Manifest Editorial Differences: The Age and The Argus in the 1920s and 30s Sybil Nolan Introduction The Age started life in 1854 in a building in Elizabeth Street, Melbourne. As business grew, the newspaper moved to premises in Collins Street. In 1899, its proprietor, David Syme, commissioned an elegant bronze of Mercury, messenger of the gods, which was installed on a pedestal above the building’s renovated façade. It was a statement, not merely a statue. In classical mythology, Hermes (the Greek precursor of the Romans’ Mercury) slew Argus, a giant with a hundred eyes. [1] The rivalry that developed between The Argus and The Age during Syme’s lifetime was famous. Lloyd, in his history of the Australian Journalists’ Association, described the lack of good fellowship between Age and Argus staff, and how even in the face of poor working conditions this mistrust impeded early attempts to form a journalists’ union in Melbourne. [2] The newspapers’ mutual opposition became part of the tradition of Melbourne journalism and a cornerstone of Melbourne journalism history. The Argus had been launched in 1846 as a liberal newspaper, but, after various adjustments, its ownership came under the domination of a Scot, Lauchlan Mackinnon, who oversaw its transformation into the journal of Melbourne’s establishment. From 1860, when Syme, another canny Scot, became sole proprietor of The Age, their newspapers competed fiercely for editorial talent, overseas news sources, advertisers, distribution arrangements, political influence and, of course, readers. The contest was sharpened by Syme’s radical politics and aggressive business tactics. Other newspapers fell by the way or were bought out by The Age or The Argus , which both flourished in the vigorous climate of competition. When David Syme died in 1908, he left The Age with a circulation of 150,000. Sir Lauchlan Mackinnon, cousin of the original Mackinnon, [3] served as chairman of The Argus until 1919, and sales of that daily continued to grow under his management, standing at 123,000 when he retired. [4] In the 1920s, the rivals’ dominance of the Melbourne newspaper market was challenged by the Herald & Weekly Times group, which had been revitalised by the recruitment of Keith Murdoch to its editorial management. Murdoch rejuvenated the evening Herald , the oldest newspaper in Melbourne, and soon acquired for it a lively young stable- mate, the Sun News-Pictorial, a graphically illustrated morning tabloid which had been launched by Hugh Denison’s Associated Newspapers group in 1922. The Sun was ‘ultra-modern’, even more like an evening newspaper than many evening newspapers. It carried news and photos on the front page, and a pictorial centrespread. As Green noted, its articles were short, its headlines striking, ‘its general get-up bright and attractive, its display excellent’. In addition, it was not above catching subscribers through special offers that had nothing to do with news, such as free insurance. [5] By 1933, the Sun’s average daily circulation had grown to 170,000 while sales of The Age had dropped to 107,000 and The Argus to 97,000. [6] Cecil Edwards, a journalist for the Sun in the 1920s, described how the tabloid was able to outsell its rivals: The Age and the Argus despised the Sun. Unable to conceive that anyone who mattered would read the “silly little paper”, and failing to perceive that it was ceasing to be one, they ignored it while it bored under their foundations. [7] While Edwards, who became a Herald & Weekly Times executive, was characteristically dismissive of The Age and The Argus , this view represents standard industry wisdom. [8] Journalists’ accounts of the Sun’ s ascendancy and the way the established newspapers responded to it tend to dismiss The Age and The Argus in one breath, as if the