''The Mirror'' was a weekly
broadsheet
A broadsheet is the largest newspaper format and is characterized by long vertical pages, typically of . Other common newspaper formats include the smaller Berliner and tabloid–compact formats.
Description
Many broadsheets measure roughly ...
newspaper published from 1921 until 1956. It was the "
scandal sheet" of its day, dealing with divorce cases and scandals.
History
In 1918,
Victor Desmond Courtney in partnership with
John Joseph Simons, became managing editor of a weekly sporting newspaper, ''The Sportsman'', which covered racing, trotting, minor sports and theatricals. They expanded the scope of ''The Sportsman'', to cover general local news and renamed it ''The Call''. The paper gained publicity from a libel suit brought by the
Lord Mayor of Perth
__TOC__
The history of the City of Perth, a local government area of Western Australia is defined over three distinct periods:
*From 1829 to 1838 — controlled by the Governor of Western Australia
*From 1838 to 1858 — controlled by the ''Per ...
, Sir
William Lathlain.
They then bought a struggling Saturday-evening paper, ''The Sunday Mirror'', for £100 from Bryan's Print,
[Historical Encyclopedia of Western Australia, Jenny Gregory & Jan Gothard, eds, pp593] renaming it ''The Mirror'', and building its circulation during the 1920s to over 10,000, largely through racy reporting of scandals and divorces.
"It was not a good paper" Courtney later admitted, "but it was a paper with the news and it was the news dished out in a breezy fashion while the entertainment angle of news presentation was kept well in mind". "It titillated Perth males in a constrained way and, unlike Truth, it was a 'clean dirty paper'."
[''The Mirror'' featured sport and sensation, finding scandalous headlines, such as "Nakedness at North Beach" together with pious editorials.]pence
A penny is a coin ( pennies) or a unit of currency (pl. pence) in various countries. Borrowed from the Carolingian denarius (hence its former abbreviation d.), it is usually the smallest denomination within a currency system. Presently, it is t ...
(2d, which is of an Australian pound
The pound ( Sign: £, £A for distinction) was the currency of Australia from 1910 until 14 February 1966, when it was replaced by the Australian dollar. As with other £sd currencies, it was subdivided into 20 shillings (denoted by the symbol ...
), and ran for 42 issues until 10 April 1921.
''The Mirror'' was helped through 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 ...
by Money Words, a popular competition.[
Courtney was the editor at the paper until 1935, when Frank Davidson was appointed editor.
In 1935, a syndicate led by Simons and including Courtney and mining entrepreneur Claude de Bernales purchased Western Press Limited, the publishers of '']The Sunday Times
''The Sunday Times'' is a British newspaper whose circulation makes it the largest in Britain's quality press market category. It was founded in 1821 as ''The New Observer''. It is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of News UK, whi ...
'', for £55,000.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 ...
's 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 3,00 ...
,[
]
References
External links
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Further reading
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Mirror
Defunct newspapers published in Western Australia
Weekly newspapers published in Australia
1920 establishments in Australia
Newspapers established in 1920
Newspapers on Trove