The Sydney Morning Herald

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The front page of The Sydney Morning Herald
on March 30, 2007.
Type Daily newspaper
Format Broadsheet
Owner Fairfax Media
Editor Alan Oakley
Founded 1831
Price AU$1.30 Monday–Friday
AU$2.30 Saturday
Headquarters Flag of Australia 201 Sussex Street,
Sydney, NSW, Australia
ISSN 0312-6315
Website: www.smh.com.au

The Sydney Morning Herald (SMH) is a daily broadsheet newspaper published by Fairfax Media in Sydney, Australia. The newspaper's Sunday edition, The Sun-Herald, is published in tabloid format. Founded in 1831 as the Sydney Herald, the SMH is the oldest continuously-published newspaper in Australia.

Contents

[edit] Overview

The Sydney Morning Herald is historically credited with high standards of journalism, however in recent years it has been accused of "dumbing down" editorial content, with more space allocated to larger photographs and lifestyle-based stories.[1]

The Saturday edition includes lift-out sections such as News Review and arts and entertainment guide Spectrum. The SMH publishes a variety of supplements, including the magazines Good Weekend and the(sydney)magazine; and the lift-outs The Guide + icon (television and electronics -- these were once separate liftouts but merged in 2007), Good Living (lifestyle) and Metro (entertainment). The lift-outs Domain (real estate), Drive (motoring) and MyCareer (employment) are co-branded with Fairfax Media's online classified advertising sites. Defunct sections include a dot-com section called "Biz.com" published in the late 1990s and a youth section called "Radar" published in the early 2000s.

In 2007 the paper sold an average of 212,700 copies per weekday and an average 364,000 copies on Saturdays.[2]

The editor is Alan Oakley. Former editors include John Alexander, Robert Whitehead, George Richards and Peter Luck.[citation needed]

[edit] History

Three employees of the now-defunct Sydney Gazette, Alfred Stephens, Frederick Stokes and William McGarvie, founded the The Sydney Herald in 1831. The four-page weekly had a print run of 750. In 1840, the newspaper began to publish daily. In 1841, an Englishman named John Fairfax purchased the operation, renaming it The Sydney Morning Herald the following year. Fairfax, whose family were to control the newspaper for almost 150 years, based his editorial policies "upon principles of candour, honesty and honour. We have no wish to mislead; no interest to gratify by unsparing abuse or indiscriminate approbation."

Frederick William Ward was editor 1884 to 1890.[3]

The SMH was late to the trend of printing news rather than just advertising on the front page, doing so from 15 April 1944. Of the country's metropolitan dailies, only The West Australian was later in making the switch. In 1949, the newspaper launched a Sunday edition, The Sunday Herald. Four years later, this was merged with the newly-acquired Sun newspaper to create The Sun-Herald, which continues to this day.

One of the newspaper's best-loved features is Column 8. The column, which was first published on January 11, 1947, publishes reports from readers of interesting observations, such as confusing signs or amusing trends. Column 8 takes its name from its former position in the eighth column of the front page. In 2000, to the consternation of some readers, the column was moved to the back page.

In 1995, the company launched smh.com.au, the newspaper's web edition. The site has since grown to include interactive and multimedia features beyond the content in the print edition. Around the same time, the organisation moved to new offices at Darling Park and built a new printing press at Chullora, in the city's west. The SMH has since moved with other Sydney Fairfax divisions to a building at Darling Island.

In 2000, the newspaper was radically redesigned by Sydney-based publication design group de Luxe & Associates.[citation needed]

Like its stablemate The Age, the Herald 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.[4] 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".[5]

[edit] Political viewpoint

Historically, the SMH has been a conservative newspaper as evidenced by the fact that it did not endorse the Australian Labor Party at any election until 1984, or state election until 2003. Its parent company, Fairfax, is currently run by a high profile former member of the Liberal party, Ron Walker.

The newspaper has in recent years attempted to spearhead political campaigns, including the "Campaign for Sydney" (planning and transport) and "Earth Hour" (environment).

In a surprise move, the SMH declined to endorse a party at the 2004 Federal election in line with a decision to "no longer endorse one party or another at election time." The newspaper noted that the policy might yet be revised: "A truly awful government of any colour, for example, would bring reappraisal."[6] The Herald subsequently endorsed the conservative Coalition at the 2007 NSW State election [7], but endorsed the Labor party at the 2007 Federal election[8].

[edit] Notable contributors

[edit] Ownership

Main article: Fairfax Media

Fairfax went public in 1957 and grew to acquire interests in magazines, radio and television. The group collapsed spectacularly on December 11, 1990 when Warwick Fairfax, great-great-grandson of John Fairfax, attempted to privatise the group by borrowing $1.8 billion. The group was bought by Conrad Black before being re-listed in 1992. In 2006, Fairfax announced a merger with Rural Press, which brought a Fairfax family member, John B. Fairfax, in as a significant player in the company.[9]

[edit] Column 8

Column 8 is a short column published by The Sydney Morning Herald in which readers who find interesting happenings have their short letters and observations published. Column 8 was first published on January 11, 1947.[10] The name comes from the fact that it originally occupied the final (8th) column of the broadsheet newspaper's front page. In a front page redesign in the lead-up to the Sydney Olympic Games in 2000, Column 8 moved to the back page of the first section from 31 July 2000.[11]

The content tends to the quirky, typically involving strange urban occurrences, instances of confusing signs (often in Engrish), wordplay, and discussion of more or less esoteric topics.[12]

The column is also sometimes affectionately known as Granny, after a fictional grandmother who supposedly edited the content. The old Granny logo was used for the first twenty years of the column and is occasionally resurrected for a special restrospective.[10] The logo was a caricature of Sydney Deamer, originator of the column and its author for 14 years.[13][11]

It was edited for 15 years by George Richards, who retired on January 31, 2004.[14][10] Other editors besides Deamer and Richards have been Duncan Thompson, Bill Fitter, Col Allison, Jim Cunningham, and briefly, Peter Bowers and Lenore Nicklin.[14] The column is currently edited by Pat Sheil.[15]

Several volumes collecting highlights have been published:

  • (1995) in Richards, George (editor): The best of Column 8. Sydney: Sydney Morning Herald Books. ISBN 186290104X. [16]
  • (1996) in Richards, George (editor): More of the best of Column 8. Sydney: Sydney Morning Herald Books. ISBN 186290104X. [17]
  • (2006) in Richards, George (editor): Column 8 : the best of Column 8. Sydney: Fairfax Enterprises. ISBN 1921190051.  - publication to coincide with the Sydney Morning Herald's 175th birthday[18]
  • (c. 2006) in Richards, George (editor): Column 8 : the best of Column 8. Volume 2. Sydney: Fairfax Enterprises. ISBN 192119006X. [19]

[edit] Good Weekend

Good Weekend is a liftout magazine that is distributed with both The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age on Saturdays.

It contains, on average, four feature articles written by its stable of award-winning writers and syndicated from overseas as well as sections on food, wine and fashion.

Writers include Janet Hawley, Amanda Hooton, John van Tiggelen and Greg Bearup.

There is one page dedicated to trivia: A section called 'Myth Conceptions' written by Dr Karl Kruszelnicki contains interesting science facts, as well as a quiz and statistics; "Your Time Starts Now" interviews a range of well-known people.

Other popular sections include "Modern Guru" which features humorous columnists including Danny Katz responding to the everyday dilemmas of readers; a Samurai Sudoku; and "The Two Of Us", containing interviews with a pair of close friends, relatives or colleagues.

Good Weekend has been edited by Judith Whelan since 2004. The deputy editor is Lauren Quaintance and the associate editor is Cindy MacDonald. The previous editor was Fenella Souter. She has returned to a writing position with the magazine.

Other Australian weekend magazines are included in The Australian and the Sun-Herald newspapers as well as the (sydney) magazine in The Sydney Morning Herald which is distributed once per month.

[edit] Big Questions

This column, which appears in Spectrum in the Saturday edition poses sometimes serious, sometimes whimsical questions and publishes readers' answers.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ "Calling them to account". Peter Manning. University of Technology Sydney. Retrieved on 2007-09-19.
  2. ^ State of the News Print Media in Australia 2007: Circulation. Australian Press Council. Retrieved on 2008-01-15.
  3. ^ Kathy Moignard (1990). Ward, Frederick William (1847 - 1934). Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 12 pp 382–383. MUP. Retrieved on 2007-09-23.
  4. ^ In pursuit of readers, Fairfax plans to shrink its papers. International Herald Tribune. Retrieved on 2007-09-19.
  5. ^ Manning, James (2008-03-10). "National daily plans new business website and monthly colour magazine". MediaWeek (854): 3,7,8. 
  6. ^ "It's time for a vote of greater independence", Editorial, The Sydney Morning Herald, 2004-10-07. 
  7. ^ "Why NSW cannot afford four more years of Labor", Editorial, The Sydney Morning Herald, 2007-03-22. 
  8. ^ "The more they stay the same …", Editorial, The Sydney Morning Herald, 2007-11-24. 
  9. ^ Ruth Park (1999). Ruth Park's Sydney. Duffy & Snellgrove. ISBN 1-875989-45-5. 
  10. ^ a b c "26.19 Granny George calls it a day" (February 2004). Australian Newspaper History Group Newsletter (Number 26): page 5. Queensland: ANHG via the University of Queensland’s School of Journalism & Communication Website. ISSN 1443-4962. 
  11. ^ a b "8.37 Changes in the Herald: Who will make me smile before breakfast?" (August 2000). Australian Newspaper History Group Newsletter (Number 8): pages 17-18. Queensland: ANHG via the University of Queensland’s School of Journalism & Communication Website. ISSN 1443-4962. 
  12. ^ "41.26 Has the world gone mad? Column 8 at 60" (February 2007). Australian Newspaper History Group Newsletter (Number 41): page 8. Queensland: ANHG via the University of Queensland’s School of Journalism & Communication Website. ISSN 1443-4962. 
  13. ^ Souter, Gavin (1983). Deamer, Sydney Harold (1891 - 1962). Australian Dictionary of Biography. Australian National University. Retrieved on 2008-01-15.
  14. ^ a b Ramsey, Alan. "George has moved on but his Granny still lives", Sydney Morning Herald, 4 February 2004. Retrieved on 2008-01-15. 
  15. ^ "32.31 Column 8 Changes Style" (May 2005). Australian Newspaper History Group Newsletter (Number 32). Queensland: ANHG via the University of Queensland’s School of Journalism & Communication Website. ISSN 1443-4962. “The Column 8 has a new editor, Pat Sheil, and he is changing the style of the 58-year-old Sydney Morning Herald column. “I am trying to make it a bit edgier than it was,” he told MediaWeek (11 April 2005, p.6). “Basically, Column 8 should be like a chat, without making it too trite or stupid.” George Richards edited Column 8 for fifteen and a half years before retiring early last year (see ANHG 26.19). James Cockington edited it until handing over to Sheil in February this year.” 
  16. ^ Libraries Australia record for 1995 edition of volume 1
  17. ^ Libraries Australia record for 1996 edition of More of the best of
  18. ^ Libraries Australia record for 2006 edition
  19. ^ Libraries Australia record for 2006 edition of volume 2

[edit] External links

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