The Sydney Morning Herald

Template:Short description Template:Redirect Template:Pp-move Template:Use dmy dates Template:Use Australian English Template:Infobox newspaper The Sydney Morning Herald (SMH) is a daily tabloid newspaper published in Sydney, Australia, and owned by Nine Entertainment. Founded in 1831 as the Sydney Herald, the Herald is the oldest continuously published newspaper in Australia and claims to be the most widely read masthead in the country.<ref name=Readership/> It is considered a newspaper of record for Australia.<ref name=":0">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

The newspaper is published in compact print form from Monday to Saturday as The Sydney Morning Herald and on Sunday as its sister newspaper, The Sun-Herald and digitally as an online site and app, seven days a week.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The print edition of The Sydney Morning Herald is available for purchase from many retail outlets throughout the Sydney metropolitan area, most parts of regional New South Wales, the Australian Capital Territory and South East Queensland.

OverviewEdit

The Sydney Morning Herald publishes a variety of supplements, including the magazines Good Weekend (included in the Saturday edition of The Sydney Morning Herald); and Sunday Life. There are a variety of lift-outs, some of them co-branded with online classified-advertising sites:

The Guide (television) on Mondays
Good Food (food) and Domain (real estate) on Tuesdays
Money (personal finance) on Wednesdays
Drive (motoring), Shortlist (entertainment) on Fridays
News Review, Spectrum (arts and entertainment guide), Domain (real estate), Drive (motoring) and MyCareer (employment) on Saturdays

The executive editor is James Chessell and the editor is Bevan Shields. Tory Maguire is national editor, Monique Farmer is life editor, and the publisher is chief digital and publishing officer Chris Janz.

Former editors include Darren Goodsir, Judith Whelan, Sean Aylmer, Peter Fray, Meryl Constance, Amanda Wilson (the first female editor, appointed in 2011),<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> William Curnow,<ref>John Langdon Bonython, Address of the President, Journal of the Royal Institution of Cornwall, vol. XXIV, parts 1 and 2, 1933–1934, p. 8.</ref> Andrew Garran, Frederick William Ward (editor from 1884 to 1890), Charles Brunsdon Fletcher, Colin Bingham, Max Prisk, John Alexander, Paul McGeough, Alan Revell, Alan Oakley, and Lisa Davies.

HistoryEdit

File:First smh cover.jpg

The cover of the newspaper's first edition, on 18 April 1831

File:Herald Office, Sydney (3003586345).jpg

Sydney Morning Herald building on the corner of Pitt and Hunter Streets, built 1856, demolished in the 1920s for a larger building

The Sydney Herald was founded in 1831 by three employees of the now-defunct Sydney Gazette: Ward Stephens, Frederick Stokes, and William McGarvie. A Centenary Supplement (since digitised) was published in 1931.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The original four-page weekly had a print run of 750. The newspaper began to publish daily in 1840, and the operation was purchased in 1841 by an Englishman named John Fairfax who renamed it The Sydney Morning Herald the following year.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> 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."

Donald Murray, who invented a predecessor of the teleprinter, worked at the Herald during the 1890s.<ref name="ATM-C">New Zealand's Donald Murray: The Father of the Remote Typewriter Template:Webarchive, Australian Typewriter Museum, Canberra, 9 March 2012; accessed 10 March 2012</ref> A weekly "Page for Women" was added in 1905, edited by Theodosia Ada Wallace.<ref name=adb>Template:Cite encyclopedia</ref>

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. The newspaper launched a Sunday edition, The Sunday Herald, in 1949. Four years later, this was merged with the newly acquired Sun newspaper to create The Sun-Herald, which continues to this day.

By the mid-1960s, a new competitor had appeared in Rupert Murdoch's national daily The Australian, which was first published on 15 July 1964.

John Fairfax & Sons Limited commemorated the Herald's 150th anniversary in 1981 by presenting the City of Sydney with Stephen Walker's sculpture Tank Stream Fountain.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

In 1995, the company launched the newspaper's web edition smh.com.au.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> 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 from Jones Street to new offices at Darling Park and built a new printing press at Chullora, in the city's west. The SMH later moved with other Sydney Fairfax divisions to a building at Darling Island.

In May 2007, Fairfax Media announced it would be moving from a broadsheet format to the smaller compact or tabloid-size, in the footsteps of The Times, for both The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> After abandoning these plans later in the year, Fairfax Media again announced in June 2012 its plan to shift both broadsheet newspapers to tabloid size, with effect from March 2013.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Fairfax also announced it would cut staff across the entire group by 1,900 over three years and erect paywalls around the papers' websites.<ref name=digital>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The subscription type was to be a freemium model, limiting readers to a number of free stories per month, with a payment required for further access.<ref name="subscription model">Template:Cite news</ref> The announcement was part of an overall "digital first" strategy of increasingly digital or online content over printed delivery, to "increase sharing of editorial content," and to assist the management's wish for "full integration of its online, print and mobile platforms."<ref name=digital/>

It was announced in July 2013 that the SMHTemplate:'s news director, Darren Goodsir, would become editor-in-chief, replacing Sean Aylmer.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

On 22 February 2014, the Saturday edition was produced in broadsheet format for the final time, with this too converted to compact format on 1 March 2014,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> ahead of the decommissioning of the printing plant at Chullora in June 2014.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

In June 2022, the paper received global coverage and backlash to an attempted outing of Australian actress Rebel Wilson by columnist Andrew Hornery, and the subsequent defence of his since-deleted column by editor Bevan Shields; Wilson pre-empted the Hornery disclosure with an Instagram post confirming her relationship.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Daily Life Woman of the YearEdit

In 2012, Woman of the Year (WOTY) awards were created by the editor of the Daily Life section, Sarah Oakes, inspired by the sexism faced by former prime minister Julia Gillard. Winners were selected as the result of voting by the public as well as a panel of judges appointed by Fairfax. Winners have included:<ref name=woty2014>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

2012: Julia Gillard<ref name=woty2014/>
2013: "ADFA Kate"<ref name=woty2014/> (an RAAF cadet, victim of the "Skype sex scandal" at the Australian Defence Force Academy<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>)

2014: Rosie Batty<ref name=woty2014/>
2015: Gillian Triggs<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

2016: Mariam Veiszadeh<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Editorial stanceEdit

The contemporary editorial stance of The Sydney Morning Herald is generally centrist.<ref name="Everett">Template:Cite book</ref> It has been described as the most centrist of Australia's three major news publications (the others being The Australian and The Age).<ref name="Everett" /> In 2004, the newspaper's editorial page stated: "market libertarianism and social liberalism" were the two "broad themes" that guided the HeraldTemplate:'s editorial stance.<ref name="2004Ed">Template:Cite news</ref> During the 1999 referendum on whether Australia should become a republic, the Herald (like the other two major papers) strongly supported a Yes vote.<ref>Mark McKenna, "The Australian Republic: Still Captive After All These Years" in Constitutional Politics: The Republic Referendum and the Future (eds. John Warhurst & Malcolm Mackerras): (University of Queensland Press, 2002), p. 151.</ref> It also endorsed the Yes vote for the 2023 Australian Indigenous Voice referendum.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

The Sydney Morning Herald did not endorse the Labor Party for federal office in the first six decades of Federation, always endorsing a conservative government.<ref name="2004Ed"/> The newspaper has since endorsed Labor in seven federal elections: 1961 (Calwell), 1984 and 1987 (Hawke), 2007 (Rudd), 2010 (Gillard),<ref name=Davies2019Editorials>Lisa Davies, Why the Herald does editorials and why they can be controversial Template:Webarchive, Sydney Morning Herald (March 27, 2019).</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> 2019 (Shorten),<ref name="Meade">Template:Cite news</ref> and 2022 (Albanese).<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

During the 2004 Australian federal election, the Herald did not endorse a party,<ref name="2004Ed"/><ref name=Davies2019Editorials/> but subsequently resumed its practice of making endorsements.<ref name=Davies2019Editorials/> After endorsing the Coalition at the 2013<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> and 2016 federal elections,<ref>Fergus Hunter, Federal election 2016: Daily newspapers unanimously back Turnbull Coalition Template:Webarchive, Sydney Morning Herald (July 1, 2016).</ref> the newspaper endorsed Bill Shorten's Labor Party in 2019, after Malcolm Turnbull was ousted as prime minister.<ref name=Meade/>

At the state level, the Herald has consistently backed the Coalition; the only time since 1973<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> that it has endorsed a Labor government for New South Wales was Bob Carr's government in the 2003 election, though it declined to endorse either party three times during this period.<ref name=Davies2019Editorials/>

The Herald endorsed Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton in the run-up for the 2016 U.S. presidential election.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

The Herald endorsed the Liberal-National Coalition in the run-up for the 2023 New South Wales state election.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

In May 2023, the Herald opposed the extradition of former WikiLeaks editor Julian Assange to the United States, with the newspaper conducting a poll that found 79% oppose Assange's extradition to the United States.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Myall Creek coverage and apologyEdit

As The Sydney Herald, the newspaper's editorial stance at times reflected racist attitudes within the colony, with the paper urging squatters across Australia to emulate the mass killing of Native Americans. The front page of the paper on December 26, 1836 read: "If nothing but extermination will do, they will exterminate the savages as they would wild beasts."<ref>The Sydney Herald, 26 December 1836, p. 1.</ref> In the wake of the Myall Creek massacre in which at least twenty-eight unarmed Wirraayaraay men, women and children were murdered by a group of white stockmen, the paper published a long letter from a squatter in defence the killings.<ref>David Marr, Killing for Country (2023) Black Inc., p. 86. Template:ISBN</ref> The squatter described the Indigenous inhabitants of Australia as "the most degenerate, despicable, and brutal race of beings in existence", writing: "they will, and must become extinct – civilization destroys them – where labor and industry flourish, they die!"<ref>The Sydney Herald, 19 September 1838, p. 4.</ref> The Herald's editorialisation on the trials contrasted with other newspapers which were more respectful on the matter and on the notion of Aboriginal Australians being protected under the law as British subjects, the same as settlers. In 2023, the paper apologised for its coverage of the massacre and the subsequent trials of the perpetrators.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Notable contributorsEdit

WritersEdit

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IllustratorsEdit

Simon Letch, named as one of the year's best illustrators on four consecutive occasions.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

List of journalistsEdit

Current journalistsEdit

The below is a list of The Sydney Morning HeraldTemplate:'s current journalists.{{ safesubst:#invoke:Unsubst||date=__DATE__ |$B=Template:Ambox Template:Main other }}


Name	Role	Other roles	Start year at Nine / Fairfax
James Massola	citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>	Previously South-East Asia correspondent
Callan Boys	Good Food Guide editor (SMH) Restaurant critic for Good Weekend Good Food writer
Paul Sakkal	Federal political reporter	Same role at The Age
Lisa Visentin	Federal political reporter	Same role at The Age
Angus Thompson	Federal political reporter (industrial relations)	Same role at The Age
Monique Farmer	National Managing Editor	Same role at The Age
David Swan	citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>	Same role at The Age<ref name=lizziessi/>

Former journalistsEdit

The below is a list of The Sydney Morning Herald's former journalists. {{ safesubst:#invoke:Unsubst||date=__DATE__ |$B=Template:Ambox Template:Main other }} After 40 years as art critic, John McDonald was sacked in September 2024.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Name	Role	Other roles	Start year at Nine / Fairfax
Gail Williams	Food columnist	Same role at The Sunday Times

OwnershipEdit

{{#invoke:Labelled list hatnote|labelledList|Main article|Main articles|Main page|Main pages}}

Fairfax went public in 1957 and grew to acquire interests in magazines, radio, and television. The group collapsed spectacularly on 11 December 1990 when Warwick Fairfax, who was the 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 in a Fairfax family member, John B. Fairfax, as a significant player in the company.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> From 10 December 2018, Fairfax Media merged into Nine Entertainment, making the paper a sister to the Nine Network's TCN station.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> This reunited the paper with a television station; Fairfax had been the founding owner of ATN, which became the flagship of what became the Seven Network.

ContentEdit

Column 8Edit

Column 8 is a short column to which Herald readers send their observations of interesting happenings. It was first published on 11 January 1947.<ref name = "ANHG26">Template:Cite journal</ref> 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.<ref name="ANHG8">Template:Cite journal</ref> As at February 2024, the column is the final column on the Opinion (editorial and letters) pages.

The content tends to the quirky, typically involving strange urban occurrences, instances of confusing signs (often in Engrish), word play, and discussion of more or less esoteric topics.<ref name = "ANHG41">Template:Cite journal</ref>

The column is also sometimes affectionately known as Granny's Column, after a fictional grandmother who supposedly edited it.<ref name = "ANHG26"/> The column's original logo was a caricature of Sydney Deamer, originator of the column and its author for 14 years.<ref name = "ANHG8"/><ref>Template:Australian Dictionary of Biography</ref>

It was edited for 15 years by George Richards, who retired on 31 January 2004.<ref name = "ANHG26"/><ref name = "Ramsey">Template:Cite news</ref> Other editors besides Deamer and Richards have been Duncan Thompson, Bill Fitter, Col Allison, Jim Cunningham, Pat Sheil, and briefly, Peter Bowers and Lenore Nicklin.<ref name = "Ramsey"/> The column is, as of March 2017, edited by Herald journalist Tim Barlass, who frequently appends reader contributions with puns; and who made the decision to reduce the column's publication from its traditional six days a week, down to just weekdays.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

OpinionEdit

The Opinion section is a regular of the daily newspaper, containing opinion on a wide range of issues. Mostly concerned with relevant political, legal and cultural issues, the section presents work by regular columnists, including Herald political editor Peter Hartcher, Ross Gittins, and occasional reader-submitted content. Iconoclastic Sydney barrister Charles C. Waterstreet, upon whose life the television workplace comedy Rake is loosely based, had a regular humour column in this section.

Good WeekendEdit

Good Weekend was launched in May 1978, as a Saturday magazine appearing in both SMH and The Canberra Times.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The editor was Valerie Lawson, and Cyprian Fernandes was founding chief sub-editor.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref name=veage2017>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

It is nowTemplate:When distributed with both The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age in Saturday editions. It contains, on average, four feature articles written by its stable of writers and others syndicated from overseas as well as sections on food, wine, and fashion. Writers include Stephanie Wood, Jane Cadzow, Melissa Fyfe, Tim Elliott, Konrad Marshall, and Amanda Hooton.Template:Citation needed

Other 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.Template:Citation needed

Good Weekend is edited by Katrina Strickland.Template:When Previous editors include Ben Naparstek, Judith Whelan (2004–2011)<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> and Fenella Souter.Template:Citation needed

DigitisationEdit

The paper has been partially digitised as part of the Australian Newspapers Digitisation Program project of the National Library of Australia.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name=Brown>Template:Cite journal</ref>

AwardsEdit

In March 2024, David Swan, technology editor of SMH and The 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.<ref name=lizziesmi3/><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> With The Age, SMH also won Best Consumer Technology Coverage and were highly commended in the Best News Coverage category.<ref name=lizziessi>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

NotesEdit

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ReferencesEdit

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External linksEdit

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