''Truth'' was a

newspaper A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide variety of fields such as politics, business, sports a ...

published in

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

. It was founded in August 1890 by

William Nicholas Willis William Nicholas Willis (3 August 1858 – 3 April 1922) was an Australian politician and newspaper proprietor. Early life Willis was born in Mudgee, New South Wales and educated in Mudgee and, briefly, at St Mary's School in Sydney, which he ...

and its first editor was

Adolphus Taylor Adolphus George Taylor (14 June 1857 – 18 January 1900) was an Australian journalist and populist politician, active in New South Wales the 1880s and 1890s. Early life Reputed the illegitimate son of a gentleman father, Taylor was born in Mudg ...

. In 1891 it claimed to be "The organ of radical democracy and Australian National Independence" and advocated "a republican Commonwealth created by the will of the whole people", but from its early days it was mainly a

scandal sheet Tabloid journalism is a popular style of largely sensationalist journalism (usually dramatized and sometimes unverifiable or even blatantly false), which takes its name from the tabloid newspaper format: a small-sized newspaper also known as ...

. Subsequent owners included

Paddy Crick William Patrick Crick (10 February 1862 – 23 August 1908) was an Australian politician, solicitor and newspaper proprietor. He was described by author Cyril Pearl as an irresistible demagogue, who "looked like a prize fighter, dressed like a ...

and John Norton. Norton established several subsidiaries, including the ''Sportsman'' (1900), the ''

Brisbane Truth The ''Brisbane Truth'' newspaper was a subsidiary of Sydney ''Truth'', and was launched in 1890. Digitisation The paper has been digitised as part of the Australian Newspapers Digitisation Program of the National Library of Australia. Refere ...

'' (1900), the Melbourne ''Truth'' (1902) and the Perth ''Truth'' (1903 to 1931), and an Adelaide ''

Truth Truth is the property of being in accord with fact or reality.Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionarytruth 2005 In everyday language, truth is typically ascribed to things that aim to represent reality or otherwise correspond to it, such as beliefs ...

'' (1916-1964)''.''

Ezra Norton

Although John Norton disinherited his estranged wife, Ada Norton and his son

Ezra Norton Ezra Norton (8 April 1897 – 4 January 1967) was an Australian newspaper baron and businessman. Early life Norton was born in the Sydney suburb of Watsons Bay, son of the proprietor of ''Truth'', John Norton (1858–1916) and Ada McGrath (18 ...

at his death in 1916 (with the bulk of his estate going to his daughter, Joan), Mrs Norton persuaded the

New South Wales Parliament The Parliament of New South Wales is a bicameral legislature in the Australian state of New South Wales (NSW), consisting of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly (lower house) and the New South Wales Legislative Council (upper house). Each ...

to backdate the new ''Testator's Family Maintenance Act'' to take effect before Norton's death. Under this legislation, she succeeded in having his will rewritten in 1920 so that she and Ezra Norton each received a third of his inheritance, allowing

to gain control of the ''Truth'' group.

End of ''Truth''

In January 1941,

launched ''

The Daily Mirror ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the ...

''. In October 1958, he replaced the Sydney ''Truth'' with the ''Sunday Mirror''. In December 1958, Norton and the other shareholders sold their shares in ''Truth and Sportsman Ltd'' to the Fairfax group, which on-sold it to

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 ...

News Ltd 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 ...

. The ''Sunday Mirror'' continued to be published until 1977 when it was renamed the ''Sunday'' which in turn ceased circulation on 7 Oct 1979. The ''Truth (Melbourne)'' which was initially the Victorian edition of the Truth (Sydney) continued publication until 15 May 1993.

Digitisation

The paper has been digitised as part of the Australian Newspapers Digitisation Program project of 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 ...

References

Sources

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