''The Advertiser'' is a daily
tabloid format
A tabloid is a newspaper with a compact page size smaller than broadsheet. There is no standard size for this newspaper format.
Etymology
The word ''tabloid'' comes from the name given by the London-based pharmaceutical company Burroughs Wel ...
newspaper based in the city of
Adelaide
Adelaide ( ) is the capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater Adelaide (including the Adelaide Hills) or the Adelaide city centre. The dem ...
,
South Australia
South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories ...
. First published as a broadsheet named ''The South Australian Advertiser'' on 12 July 1858,
[''The South Australian Advertiser'', published 1858–1889]
National Library of Australia, digital newspaper library. it is currently a tabloid printed from Monday to Saturday. ''The Advertiser'' came under the ownership of
Keith Murdoch
Sir Keith Arthur Murdoch (12 August 1885 – 4 October 1952) was an Australian journalist, businessman and the father of Rupert Murdoch, the current Executive chairman for News Corporation and the chairman of Fox Corporation.
Early life
Murdoc ...
in the 1950s, and the full ownership of
Rupert Murdoch
Keith Rupert Murdoch ( ; born 11 March 1931) is an Australian-born American business magnate. Through his company News Corp, he is the owner of hundreds of local, national, and international publishing outlets around the world, including ...
in 1987. It is a publication of Advertiser Newspapers Pty Ltd (ADV), a subsidiary of
News Corp Australia
News Corp Australia is an Australian media conglomerate and wholly owned subsidiary of the American News Corp. One of Australia's largest media conglomerates, News Corp Australia employs more than 8,000 staff nationwide and approximately 3,00 ...
, itself a subsidiary of
News Corp
News Corporation, stylized as News Corp, is an American mass media and publishing company headquartered in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. The second incarnation of the News Corporation (1980–2013), original News Corporation, it was formed ...
. Through much of the 20th century, ''The Advertiser'' was Adelaide's morning broadsheet, ''
The News'' the afternoon tabloid, with ''
The Sunday Mail'' covering weekend sport, and ''
Messenger Newspapers
Messenger Newspapers is the publisher of 9 free suburban weekly newspapers together covering the Adelaide metropolitan area. Established by Roger Baynes in Port Adelaide in 1951, ''Messenger'' has since acquired other independent suburban titles ...
'' community news. The head office was relocated from a former premises in
King William Street, to a new News Corp office complex, known as Keith Murdoch House at 31 Waymouth Street.
History
''The South Australian Advertiser''
An early major daily colonial newspaper, ''
The Adelaide Times
The ''Adelaide Times'' was an early newspaper founded by James Allen and printed in Adelaide, the capital of the then colony of South Australia. It was published between 2 October 1848 and 8 May 1858, and evolved through a series of names and pub ...
'', ceased publication on 9 May 1858. Shortly afterwards,
Reverend John Henry Barrow, a former editor of the ''
South Australian Register
''The Register'', originally the ''South Australian Gazette and Colonial Register'', and later ''South Australian Register,'' was South Australia's first newspaper. It was first published in London in June 1836, moved to Adelaide in 1837, and f ...
'' founded the morning newspaper ''The South Australian Advertiser'' and a companion weekly ''
The South Australian Weekly Chronicle.'' The original owners were Barrow and
Charles Henry Goode
Sir Charles Henry Goode (, 26 May 1827 – 5 February 1922) was a British Australian merchant, businessman, politician and philanthropist in the early days South Australia. He founded Goode, Durrant and Company in 1882.
History
He was born a ...
, and the first issues were published on 12 July 1858 and 17 July 1858 respectively.
It initially consisted of four pages, each of seven columns, and cost 4 pence.
In 1863 the company started an afternoon newspaper ''
The Express'' as a competitor to ''
The Telegraph
''The Telegraph'', ''Daily Telegraph'', ''Sunday Telegraph'' and other variant names are popular names for newspapers. Newspapers with these titles include:
Australia
* ''The Telegraph'' (Adelaide), a newspaper in Adelaide, South Australia, publ ...
'', an afternoon/evening daily paper independent of both ''The Advertiser'' and the ''South Australian Register''.
The company was then re-formed, effective 9 September 1864, with additional shareholders
Philip Henry Burden
Frederic Britten Burden (1852 – 30 January 1897) was a businessman and newspaper editor in the colony of South Australia.
History
Burden was born in England, the second son of Philip Henry Burden (ca.1823 – 3 March 1864), and emigrated to Sou ...
,
John Baker John Baker or Jon Baker may refer to:
Military figures
*John Baker (American Revolutionary War) (1731–1787), American Revolutionary War hero, for whom Baker County, Georgia was named
*John Baker (RAF officer) (1897–1978), British air marshal
...
, Captain Scott, James Counsell, Thomas Graves and others. Burden, secretary of the company, died in 1864, and Barrow, whose wife had died in 1856, married his widow in 1865, thus owning together a quarter of the company. In December 1866, the syndicate bought the now defunct ''The Telegraph'' (by this time renamed ''The Daily Telegraph'' with a morning edition and a weekend ''Weekly Mail'') at auction, and incorporated it with ''The Express'' to form ''
The Express and Telegraph
''The Telegraph'' was a newspaper in Adelaide, South Australia, founded in 1862, and merged with '' The Express'' to become ''The Express and Telegraph'', published from 1867 to 1922.
History
''The Adelaide Telegraph''
The Adelaide ''Teleg ...
''.
In 1871, when the shareholders were Barrow, Goode, Robert Stuckey, Thomas Graves,
William Parkin
William Parkin (24 August 1801 – 31 May 1889) was a businessman politician and philanthropist in the early days of the Colony of South Australia
History
Parkin was a native of Glastonbury, near Barnstaple, and emigrated to South Australia on ...
, Thomas King, James Counsell, and George Williams Chinner, the partnership was dissolved and the business was carried on by Barrow and King. J. H. Barrow died on 22 August 1874, and Thomas King ran the papers for himself and Mrs. Barrow for about five years.
In 1879 a new firm was created, consisting of Thomas King,
Fred Burden
Frederic Britten Burden (1852 – 30 January 1897) was a businessman and newspaper editor in the colony of South Australia.
History
Burden was born in England, the second son of Philip Henry Burden (ca.1823 – 3 March 1864), and emigrated to Sou ...
(son of P. H. Burden and adopted son of J. H. Barrow), and
John Langdon Bonython
Sir John Langdon Bonython (;Charles Earle Funk, ''What's the Name, Please?'' (Funk & Wagnalls, 1936). 15 October 184822 October 1939) was an Australian editor, newspaper proprietor, philanthropist, journalist and politician who served a ...
. In July 1884, Thomas King dropped out, and the firm of Burden & Bonython was formed to run the paper.
''The Advertiser''
![The Advertiser Building(GN09850)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ad/The_Advertiser_Building%28GN09850%29.jpg)
On 1 April 1889, the main publication was re-branded with an abbreviated title, ''The Advertiser''.
In December 1891, Burden retired, and sold his share of the company to Bonython,
[W. B. Pitcher]
Bonython, Sir John Langdon (1848–1939)
''Australian Dictionary of Biography'', Volume 7, Melbourne University Press, 1979, pp 339–341 who, from 1894 to 1929, became the sole proprietor of ''The Advertiser''. As well as being a talented newspaper editor, he also supported the movement towards the
Federation of Australia
The Federation of Australia was the process by which the six separate British self-governing colonies of Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania, South Australia (which also governed what is now the Northern Territory), and Western A ...
. Later, in 1923, after a run of 60 years, ''The Express'' was stopped just as its renamed rival, ''The News'', was starting. On 12 January 1929, ''The Mail'' announced that Bonython had sold ''The Advertiser'' for £1,250,000 to a group of Melbourne financiers ''
The Herald and Weekly Times
The Herald and Weekly Times Pty Ltd (HWT) is a newspaper publishing company based in Melbourne, Australia. It is owned and operated by News Pty Ltd, which as News Ltd, purchased the HWT in 1987.
Newspapers
The HWT's newspaper interests date ba ...
'', an external media company, now had the controlling stake, but Bonython still retained a 48.7% interest. Bonython then retired from his newspapers in 1929, after 65 years' service,
and his son,
John Lavington Bonython
Sir John Lavington Bonython (10 September 1875 – 6 November 1960) was a prominent public figure in Adelaide, known for his work in journalism, business and politics. In association with his father, he became involved in the management of n ...
, became editor.
[W. B. Pitcher]
Bonython, Sir John Lavington (1875–1960)
''Australian Dictionary of Biography'', Volume 7, Melbourne University Press, 1979, pp 341–342. In February 1931, in the wake of the
Great Depression
The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...
, ''The Advertiser'' took over and shut down its ailing competitors, ''
The Register
''The Register'' is a British technology news website co-founded in 1994 by Mike Magee, John Lettice and Ross Alderson. The online newspaper's masthead sublogo is "''Biting the hand that feeds IT''." Their primary focus is information tec ...
'' (published 1836-1931), ''The Chronicle'' (''Register's'' Saturday sister publication), and ''
The Observer
''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. It is a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', whose parent company Guardian Media Group Limited acquired it in 1993. First published in 1791, it is the w ...
'' (published 1843-1931), briefly renaming itself for seven months as ''The Advertiser and Register''.
News Corp Australia
On the death of
Keith Murdoch
Sir Keith Arthur Murdoch (12 August 1885 – 4 October 1952) was an Australian journalist, businessman and the father of Rupert Murdoch, the current Executive chairman for News Corporation and the chairman of Fox Corporation.
Early life
Murdoc ...
in 1952, ownership of ''The News'' and ''The Mail'' passed to his son
Rupert Murdoch
Keith Rupert Murdoch ( ; born 11 March 1931) is an Australian-born American business magnate. Through his company News Corp, he is the owner of hundreds of local, national, and international publishing outlets around the world, including ...
via
News Limited
News Corp Australia is an Australian media conglomerate and wholly owned subsidiary of the American News Corp. One of Australia's largest media conglomerates, News Corp Australia employs more than 8,000 staff nationwide and approximately 3,0 ...
. Following the handover, and in response to suggestions of external influences from Victoria made by competing newspaper ''The Mail'', the Chairman of ''The Advertiser's'' board published its policy in ''The Advertiser'' as follows:
"It is the same today as when the late Sir Langdon Bonython was in sole control. It is based upon a profound pride and belief in South Australia, and the system of private enterprise which has made this State what it is."
On 24 October 1953 the company launched the ''Sunday Advertiser'' in direct competition to News Limited's ''The Mail'', but failed to outreach its rival, though no doubt affecting its profitability. It ceased publication five years or so later, after which the by then renamed ''Sunday Mail'' advertised itself as a joint publication of Advertiser Newspapers and News Ltd., and incorporated many of the ''Sunday Advertiser'' regular features. It had also introduced colour graphics on the comics page (rather primitive by today's standards), but this was dropped shortly after joint publication commenced.
In addition, ''
The Messenger'', published since 1951 was partially purchased in 1962, and fully owned by 1983. When Murdoch acquired ''The Herald and Weekly Times'' in 1987, he also acquired the remaining 48.7% share of ''The Advertiser''. He sold ''The News'' in 1987, and it was closed in 1992. Murdoch then changed the format of ''The Advertiser'' from a broadsheet to a tabloid in November 1997, and the
masthead and content
font
In metal typesetting, a font is a particular size, weight and style of a typeface. Each font is a matched set of type, with a piece (a "sort") for each glyph. A typeface consists of a range of such fonts that shared an overall design.
In mod ...
and layout was modernised in September 2009.
Circulation
''The Advertiser'' is available for purchase throughout
South Australia
South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories ...
and some towns and regions in
New South Wales
)
, nickname =
, image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg
, map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates:
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name = Australia
, established_title = Before federation
, es ...
, Victoria and the
Northern Territory
The Northern Territory (commonly abbreviated as NT; formally the Northern Territory of Australia) is an states and territories of Australia, Australian territory in the central and central northern regions of Australia. The Northern Territory ...
located near or adjacent to the South Australia state border such as
Broken Hill
Broken Hill is an inland mining city in the far west of outback New South Wales, Australia. It is near the border with South Australia on the crossing of the Barrier Highway (A32) and the Silver City Highway (B79), in the Barrier Range. It is ...
,
Mildura
Mildura is a regional city in north-west Victoria, Australia. Located on the Victorian side of the Murray River, Mildura had a population of 34,565 in 2021. When nearby Wentworth, Irymple, Nichols Point and Merbein are included, the area had ...
,
Nhill
Nhill is a town in the Wimmera, in western Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia. Nhill is located on the Western Highway, Victoria, Western Highway, halfway between Adelaide and Melbourne. At the , Nhill had a
population of 1,749. "Nhill" i ...
and
Alice Springs
Alice Springs ( aer, Mparntwe) is the third-largest town in the Northern Territory of Australia. Known as Stuart until 31 August 1933, the name Alice Springs was given by surveyor William Whitfield Mills after Alice, Lady Todd (''née'' Al ...
. According to ''The Advertisers website, the newspaper is read by over 580,000 people each weekday, and by more than 740,000 people each Saturday. Circulation figures reported in May 2016 by
Roy Morgan Research
Roy Morgan, formerly known as Roy Morgan Research, is an independent Australian social and political market research and public opinion statistics company headquartered in Melbourne, Victoria. It operates nationally as Roy Morgan and internation ...
showed a continuing decline in readership, of 324,000 on weekdays, and 371,000 on Saturdays.
''The Advertiser''s website, adelaidenow.com.au, was rated by third-party
web analytics
Web analytics is the measurement, data collection, collection, analysis, and reporting of web Data (computing), data to understand and optimize web usage. Web analytics is not just a process for measuring web traffic but can be used as a tool fo ...
providers
Alexa
Alexa may refer to: Technology
*Amazon Alexa, a virtual assistant developed by Amazon
* Alexa Internet, a defunct website ranking and traffic analysis service
* Arri Alexa, a digital motion picture camera
People
*Alexa (name), a given name and ...
and
SimilarWeb
SimilarWeb Ltd. is an Israeli web analytics company specializing in web traffic and performance. Headquartered in Tel Aviv, the company has 12 offices worldwide. Similarweb went public on the New York Stock Exchange in May 2021.
History
The c ...
as, respectively, the 268th and 313rd most visited website in Australia, as of August 2015.
SimilarWeb rates the site as the 29th most visited news website in Australia, attracting almost 1.8 million visitors per month.
In 2015, along with other News Corp websites, ''The Advertiser''s website adopted a paywall with non-subscribers being locked out of "premium" content.
Media Week: Jars, master media agency & paywalls
''InDaily'', 15 May 2015. Retrieved 25 September 2017.
Notable personnel
Personnel at ''The Advertiser'' include:
* Sir John Langdon Bonython, editor
* Sir John Lavington Bonython, management
* Michael Atchison
Michael Plant Atchison (4 August 1933 – 16 February 2009) was an Australian cartoonist who worked for the South Australian ''Advertiser'' for over 40 years.
He was born in Sandringham, Victoria and moved to South Australia with his family ...
, cartoonist
* Natalie von Bertouch
Natalie von Bertouch ( ; born 16 December 1982), also known as Natalie Bode, is a former Australia netball international. Between 2004 and 2012 she made 76 senior appearances for Australia. Bertouch was a member of the Australia teams that won ...
* Nick Cater
Nicholas Charles Cater is a British-born Australian journalist and author who writes on culture and politics. He is a columnist for ''The Australian'' newspaper.
Early life and education
Cater was born in Billericay, Essex, and grew up in Hyth ...
* Alfred Thomas Chandler
Alfred Thomas "Alf" Chandler (3 June 1852 – 17 October 1941) was a journalist, editor and newspaper proprietor in Victoria, South Australia and Western Australia. He was prominent in the Western Australian secession movement.
History
Chandler ...
* Annabel Crabb
Annabel Crabb (born 1973) is an Australian political journalist, commentator and television host who is the ABC's chief online political writer. She has worked for Adelaide's '' The Advertiser'', ''The Sydney Morning Herald'', ''The Age'', the ...
* Tanya Denver
Tanya Denver (née Lewis, died 2001) was an Australian journalist and deputy sports editor of '' The Advertiser'' who raised the profile of sport, particularly women's sport, in South Australia before her death during childbirth in 2001.
Legacy ...
* Sidney Downer
Sidney Frederick Downer (15 September 1909 – 17 September 1969) was a South Australian journalist and sports writer, a member of the prominent Downer family, who was for three years a Japanese prisoner-of-war.
History
Sidney was born son of Jam ...
* Brady Haran
Brady John Haran (born 18 June 1976) is an Australian-British independent filmmaker and video journalist who produces educational videos and documentary films for his YouTube channels, the most notable being ''Periodic Videos'' and ''Number ...
* Andrew Kirkpatrick
* Pat Oliphant
Patrick Bruce "Pat" Oliphant (born 24 July 1935) is an Australian-born American artist whose career spanned more than sixty years. His body of work as a whole focuses mostly on American and global politics, culture, and corruption; he is particu ...
* Tory Shepherd
Tory Shepherd is an opinion writer and journalist best known for her contributions to Australian News Limited media publications and websites, including '' The Advertiser'' and ''The Punch
''The Punch'' is a Nigerian daily newspaper founded On ...
* Frederick Samuel Wallis
Frederick Samuel Wallis (22 November 1857 – 13 November 1939) was a trade unionist and politician in the state of South Australia.
History
Wallis was born at Macclesfield, South Australia, Macclesfield, a son of Richard Wallis (1826 – 21 D ...
Digitisation
The National Library of Australia
The National Library of Australia (NLA), formerly the Commonwealth National Library and Commonwealth Parliament Library, is the largest reference library in Australia, responsible under the terms of the ''National Library Act 1960'' for "mainta ...
has digitised, by OCR, photographically archived copies of the following newspapers, accessible through Trove
Trove is an Australian online library database owned by the National Library of Australia in which it holds partnerships with source providers National and State Libraries Australia, an aggregator and service which includes full text document ...
:
*''The South Australian Advertiser'' – 12 July 1858 Vol. I No. 1 t
30 March 1889 (Vol XXXXI No. 9,500)
*''The Adelaide Express'' 2 December 1863 (Vol 1. No. 3) t
29 December 1866 (Vol. IV No. 923)
*''Express and Telegraph'' from 2 January 1867 (Vol. IV, No. 925) t
3 November 1922 (Vol LIX No. 17,780)
*''The Advertiser'' – 1 April 1889 (Vol. XXXI No. 9,501) t
20 February 1931 (LXXIII No. 22,579)
*''The Advertiser and The Register'' –
*''The Advertiser'' – 1 October 1931 (Vol. LXXIV No. 22,769) t
31 December 1954 (Vol. 97 No. 30,019)
See also
* List of newspapers in Australia
This is a list of newspapers in Australia. For other older newspapers, see list of defunct newspapers of Australia.
National
In 1950, the number of national daily newspapers in Australia was 54 and it increased to 65 in 1965.
Daily newspape ...
References
External links
Official site
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Advertiser, The
Publications established in 1858
News Corp Australia
1858 establishments in Australia
Newspapers published in Adelaide
Daily newspapers published in Australia
Newspapers on Trove