'Before newspapers were ravaged by the digital age, they were a powerful force everywhere – especially in Australia, a country of newspaper giants and kingmakers.
'This magisterial book reveals who owned Australia’s newspapers and how they used them to wield political power. A corporate and political history spanning 140 years, Paper Emperors reveals how Australia’s media system came to be dominated by a handful of empires and powerful family dynasties who influenced public policies, lobbied and bullied politicians, and shaped internal party politics. Unexplored until now, Sally Young shows that this set the shape of Australian newspapers for the next century.'
'The book begins in 1803 with Australia's first newspaper owner - a convict who became a wealthy bank owner - giving the industry a blend of notoriety, power and wealth from the start. Throughout the twentieth century, Australians were unaware that they were reading newspapers owned by secret bankrupts and failed land boomers, powerful mining magnates, Underbelly-style gangsters, bankers, and corporate titans. It ends with the downfall of Menzies in 1941 and his conviction that a handful of press barons brought him down. The intervening years are packed with political drama, business machinations and a struggle for readers, all while the newspaper barons are peddling power and influence.
Source: Publisher's blurb.
Dedication: 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.
Sally Young on Researching Australia's Media Monsters
Astrid Edwards
(interviewer),
2023
26487149
2023
single work
podcast
interview
(Introduction)
'As the power of newspapers grew, the real press barons increasingly hid their control with elaborate ruses'
'This is an impressive volume, both in terms of its size and scope, which plugs large gaps in our understanding of newspaper history through a detailed exploration of the rise of Melbourne and Sydney newspaper empires from the nineteenth to the mid‐twentieth century. Paper Emperors makes a major contribution to its field by extending existing knowledge and alerting the reader to the close ongoing connections between Australia's powerful business figures, its press barons and political leaders. Central to its narrative is the Australia‐wide expansion of the Melbourne‐based Herald and Weekly Times group, and the role played by the enigmatic but forceful Keith Murdoch, who figures extensively in Parts Two and Three of the book.' (Introduction)
'In the mid-1960s pioneering media scholar Henry Mayer famously complained that Australian historians had shown little interest in the press. So, while primarily a political scientist, Mayer felt compelled to do his own historical spadework to document Australian press history. The result was his ground-breaking The Press in Australia (1964) which remains to this day a much-consulted classic of Australian media studies. Since then there have been numerous scholarly works on aspects of press history – works on individual newspapers and press proprietors, state-based histories, histories of the country press, a history of the Australian Journalists Association, and volumes on the press and politics amongst them. There has, however, been nothing quite so ambitious and wide-ranging as the volume under review, which covers nearly 140 years of corporate and political press history across all Australian states. It begins with the establishment, in 1803, of Australia's first newspaper, the Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser, and ends (somewhat arbitrarily) with an analysis of the role of the press in forcing the resignation of Prime Minister Menzies during World War II.' (Introduction)
'In the mid-1960s pioneering media scholar Henry Mayer famously complained that Australian historians had shown little interest in the press. So, while primarily a political scientist, Mayer felt compelled to do his own historical spadework to document Australian press history. The result was his ground-breaking The Press in Australia (1964) which remains to this day a much-consulted classic of Australian media studies. Since then there have been numerous scholarly works on aspects of press history – works on individual newspapers and press proprietors, state-based histories, histories of the country press, a history of the Australian Journalists Association, and volumes on the press and politics amongst them. There has, however, been nothing quite so ambitious and wide-ranging as the volume under review, which covers nearly 140 years of corporate and political press history across all Australian states. It begins with the establishment, in 1803, of Australia's first newspaper, the Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser, and ends (somewhat arbitrarily) with an analysis of the role of the press in forcing the resignation of Prime Minister Menzies during World War II.' (Introduction)
'This is an impressive volume, both in terms of its size and scope, which plugs large gaps in our understanding of newspaper history through a detailed exploration of the rise of Melbourne and Sydney newspaper empires from the nineteenth to the mid‐twentieth century. Paper Emperors makes a major contribution to its field by extending existing knowledge and alerting the reader to the close ongoing connections between Australia's powerful business figures, its press barons and political leaders. Central to its narrative is the Australia‐wide expansion of the Melbourne‐based Herald and Weekly Times group, and the role played by the enigmatic but forceful Keith Murdoch, who figures extensively in Parts Two and Three of the book.' (Introduction)
(Introduction)
'As the power of newspapers grew, the real press barons increasingly hid their control with elaborate ruses'
Sally Young on Researching Australia's Media Monsters
Astrid Edwards
(interviewer),
2023
26487149
2023
single work
podcast
interview
