The Sunday Times, owned by
News CorporationNews Corporation is the world's second largest media conglomerate as of 2008 and the world's third largest in entertainment as of 2009...
, is a
tabloidA tabloid is an industry term for a smaller newspaper format per spread; to a weekly or semi-weekly alternative newspaper that focuses on local-interest stories and entertainment, often distributed free of charge ; or to a newspaper that tends to sensationalize and emphasize or exaggerate or...
Sunday newspaper printed in
PerthPerth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. With a population of 1,650,000 , Perth ranks fourth amongst the nation's cities, with a growth rate consistently above the national average....
and distributed throughout
Western AustraliaWestern Australia is a state of Australia, occupying the entire western third of the Australian continent. Australia's largest state and the second largest subnational entity in the world, it has 2.2 million inhabitants , 85% of whom live in the south-west corner of the state.The state's capital...
.
Established by
Frederick VosperFrederick Charles Burleigh Vosper was an Australian newspaper journalist and proprietor, and politician. He was well known for his ardent views and support of Australian republicanism, federalism and trade unionism.-Early life:...
in the 1890s,
The Sunday Times became a vehicle for the harassment of C.Y. O'Connor and the proposed
Goldfields Water Supply SchemeThe Goldfields Water Supply Scheme is a pipeline and dam project which delivers potable water to communities in Western Australia's Eastern Goldfields, particularly Coolgardie and Kalgoorlie...
in the late 1890s until O'Connor's death by suicide in 1902. A subsequent government inquiry found no justification for Vosper's campaign against O'Connor.
The paper was purchased from Vosper's estate by
James MacCallum SmithJames MacCallum Smith was an Australian politician, newspaper proprietor and stock breeder. He lobbied unsuccessfully for many years for the secession of Western Australia from the Federation of Australia....
and Arthur Reid in 1901.
The Sunday Times, owned by
News CorporationNews Corporation is the world's second largest media conglomerate as of 2008 and the world's third largest in entertainment as of 2009...
, is a
tabloidA tabloid is an industry term for a smaller newspaper format per spread; to a weekly or semi-weekly alternative newspaper that focuses on local-interest stories and entertainment, often distributed free of charge ; or to a newspaper that tends to sensationalize and emphasize or exaggerate or...
Sunday newspaper printed in
PerthPerth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. With a population of 1,650,000 , Perth ranks fourth amongst the nation's cities, with a growth rate consistently above the national average....
and distributed throughout
Western AustraliaWestern Australia is a state of Australia, occupying the entire western third of the Australian continent. Australia's largest state and the second largest subnational entity in the world, it has 2.2 million inhabitants , 85% of whom live in the south-west corner of the state.The state's capital...
.
History
Established by
Frederick VosperFrederick Charles Burleigh Vosper was an Australian newspaper journalist and proprietor, and politician. He was well known for his ardent views and support of Australian republicanism, federalism and trade unionism.-Early life:...
in the 1890s,
The Sunday Times became a vehicle for the harassment of C.Y. O'Connor and the proposed
Goldfields Water Supply SchemeThe Goldfields Water Supply Scheme is a pipeline and dam project which delivers potable water to communities in Western Australia's Eastern Goldfields, particularly Coolgardie and Kalgoorlie...
in the late 1890s until O'Connor's death by suicide in 1902. A subsequent government inquiry found no justification for Vosper's campaign against O'Connor.
The paper was purchased from Vosper's estate by
James MacCallum SmithJames MacCallum Smith was an Australian politician, newspaper proprietor and stock breeder. He lobbied unsuccessfully for many years for the secession of Western Australia from the Federation of Australia....
and Arthur Reid in 1901. In 1912 MacCallum Smith became sole proprietor and managing director, remaining in that role until 1935, as well as being a member of the Western Australian Legislative Assembly for 20 years.
In 1935, a syndicate led by
Jack SimonsJohn Joseph Simons was an Australian businessman and politician, best known for establishing the Young Australia League....
and including
Victor CourtneyVictor Desmond Courtney was a Western Australian journalist. From small beginnings in a partnership in a weekly sporting newspaper, Courtney ended up as the managing director of the The Sunday Times and owner of a network of thirty regional newspapers.-Works:* Random Rhymes, Perth, the author.*...
and mining entrepreneur
Claude de BernalesClaude Albo de Bernales was a mining entrepreneur from Western Australia whose business activities and marketing did much to stimulate investment in Western Australia during the early years of the twentieth century...
purchased Western Press Limited, the publisher of the paper, for £55,000. Simons was chairman and managing director until his death in 1949 when Courtney took control. In 1955 Courtney sold Western Press to
Rupert MurdochKeith Rupert Murdoch, AC , usually known as Rupert Murdoch, is an Australian-born American global media mogul. He owns media outlets and is a major shareholder, chairman and managing director of News Corporation ....
's
News LimitedNews Limited was the principal holding for the business interests of Rupert Murdoch until the formation of News Corporation in 1979. News Limited is now a subsidiary of that company.-History:...
.
Current format and circulation
To counter perceived decreasing demand for newspapers and competition from radio, television and internet news,
The Sunday Times has made adaptations in style and presentation but remains a populist tabloid rather than a newspaper of record. Sunday monopoly status ensures statewide circulation for its extensive display- and classified-advertising content, making it probably the most profitable newspaper in Australia.
The paper's audited circulation was 321,500 in December 2008, 5.9% down from 341,500 in the preceding year.
Recent editors have been Don Smith from 1987, Brian Crisp from 1999, Brett McCarthy who took over from Crisp in 2001 and his successor Sam Weir from June 8, 2007.
In June 2006,
The Sunday Times launched
PerthNow, an online presentation of local news from
News CorporationNews Corporation is the world's second largest media conglomerate as of 2008 and the world's third largest in entertainment as of 2009...
.
Competition-free status
Western Australia's diminutive population has not enjoyed a competitive Sunday newspaper since
The IndependentThe Independent was a Perth, Western Australian based weekly newspaper owned by mining entrepreneurs Lang Hancock and Peter Wright....
was bought out by News Corporation in 1984 and wound up in May 1986.
Before 1990,
PerthPerth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. With a population of 1,650,000 , Perth ranks fourth amongst the nation's cities, with a growth rate consistently above the national average....
enjoyed competitive Saturday newspapers (
Weekend News and
Western Mail (1980-1988)), as well as weekday morning and afternoon dailies (
The West AustralianThe West Australian is the only locally-edited daily newspaper published in Perth, Western Australia, and is owned by ASX-listed West Australian Newspapers Holdings Ltd . The West is published in tabloid format, as is the state's other major newspaper, The Sunday Times, a News Limited publication...
and
Daily NewsThe Daily News was an afternoon daily newspaper published in Perth, Western Australia from 1882 until 1990, though its origin is traceable from 1840.-Origins:...
respectively). However, there appears to be a long-standing reciprocal arrangement that the publishers of
The West Australian and
The Sunday Times do not compete directly with each other's diurnal circulation, though Saturday's
West is obliged to share the state's very lucrative weekend classified-advertising market with
The Sunday Times. A small-circulation state edition of Murdoch's national daily
The AustralianThe Australian is a broadsheet newspaper published in Australia on Monday to Saturday each week since 1964. The editor is Chris Mitchell and the 'editor-at-large' is Paul Kelly....
is printed at
The Sunday Times, targeting an elite readership group in a way which does not seriously impinge on the more demotic audience of
The West Australian.
2008 'leak' controversy
On 30 April 2008, members of the
police fraud squadThe Western Australia Police services an area of 2.5 million square kilometres, the world's largest non-federated area of jurisdiction. In 2008, its 7,526 employees include 5,647 police officers.-History:-Early history:...
conducted a raid on the offices of
The Sunday Times—an unusual event for Australian mainstream media—following a state government complaint that confidential cabinet information had been 'leaked' to the paper. An
upper-houseThe Legislative Council, or upper house, is one of the two chambers of parliament in the Australian state of Western Australia. Its central purpose is to act as a house of review for legislation passed through the lower house, the Legislative Assembly. It sits in Parliament House in the state...
select committee inquiry subsequently found that no direction had been given to police by any minister, parliamentarian or staffer; and that "the police over-reacted in what should have been a routine search". The committee's findings included criticism of the
Department of Premier and CabinetThe Department of the Premier and Cabinet is a department of the Government of Queensland. Its branches include the Governance Division and Policy Division.-External links:**...
and the
Corruption and Crime CommissionThe Corruption and Crime Commission is a permanent investigative commission established by the Government of Western Australia in 2003, largely as a result of the findings of a Royal Commission into the state's police service. Its role is to investigate public corruption...
. It also recommended "that the Attorney General continue to pursue the introduction of shield laws for journalists".
Further reading
- Dunn, Frank, (1997) A century of Sundays Perth, W.A. Sunday Times. ISBN 0646338013