Paper Emperors: The Rise of Australia's Newspaper Empires

Australia's Newspaper Empires #1

by Sally Young

Before newspapers were ravaged by the digital age, they were a powerful force, especially in Australia—a country of newspaper giants and kingmakers. In newsrooms, there is a saying that 'the best stories are never printed in the paper'. This landmark book tells those stories; it reveals who owned Australia's newspapers and how they used them to wield political power.

In the 20th 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. Newspaper owners were hidden behind elaborate company structures, shadowy trusts and proxy shareholders.

Paper Emperors is a corporate and political history of Australian newspapers across nearly 140 years, beginning in 1803 with Australia's first newspaper owner, a convict who became a wealthy bank owner, and ending with the resignation of Menzies in 1941, and his conviction that a handful of press barons brought him down. It explains how Australia's media system came to be dominated by a handful of empires and powerful family dynasties. It shows how newspaper owners influenced public policy, lobbied and bullied politicians, and shaped internal party politics.

Sally Young has given us a new way of understanding how power worked—and no doubt still works—in Australia.

Genres: Nonfiction, Politics, History, Australia

654 pages, Paperback

Published March 1, 2019

About the author

Sally Young is professor of political science at the University of Melbourne. She is editor-in-chief of the Australian Journal of Politics and History.

Reviews

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Privately, Murdoch seemed to genuinely believe that he had created a government. In a letter he wrote...3 years after Lyons became the Prime Minister, Murdoch described Lyons as "the man whom we chose and made".


Murdoch maliciously said at a 1938 dinner party - in front of Lyons - "I put him there and I'll put him out."

This book details the history of newspaper ownership in Australia. Although I was aware of the very biased reporting that takes place in Australia, I had never really considered the huge impact this has had on our country. The conservative narrative has been a strong and consistent voice in the past 100 years, and it is sobering to consider how this has shaped voting and policy.

At times, I thought this book got bogged down in unnecessary detail. Particularly, the second section that recounted the change in ownership and how papers were run, who was employed, etc. from the 1920s onwards was pretty dry and could have been much shorter. Nonetheless, a well put-together examination of an important topic.

[Dennis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow, what a book. It ticked all the boxes for me. I do have a lot of interest in the subject as I have been associated with the media since I started work in a newspaper office at 15 and became a cadet journalist at 16 and a half, chasing fire engines as they say. It is written by the Professor of Political Science at Melbourne University and she and her team of researchers have managed to unearth a lot of facts that I was unaware of. I had always known that Australia's newspaper proprietors were a bunch of rapacious bastards who relentlessly use their newspapers to secure political favours and maximise profits, but I was not aware that their antagonism towards the ABC went back so far as since the inception of the ABC and how they tried to hamstring it and particularly their coverage of news with Sir Keith Murdoch trying to protect his Melbourne Herald. There is so much in this book that I am now busting to read the next edition which will cover the period from the Menzies era to the present day and presumably the political interference by Rupert Murdoch who learned the lessons well from his father.

[Ali · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is high quality, thorough research unearthing a persuasive tale of Australia's newspaper empire origins. Enthusiasts will find much to love here, and the scholarship is impeccable. The material will make for excellent reference. It is not, however, particularly friendly to the casual reader. The decision to structure three thematic sections requires the reader to connect the history across the sections, requiring a large amount of cross-referencing to follow the text. I also found the detail to overwhelm the narrative at times. (but admittedly, I am not innately attracted by the tycoon-centric approach to the topic the book is clearly about). I'm not sure this will reach a broad audience, but I am sure most of its audience will treasure it greatly.

[Krystelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is simultaneously a marvel of research and information, and it also makes itself so dense that it's hard to view it in a bubble. There is a problematic level of necessary extrinsic sources that are used here, and that makes it really difficult to ensure that the reader is getting the full picture. It also terminates rather abruptly, and it could have done with a few hundred more pages to ensure a full scope of the research was engaged with.

There's a lot to learn here, especially from a neutral historical perspective. The dream of Australian free press has never legitimately existed, no matter how much it may be touted as the reality. This book educates the reader on a lot of facets of how the press built an empire from a house of cards, and the level of depth is incredible. With that said, there was so much more that could have been put in. It's also not a starting point- I strongly advise that anyone coming into this book have at least more than a base level of the understanding of press freedom in Australia.

[Kim Wingerei · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed every page of this book - a well narrated and throughly researched expose into the history of Newspapers in Australia, and in particular the men (and it was, and is, almost all men) that owned them and ran them.

Starting with the beginning of the 19th century Sally Young writes a wonderful yarn which depicts not only the history of the newspapers, but puts it all in a flowing historical context. It paints the picture of how media proprietors have had so much influence in Australia - making and breaking politicians as well as influencing policies to suit their interests and their mates.

It finishes with the Second World War. Can't wait for volume II, due out in a year or so.

For my interview with Sally about her book and the current media landscape in Australia, click here:
https://kimwingerei.com/paper-emperor...

[Kevin · Rating 4 out of 5]

a must read for anyone interested in Australian History, the research allows reader a new insight
into political events and the impact on Australia.
Dishonesty and the power of the media barons has the reader wondering how we are being treated as puppets in their game!
They control the media and the political system.

[Jessica G · Rating 4 out of 5]

Paper Emperors is a hefty chonker of a dense nonfiction about the history of Australian newspapers up until the 1940s that took me six months to read. Holy shit it was long, but I was determined to finish it long after it was embarrassingly overdue at the library, and finally finishing this book was my greatest reading achievement of 2023. Paper Emperors teaches you that all you have to do to not be conservative is to read a history book, because this book made me very, very angry about the conservative newspaper barons who controlled (and still control) public discourse to suit their own agendas; namely, making lots and lots of money and keeping money away from the dirty poors so they can make more money. Eye-opening.

[Greg · Rating 5 out of 5]

An exhaustive history of the Australian newspaper industry. This is volume one which ends in 1941. Very detailed but still very readable. I found it a bit overwhelming at times, trying to keep up with the details, especially with all the jumping backwards and forwards in time but it's worth persevering with. The book is organised into themes rather than eras which does help to gain a better understanding of the issues. There are some useful timeliness which help keep you in context and a biography of key newspapers at the end.

[Confusion · Rating 4 out of 5]

Paper emperors paints a clear picture of how the press in this country has always worked. From advocating for anti-labor political parties, defaming unions to poison the public's image of them and blatantly kowtowing to power Paper emperors will scratch a nerd's itch to read about the behavior of papers a hundred years ago. The book loses a little steam in the middle and probably would have benefited from stretching a few more governments before the fall of Robert Menzies but those are minor criticisms to a well researched and clear image of the press in Australia. The book also drops a few redpills like how defamation law has always been used by the government to silence dissent even before the nation federated and that small publications that tried to paint narratives running counter to the mainstream press would be discredited and forced out of business by the large publications.