Paper Emperors The Rise of Australia's Newspaper Empires

Abstract

A corporate and political history of Australian newspapers spanning 140 years, this book explains how Australia's media system came to be dominated by a handful of empires and powerful family dynasties. Many are household names, even now: Murdoch, Fairfax, Symes, Packer. Sally Young shows how newspaper owners influenced policy-making, lobbied and bullied politicians, and shaped internal party politics. 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 ban..