The Age

Lore & Background

The Age was founded by three Melbourne businessmen: brothers John and Henry Cooke and Walter Powell. From its foundation the paper was self-consciously liberal in its politics, supporting free commerce, religion, and personal action. Ebenezer Syme was elected to the Victorian Legislative Assembly shortly after buying The Age, and his brother David Syme soon came to dominate the paper, editorially and managerially. Under Syme's control The Age exercised enormous political power in Victoria, supporting liberal politicians and the White Australia policy. After David Syme's death, the paper remained in the hands of his three sons. David Syme's will prevented the sale of any equity during his sons' lifetimes, starving the paper of investment capital for 40 years. Under management of Sir Geoffrey Syme, The Age was unable to modernise and gradually lost market share. In 1948, Oswald persuaded the courts to overturn his father's will and floated David Syme and Co. This enabled a technical upgrade and defeated a takeover attempt by the Fairfax family.

Reader's Guide

The Age's significance lies in its long history as a newspaper of record for Australia and its influence on Victorian and national politics, particularly under the Syme family's control. It played a key role in exposing the slave trade in Queensland through George E. The paper supported Australian federation and the White Australia policy in the 1890s. In the 1960s and 1970s, under managing director Ranald Macdonald and editor Graham Perkin, The Age shifted to a 'left liberalism', supporting the Whitlam government while also exposing the Loans Affair. Its editorial 'Go now, go decently' on 15 October 1975 called for Whitlam's resignation. The Age has maintained a stable of leading editorial cartoonists, including Les Tanner, Bruce Petty, Ron Tandberg, and Michael Leunig. Its political influence in later decades derived less from editorials than from opinions expressed by journalists, cartoonists, and feature writers. The newspaper shares some articles with its sister paper The Sydney Morning Herald.

Did You Know?

• The Age was founded by three Melbourne businessmen: brothers John and Henry Cooke and Walter Powell.
• David Syme's will prevented the sale of any equity in the paper during his sons' lifetimes, starving it of investment capital for 40 years.
• As of September 2024, The Age's monthly readership had fallen to 4.55 million from 5.4 million in March 2020.