The Daily Telegraph, also nicknamed The Tele, is an Australian tabloid newspaper[1] published by Nationwide News Pty Limited, a subsidiary of News Corp Australia, itself a subsidiary of News Corp. It is published Monday through Saturday and is available throughout Sydney, across most of regional and remote New South Wales, the Australian Capital Territory and South East Queensland.
 | |
 Cover of The Daily Telegraph (26 May 2016), occupied by a story on David Feeney, during the 2016 federal election campaign. | |
| Type | Daily newspaper |
|---|---|
| Format | Tabloid |
| Owner(s) | Nationwide News (News Corp Australia) |
| Editor | Ben English |
| Founded |
|
| Political alignment | Centre-right |
| Headquarters | 2 Holt Street, Surry Hills, Sydney |
| Circulation |
|
| Readership |
|
| Sister newspapers | The Sunday Telegraph |
| Website | www |
A 2013 poll conducted by Essential Research found that the Telegraph was Australia's least-trusted major newspaper, with 49% of respondents citing "a lot of" or "some" trust in the paper.[2][3] Amongst those ranked by Nielsen, the Telegraph's website is the sixth most popular Australian news website with a unique monthly audience of 2,841,381 readers.[4]
History
editThis section needs to be updated. (December 2024) |
The Daily Telegraph was founded in 1879,[5] by John Mooyart Lynch, a former printer, editor and journalist who had once worked on the Melbourne Daily Telegraph.[6] Lynch had failed in an attempt to become a politician and was looking to start his own paper to reflect the opinion of the common working man. Lynch put together a large team of backers, including an old friend Watkin Wynne, who was unusual for being a very wealthy journalist,[7] and Robert Sands, who ran the printing company John Sands. The first edition was published on 1 July 1879, costing only one penny. The first page of the first edition outlined Lynch's vision for his paper, saying: "We wish to make this journal a reliable exponent of public opinion, which we think is hardly represented in the existing press. "Without disparaging existing journals in Sydney, which we fully admit have many excellencies, we believe that they have missed the great objective of journalism to be in sympathy with and to report public opinion."[8]
When sales of the Telegraph began to fall in 1882 the newspaper was taken over by Watkin Wynne.[7] Wynne introduced shorter, punchier, stories and more sensationalism.[7]
The Telegraph reported on various events and movements of the time. The paper was reported as being a strong advocate for Federation.[9] In the first decade of the 20th century, the Telegraph had lost its lead in paper sales and was in a fierce circulation war with other Sydney dailies, particularly the Sydney Morning Herald.
Watkin Wynne remained in charge of the paper until his death in 1921.[10] Under his successors, the paper underwent some major changes. In 1924, the paper began running news on the front page rather than just advertising. Still a broadsheet (large format paper), in 1927 declining circulation and financial troubles forced a switch to the smaller tabloid format. In 1929, it was taken over by wealthy tobacco manufacturer Sir Hugh Denison, the founder of the Sydney newspaper The Sun.[11] In 1929, Denison formed Associated Newspapers Ltd (ANL) with S Bennett Ltd and media owner R. C. Packer. Denison later also acquired the Daily Guardian (which had been owned by Smith's Weekly) which he combined with the Telegraph News Pictorial to form the new Daily Telegraph.
The paper returned to a broadsheet format in 1931. From 1936 until its sale to Rupert Murdoch's News Limited in 1972, the Telegraph was owned by Sir Frank Packer's Australian Consolidated Press.[12] Packer sold the Daily Telegraph to Rupert Murdoch's company News Limited in 1972 for $15 million.[13]
In 1990, the Daily Telegraph merged with its afternoon stablemate, The Daily Mirror. The merged entity would resume the name of The Daily Telegraph in January 1996.
Counterparts
editOn Sundays, its counterpart is The Sunday Telegraph.
Its Melbourne counterparts are the Herald Sun and Sunday Herald Sun. In Brisbane, it is linked with The Courier-Mail and The Sunday Mail, in Adelaide, The Advertiser and Sunday Mail, in Hobart, The Mercury and The Sunday Tasmanian, in Darwin, The Northern Territory News and Sunday Territorian.
Political stance
editThe Daily Telegraph has traditionally been opposed to the Australian Labor Party, and is often a supporter of the Liberal Party of Australia. A 2013 front-page headline said of the second Rudd Government "Finally, you now have the chance to kick this mob out" and "Australia Needs Tony".[14][15] The paper's high-profile columnists are predominantly conservative.
A Roy Morgan media credibility survey found that 40% of journalists viewed News Limited newspapers as Australia's most partisan media outlet, ahead of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation on 25%. The survey found that readers took a generally dim view of journalists. In response to the question "Which newspapers do you believe do not accurately and fairly report the news?", the Daily Telegraph came third (9%) behind the Herald Sun (11%) and "All of them" (16%).[16]
At the 2007 Australian federal election The Daily Telegraph for only the second time endorsed the Australian Labor Party. At the 2010 Australian federal election the newspaper endorsed the Coalition and Tony Abbott. In the 2013 election, the Daily Telegraph ran 177 stories that were pro-Coalition and 11 stories that leaned the other way.[17] During both the 2016 and 2019 Australian federal elections, the Daily Telegraph strongly endorsed prime ministers Malcolm Turnbull and Scott Morrison respectively, both of the Liberal Party, while attacking then-opposition leader Bill Shorten of the Australian Labor Party. The Labor party lost both elections.
Endorsements
edit| Election | Endorsement | |
|---|---|---|
| 2010 | Coalition | |
| 2013 | Coalition | |
| 2016 | Coalition | |
| 2019 | Coalition | |
| 2022 | Coalition | |
Staff
editEditors
editThe Telegraph is edited by Ben English. The previous editor was Christopher Dore.[18] Dore's predecessors are Paul Whittaker, Gary Linnell, David Penberthy,[19] Campbell Reid,[19] David Banks,[20] and Col Allan, who served as editor-in-chief at the Murdoch-owned New York Post from 2001 to 2016.
Circulation and readership
editReadership data from Enhanced Media Metrics Australia October 2018 report shows that the Daily Telegraph has total monthly readership of 4,500,000 people via print and digital, compared to 7,429,000 people for its primary competitor, the Sydney Morning Herald.[21]
The Daily Telegraph's weekday print newspaper circulation fell from 310,724 in June 2013[22] to 221,641 in June 2017.[23] Saturday newspaper circulation fell to 221,996 over the same period.[22]
As of February 2019, third-party web analytics provider Alexa ranked The Daily Telegraph's website as the 343rd most visited website in Australia (down from 90th in July 2015).[24]
Criticism and controversies
editSee also
editReferences
edit- ^ "About Us". Archived from the original on 5 September 2015.
- ^ "Trust in Australian media: Essential Research poll on media". Crikey. 18 December 2013. Archived from the original on 19 December 2013.
- ^ "Trust in media". The Essential Report. Archived from the original on 11 December 2013.
- ^ "Nielsen Digital Content Ratings July 2018 Tagged Rankings". nielsen.com.
- ^ Clancy, Laurie (2004). "The Media and Cinema". Culture and Customs of Australia. Greenwood Press. p. 126. ISBN 0-313-32169-8.
- ^ Corry, Marion. "Waverley Cemetery Who's Who Pen & Paper" (PDF). Waverley Council. Waverley Library. Retrieved 26 October 2021.
- ^ a b c Brown, Nicholas. "Wynne, Watkin (1844–1921)". Wynne, Watkin. Australian Dictionary of Biography. Australian National University. Retrieved 26 October 2021.
- ^ Lynch, John Mooyart (1 July 1879). "No title (editorial)". The Daily Telegraph: 2.
- ^ "Australian Federation". Tasmanian News. 18 February 1890. p. 3.
- ^ "Watkin Wynne". Melbourne Press Club - Hall Of Fame. 31 May 2017. Retrieved 7 September 2022.
- ^ "Hugh Denison (Dixson)". Melbourne Press Club - Hall Of Fame. 31 May 2017. Retrieved 7 September 2022.
- ^ Sharp, Annette (3 August 2012). "The birth of a media empire". Daily Telegraph. Archived from the original on 27 April 2021. Retrieved 27 April 2021.
- ^ "Telegraph Sold to Murdoch". The Canberra Times. 5 June 1972. p. 1. Retrieved 1 November 2021 – via Trove.
- ^ "Media Watch: One voice, many mastheads (05/08/2013)". abc.net.au. Archived from the original on 31 May 2015.
- ^ "Daily Telegraph 'Kick This Mob Out' front page draws Press Council complaints". The Sydney Morning Herald. 9 August 2013. Archived from the original on 2 June 2015.
- ^ "10,13_tr66_media" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 22 October 2006.
- ^ "Media Watch: The Turnbull takeover (21/09/2015)". abc.net.au. Archived from the original on 23 September 2015.
- ^ Carne, Lucy (2 December 2015). "Chris Dore appointed new editor of the Daily Telegraph as Paul Whittaker becomes editor-in-chief of The Australian". Archived from the original on 9 March 2017. Retrieved 9 June 2021.
- ^ a b AAP (1 April 2005). "New editor for Daily Telegraph". Sydney Morning Herald. Archived from the original on 24 September 2015.
- ^ "Banksy's Blog: About David Banks". banksysblog.co.uk. Archived from the original on 27 April 2009. Retrieved 8 May 2018.
- ^ "AUSTRALIAN NEWS MEDIA TOTAL AUDIENCE REPORT" (PDF). www.emma.com.au. 2018. Archived from the original (PDF) on 14 February 2019. Retrieved 15 November 2020.
- ^ a b Knott, Matthew (16 August 2013). "Newspaper circulation results shocker: the contagion edition". Crikey. Private Media. Archived from the original on 6 October 2014. Retrieved 27 August 2013.
- ^ Samios, Zoe (22 August 2017). "Half yearly circulation audit sees most newspapers suffer 10% declines while Sunday Telegraph falls below 400,000". Mumbrella.
- ^ "dailytelegraph.com.au Site Overview". Alexa. Archived from the original on 9 September 2015. Retrieved 30 July 2015.
External links
edit
Media related to The Daily Telegraph (Sydney) at Wikimedia Commons
