, as Editor-in-Chief of The Age, a broadsheet daily newspaper published in Melbourne, Australia. Prior to this appointment, he was the founder and editor of the Sunday Herald in Scotland from 1999 to 2004...
as editor, The Age has taken a prominent campaigning role in relation to some issues, for example by launching a campaign to Free David Hicks
David Hicks
David Matthew Hicks is an Australian who was convicted by the United States of America Guantanamo Military Commission under the Military Commissions Act of 2006, on charges of providing material support for terrorism...
(a prisoner at Guantanamo Bay
Guantanamo Bay detainment camp
The Guantanamo Bay detention camp is a detainment and interrogation facility of the United States located within Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, Cuba. The facility was established in 2002 by the Bush Administration to hold detainees from the war in Afghanistan and later Iraq...
) in February 2007 and in relation to global warming.
According to The Guardian newspaper, former Fairfax chief executive Fred Hilmer
Fred Hilmer
Professor Frederick George Hilmer AO is an Australian academic and business figure.Professor Hilmer obtained from the University of Sydney the degree of Bachelor of Laws with Honours Class II in April 1966....
wrote in his memoirs that "he struggled to cope with a left-leaning editorial culture at papers such as The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, and was surprised that journalists saw themselves as advocates rather than simply reporters."
Hilmer said that "Fairfax's default position was to turn left and be agenda-driven... Journalists often conducted campaigns where they persisted in covering stories long after readers had lost interest."
The Age is known for often reporting on corruption in religion. In one controversy, on 19 March 2010 The Age reported that the Vienna Boys Choir “has been caught up in accusations that pedophile priests systematically abused their choristers", even though the complaints were made against teachers and older pupils of the choir, which is a private organisation. Crikey
Crikey
Crikey is an independent Australian electronic magazine comprising an open access website and an email newsletter available to subscribers. Well known in Australian political, media and business circles, Crikey was described by former Federal Opposition Leader Mark Latham as the "most popular...
accused The Age of outright "fabrication".
Editors
- T. L. Bright and David BlairDavid Blair (encyclopedist)David Blair was an Irish Australian politician, journalist and encyclopedist.-Background:David Blair was born in County Monaghan, Ireland to parents of Scottish descent. He studied at the Hibernian Military School, Dublin...
1854–56 - Ebenezer SymeEbenezer SymeEbenezer Syme was a Scottish-Australian journalist, proprietor and manager of The Age.Syme was born at North Berwick, Scotland, third son of George Alexander Syme, schoolmaster, and his wife Jean, née Mitchell. Ebenezer Syme's younger brother was David Syme...
1856–60
Under David Syme
- George Smith 1860–67
- James HarrisonJames Harrison (engineer)James Harrison was an Australian newspaper printer, journalist, politician, and pioneer in the field of mechanical refrigeration.-Early life:...
1867–72 - Arthur WindsorArthur WindsorArthur Lloyd Windsor was an Australian journalist noted for his work on the The Argus and the The Age.-Biography:...
1872–1900 - Gottlieb SchulerGottlieb SchulerGottlieb Frederick Henry Schuler was an Australian journalist, editor of The Age for 26 years from 1900....
1900–08
Under Geoffrey Syme
- Gottlieb SchulerGottlieb SchulerGottlieb Frederick Henry Schuler was an Australian journalist, editor of The Age for 26 years from 1900....
1908–26 - Len Briggs 1926–39
- Harold Campbell 1939–42
Under Oswald Syme
- Harold Campbell 1942–59
- Keith Sinclair 1959–66
Recent
- Graham PerkinGraham PerkinEdwin Graham Perkin was an Australian journalist and newspaper editor.Perkin was born at Hopetoun, Victoria, elder son of Herbert Edwin Perkin, baker, and his wife Iris Lily, née Graham, both Victorian born. Graham grew up at Warracknabeal and was educated at the local high school...
1966–75 - Les CarlyonLes CarlyonLes Carlyon is an Australian writer, who was born in northern Victoria in 1942. He has been editor of Melbourne's journal of record, The Age, as well as editor-in-chief of The Herald and Weekly Times Ltd, and has twice won the Walkley Award for journalism...
1975–76 - Greg TaylorGreg TaylorGreg Taylor may refer to:*Greg "Fingers" Taylor, American musician*Greg Taylor , English footballer*Greg Taylor , Indiana senator*Gregory Taylor , Bahamian cricketer...
1976–79 - Michael DavieMichael DavieMichael Davie was a British journalist.Davie was the last of three children born to the head of a firm of stockbrokers. Davie was educated at Haileybury public school and Merton College, Oxford. where he began reading English, but after war service in the Royal Navy, returned to study History...
1979–81 - Creighton BurnsCreighton BurnsCreighton Lee Burns, AO was an Australian journalist and academic, who was editor-in-chief of The Age newspaper in Melbourne from 1981 to 1989.-Early life and naval career:...
1981–89 - Mike Smith 1989–92
- Alan KohlerAlan KohlerAlan Kohler has been a financial journalist since 1971. He began as a cadet on The Australian; has been a columnist for Chanticleer in The Australian Financial Review and was Editor of the AFR between 1985 and 1988...
1992–95 - Bruce GuthrieBruce Guthrie (editor)Bruce Guthrie is a senior Australian journalist and former newspaper and magazine editor.In November 2008 he was sacked as editor-in-chief of Melbourne's Herald-Sun newspaper: he sued his employer, Rupert Murdoch's News Ltd, and won: the court battle and some of Guthrie's earlier career is reported...
1995–97 - Michael GawendaMichael GawendaMichael Gawenda is an Australian journalist and was editor of The Age from 1997 to 2004. He was appointed inaugural Director of at The University of Melbourne, launched in 2009...
1997–2004 - Andrew JaspanAndrew JaspanAndrew Jaspan, a British journalist, was appointed in October 2004, as Editor-in-Chief of The Age, a broadsheet daily newspaper published in Melbourne, Australia. Prior to this appointment, he was the founder and editor of the Sunday Herald in Scotland from 1999 to 2004...
2004–2008 - Paul RamadgePaul RamadgePaul Ramadge is editor-in-chief of The Age, Melbourne's successful broadsheet newspaper. Since his appointment in 2008 he has overseen a voluntary redundancy program at the request of Fairfax, the paper's owner, and put in place his own editorial management team.-External links:* at The Age...
2008–present
See also
- Journalism in AustraliaJournalism in AustraliaJournalism in Australia varies from international practices in areas as diverse as legal freedoms and editorial practices.- History :Most of the published material in the first twenty years of the New South Wales colony was to inform residents of the rules and laws of the time. These were printed...
- List of newspapers in Australia
Further reading
- C. E. Sayers, David Syme, Cheshire 1965
- Don Hauser, The Printers of the Streets and Lanes Of Melbourne (1837–1975) Nondescript Press, Melbourne 2006
External links
- theage.com.au - The Age website
- about.theage.com.au - The Age corporate website
- inside.theage.com.au - The Age information hub
- Half a century of obscurity (Sybil Nolan on the history of The Age)
- Sir Geoffrey Syme "Sir Geoffrey Syme Journalist & Managing Editor of The Age from 1908 until 1942"
- The Newspaper Works