 | |
 Front page ofThe Age (11 May 2020) | |
| Type | Daily newspaper |
|---|---|
| Format | Compact |
| Owner | Nine Entertainment |
| Editor | Patrick Elligett |
| Founded | 17 October 1854; 171 years ago (1854-10-17) |
| Headquarters | Melbourne, Australia |
| Readership | Total 4.55 million September 2024 |
| ISSN | 0312-6307 |
| Website | theage |
The Age is a daily newspaper inMelbourne, Australia, that has been published since 1854. Owned and published byNine Entertainment,The Age primarily servesVictoria, but copies also sell inTasmania, theAustralian Capital Territory and border regions ofSouth Australia and southernNew South Wales. It is delivered both in print and digital formats. The newspaper shares some articles with itssister paperThe Sydney Morning Herald.
The Age is considered anewspaper of record for Australia,[1] and has variously been known for its investigative reporting, with its journalists having won dozens ofWalkley Awards, Australia's most prestigious journalism prize. As of March 2020[update],The Age had a monthly readership of 5.4 million. As of September 2024[update], this had fallen to 4.55 million.
The Age was founded by three Melbourne businessmen: brothers John and Henry Cooke (who had arrived from New Zealand in the 1840s) and Walter Powell. The first edition appeared on 17 October 1854.
The venture was not initially a success, and in June 1856 the Cookes sold the paper toEbenezer Syme, a Scottish-born businessman, and James McEwan, an ironmonger and founder of McEwans & Co, for £2,000 at auction. The first edition under the new owners came out 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".[2]
Ebenezer Syme was elected to theVictorian Legislative Assembly shortly after buyingThe Age, and his brotherDavid 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 1882The Age published an eight-partseries written by journalist and future physicianGeorge E. Morrison, who had sailed, undercover, for theNew Hebrides, while posing as crew of the brigantineslave ship,Lavinia, as it made cargo ofKanakas. By October the series was also being published inThe Age's weekly companion magazine, theLeader. "A Cruise in a Queensland Slaver. By a Medical Student" was written in a tone of wonder, expressing "only the mildest criticism"; six months later, Morrison "revised his original assessment", describing details of the schooner'sblackbirding operation, and sharply denouncing the slave trade in Queensland. His articles, letters to the editor, and newspaper's editorials, led to expanded government intervention.[3]
In 1891, Syme bought out Ebenezer's heirs and the McEwans and became sole proprietor. He built upThe Age into Victoria's leading newspaper. In circulation, it soon overtook its rivalsThe Herald andThe 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 controlThe Age exercised enormous political power in Victoria. It supported liberal politicians such asGraham Berry,George Higinbotham andGeorge Turner, and other leading liberals such asAlfred Deakin andCharles Pearson furthered their careers asThe Age journalists. Syme was originally afree trader, but converted toprotectionism through his belief that Victoria needed to develop its manufacturing industries behindtariff barriers. During the 1890sThe Age was a leading supporter ofAustralian federation and of theWhite Australia policy.
After David Syme's death, the paper remained in the hands of his three sons, and his eldest son Herbert became general manager until his death in 1939.
David 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 unintended consequence of starving the paper of investment capital for 40 years.
Under the management of Sir Geoffrey Syme (1908–42), and his editors,Gottlieb Schuler and Harold Campbell,The Age was unable to modernise, and gradually lost market share toThe Argus and the tabloidThe Sun News-Pictorial, with only its classified advertisement sections keeping the paper profitable. By the 1940s, the paper's circulation was lower than it had been in 1900, and its political influence had also declined. Although it remained more liberal than the extremely conservativeArgus, it lost much of its distinct political identity.
The historian Sybil Nolan writes: "Accounts ofThe 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 likeThe Sun News-Pictorial andThe Herald."[4]
In 1942, David Syme's last surviving son, Oswald, took over the paper, and began to modernise 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, after realising the paper needed outside capital, Oswald persuaded the courts to overturn his father's will and floated David Syme and Co. as a public company, selling £400,000 worth of shares. This sale enabled a badly needed technical upgrade of the newspaper's antiquated production machinery, and defeated a takeover attempt by theFairfax family, publishers of theSydney Morning Herald.
This new lease on life allowedThe Age to recover commercially, and in 1957 it received a great boost whenThe Argus, after twenty years of financial losses, ceased publication.
Oswald Syme retired in 1964 and his grandsonRanald Macdonald was appointed managing director at the age of 26 and two years later he appointedGraham Perkin as editor; to ensure that the 36-year-old Perkin was free of board influence, Macdonald took on the role of editor-in-chief, a position he held until 1970. Together they radically changed the paper's format and shifted its editorial line from rather conservative liberalism to a new "left liberalism" characterised by attention to issues such as race, gender, the disabled and the environment, as well as opposition to White Australia and the death penalty.
It also became more supportive of theAustralian Labor Party after years of having usually supported theCoalition. The LiberalPremier of Victoria,Henry Bolte, subsequently calledThe Age "that pinko rag" in a view conservatives have maintained ever since. Former editor Michael Gawenda in his bookAmerican Notebook wrote that the "default position of most journalists atThe Age was on the political Left".[5] In 1966, the Syme family shareholders joined with Fairfax to create a 50/50 voting partnership which guaranteed editorial independence and forestalled takeover moves from newspaper proprietors in Australia and overseas. This lasted for 17 years, until Fairfax bought controlling interest in 1972.
Perkin's editorship coincided withGough Whitlam's reforms of the Labor Party, andThe Age became a key supporter of the Whitlam government, which came to power in1972. Contrary to subsequent mythology, however,The Age was not an uncritical supporter of Whitlam, and played a leading role in exposing theLoans Affair, one of the scandals which contributed to the demise of the Whitlam government. It was one of many papers to call for Whitlam's resignation on 15 October 1975. Its editorial that day, "Go now, go decently", began, "We will say it straight, and clear, and at once. The Whitlam government has run its course." It would be Perkin's last editorial; he died the next day.
After Perkin's death,The Age returned to a more moderate liberal position. While it criticisedWhitlam's dismissal later that year, it supportedMalcolm Fraser's Liberal government in its early years. However, after 1980 it became increasingly critical and was a leading supporter ofBob Hawke's reforming government after 1983. But from the 1970s, the political influence ofThe Age, as with otherbroadsheet 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, notablyLes Tanner,Bruce Petty,Ron Tandberg andMichael Leunig.
In 1983, Fairfax bought out the remaining shares in David Syme & Co., which became a subsidiary of John Fairfax & Co.[6] Macdonald was criticised by some members of the Syme family (who nevertheless accepted Fairfax's generous offer for their shares), but he argued thatThe Age was a natural partner for Fairfax's flagship property,The Sydney Morning Herald. He believed the greater resources of the Fairfax group would enableThe Age to remain competitive. By the mid-1960s a new competitor had appeared inRupert Murdoch's national dailyThe Australian, which was first published on 15 July 1964. In 1999 David Syme & Co. became The Age Company Ltd, finally ending the Syme connection.
The Age was published from offices inCollins Street until 1969, when it moved to 250Spencer Street (hence the nickname "The Spencer Street Soviet" favoured by some critics). In 2003,The Age opened a new printing centre atTullamarine. The headquarters moved again in 2009 to Collins Street oppositeSouthern Cross station. Since acquisition by Nine Entertainment, the headquarters moved to the former's 717Bourke Street.
In 2004, editor Michael Gawenda was succeeded as editor by British journalistAndrew Jaspan, who was in turn replaced by Paul Ramadge in 2008.[7]
The Age has been known for its tradition ofinvestigative reporting. In 1984, the newspaper reported what became known as "The Age Tapes" affair, which revealed recordings made by police of alleged corrupt dealings between organised crime figures, politicians and public officials and which sparked theStewart Royal Commission.[8] The paper's extensive reporting on malpractice in Australia's banking sector led to a Royal Commission being announced by theTurnbull government into the financial services industry,[9] and withThe Age's journalistAdele Ferguson awarded theGold Walkley.[10] A series of stories inThe Age between 2009 and 2015 about alleged corruption involving subsidiaries of Australia's central bank, theReserve Bank, led to Australia's first ever prosecutions of companies and businessman for foreign bribery.[11][12]The Age's reporting of theUnaoil international bribery scandal led to investigations by anti-corruption agencies in the UK, US, across Europe and Australia and several businessmen pleading guilty for paying bribes in nine countries over 17 years.[13]
In February 2007,The Age's editorial section argued that Australian citizen David Hicks should be released as a prisoner fromGuantanamo Bay, stating that Mr Hicks was no hero and "probably downright deluded and dangerous" but the case for releasing him was just, given he was being held without charge or trial.[14][15][16]
In 2009,The Age suspended its columnistMichael Backman after one of his columns condemned Israeli tourists as greedy and badly behaved, prompting criticism that he wasantisemitic. APress Council complaint againstThe Age for its handling of the complaints against Backman was dismissed.[17]
In 2014The Age put a photograph of an innocent man, Abu Bakar Alam, on the front page, mistakenly identifying him as the perpetrator of the2014 Endeavour Hills stabbings. As part of the settlement the newspaper donated $20,000 towards building a mosque in nearbyDoveton.[18]
As of 2012[update], three editions ofThe Age are printed nightly: the NAA edition, for interstate and country Victorian readers, the MEA edition, for metropolitan areas and a final late metropolitan edition.
In March 2013,The Age moved from its traditional broadsheet format to the smallertabloid (orcompact) format, along with its Fairfax stablemateThe Sydney Morning Herald.[19]
In December 2016, editor-in-chief Mark Forbes was stood down from his position pending the result of a sexual harassment investigation and was replaced by Alex Lavelle, who served for four years as chief editor.[20][21]
In September 2020, it was announced thatThe Age's former Washington correspondentGay Alcorn would be appointed editor, the first woman to hold the position in the paper's history.[22] Alcorn left the position in December 2022 and was succeeded by Patrick Elligett in January 2023.[23]
The Age's purpose-built former headquarters, named Media House, was located at 655 Collins Street. After acquisition by Nine,The Age moved to 717 Bourke Street to be co-located with its new owners.[24]
The Age'smasthead has received a number of updates since 1854. The most recent update to the design was made in 2002. The current masthead features a stylised version of theroyal coat of arms of the United Kingdom and "The Age" inElectra bold type. The coat of arms features the French mottoDieu et mon droit (lit. 'God and my right'). According toThe Age's 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."[citation needed] 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 masthead was redesigned in its present form.[25]
As of March 2020[update],The Age had a monthly readership of 5.4 million.[26]As of September 2024[update], this had fallen to 4.55 million.[27]
The Age journalists have won manyWalkley Awards, Australia's most prestigious journalism prize,[28][29] including:
In March 2024, David Swan, technology editor ofSMH andThe Age, won the 2023 Gold Lizzie for Best Journalist of the Year at the IT Journalism Awards. He also won Best Technology Journalist and Best Telecommunications Journalist, and was highly commended in the Best Technology Issues category.[31][32] WithThe Age, SMH also won Best Consumer Technology Coverage and were highly commended in the Best News Coverage category.[33]
The below is a list of The Age's current journalists.
 |
| Name | Role | Other roles | Start year at Nine / Fairfax |
|---|---|---|---|
| Emma Breheny | co-editor of The Age Good Food Guide 2024[34] | ||
| Ellen Fraser | co-editor of The Age Good Food Guide 2024[34] | ||
| Nick McKenzie | investigative journalist | ||
| Besha Rodell | anonymous chief restaurant critic for The Age and Good Weekend[35] | ||
| Paul Sakkal | federal politics reporter | Same role at the SMH | |
| Lisa Visentin | federal politics reporter | Same role at the SMH |
Though Hugh Bull was appointed the newspaper's first full-time photographer as early as 1927,[36] it was comparatively late in the history ofThe Age that photographs were used on the front page as a matter of course,[37] but they became, especially under the editorship of Graham Perkin and his successors,[38] a vital part of its identity, with picture credits for staff photographers, and their images, often uncropped, run across several columns.
A photographer of the rivalHerald Sun Jay Town distinguishes the 'house style'; "There's a big difference between the set-up, cheesy, tight and brightHerald Sun-type [photograph] and then the nice, broadsheet picture–well, back when the Age was a fantastic broadsheet that could really showcase their photographers' work."[39] This distinction was to start to break down in 1983 with the pooling of photographers across all Fairfax publications, and the paper's change in format from broadsheet to 'compact' in 2007, preceding move to online publication and subscription; 2014 saw Fairfax Media shedding 75 per cent of its photographers.[40]
In its heyday the newspaper was a significant step in the career of notable Australian news photographers and photojournalists, many of whom started as cadets.[41][42] They include:
In 1972,John Fairfax Holdings bought a majority of David Syme's shares,[43] and in 1983 bought out all the remaining shares.[44]
On 26 July 2018, Nine Entertainment Co. andFairfax Media, the parent company ofThe Age, announced they agreed on terms for a merger between the two companies to become Australia's largest media company. Nine shareholders will own 51.1 per cent of the combined entity, and Fairfax shareholders will own 48.9 per cent.[45]
The Age was published from its office in Collins Street until 1969, when the newspaper moved to 250Spencer Street. In July 2003, the $220 million five-storey Age Print Centre was opened at Tullamarine.[46] The Centre produced a wide range of publications for both Fairfax and commercial clients. Among its stable of daily print publications areThe Age, theAustralian Financial Review and theBendigo Advertiser. The building was sold in 2014, and printing was to be transferred to "regional presses".[47]
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| Ordinal | Editor(s) | Year appointed | Year ended | Years as editor | Owner(s) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | T. L. Bright | 1854 | 1856 | 1–2 years |
|
| 2 | David Blair | ||||
| 3 | Ebenezer Syme | 1856 | 1860 | 3–4 years |
|
| 4 | George Smith | 1860 | 1867 | 6–7 years | David Syme |
| 5 | James Harrison | 1867 | 1872 | 4–5 years | |
| 6 | Arthur Windsor | 1872 | 1900 | 27–28 years | |
| 7 | Gottlieb Schuler | 1900 | 1908 | 25–26 years | |
| 1908 | 1926 | Sir Geoffrey Syme | |||
| 8 | Len Briggs | 1926 | 1939 | 12–13 years | |
| 9 | Harold Campbell | 1939 | 1942 | 2–3 years | |
| 1942 | 1959 |
| |||
| 10 | Keith Sinclair | 1959 | 1966 | 6–7 years | |
| 11 | Graham Perkin | 1966 | 1972 | 8–9 years | David Syme and Co. |
| 1972 | 1975 | John Fairfax and Sons | |||
| 12 | Les Carlyon | 1975 | 1976 | 0–1 years | |
| 13 | Greg Taylor | 1976 | 1979 | 2–3 years | |
| 14 | Michael Davie | 1979 | 1981 | 1–2 years | |
| 15 | Creighton Burns | 1981 | 1987 | 7–8 years | |
| 1987 | 1989 | ||||
| 16 | Mike Smith | 1989 | 1990 | 2–3 years | |
| 1990 | 1992 |
| |||
| 17 | Alan Kohler | 1992 | 1995 | 2–3 years | |
| 18 | Bruce Guthrie | 1995 | 1996 | 1–2 years | |
| 1996 | 1997 | John Fairfax Holdings | |||
| 19 | Michael Gawenda | 1997 | 2004 | 6–7 years | |
| 20 | Andrew Jaspan | 2004 | 2007 | 3–4 years | |
| 2007 | 2008 | Fairfax Media | |||
| 21 | Paul Ramadge | 2008 | 2012 | 3–4 years | |
| 22 | Andrew Holden | 2012 | 2016 | 3–4 years | |
| 23 | Mark Forbes | 2016 | 2016 | 0 years | |
| 24 | Alex Lavelle | 2016 | 2020 | 3–4 years |
|
| 25 | Gay Alcorn | 2020 | 2022 | 1–2 years | Nine Entertainment Co |
| 26 | Patrick Elligett | 2023 | incumbent | 1–2 years |
| Election | Endorsement | |
|---|---|---|
| 2010 | Labor | |
| 2013 | Labor | |
| 2016 | Coalition | |
| 2019 | Labor | |
| 2022 | Labor | |
| 2025 | Labor | |
