On this day in history: Melbourne Argus first edition
ON 2 JUNE 1864, the first edition of The Melbourne Argus was published. This iconic daily newspaper continued to circulate for 111 years until its sudden closure on 11 January 1957, which left 1000 people jobless.
The Argus, as the paper was renamed in 1848, was founded by William Kerr who also served as Melbourne’s town clerk from 1851-1856. In its heyday, The Argus was the first daily paper in the world to publish its photographs in colour and English journalist and author Richard Twopeny described the newspaper as “the best daily paper published out of England” in 1883.
One of the oldest newspapers in Melbourne and one of only three daily morning newspapers in Victoria until 1922, The Argus was considered conservative for the most part, until it was bought by the London Daily Mirror and turned into a liberal tabloid in 1949.
The main reason for The Argus’s initial conservativeness was its editor, Frederick Haddon, who served from 1867-1898. A supporter of free trade and constitutional policy, Haddon took overseas trends into account and engaged competent new writers.
Throughout its publication history, The Argus’s arch rival was the more liberal The Age, founded in 1854. However, The Argus held its own with a readership of over 160,000 compared to The Age’s 130,000 in 1954.
Even so, the industry’s stiff competition meant frequent schemes to design a “scoop” and underhanded methods to take over the wires and prevent other newspapers from publishing stories.
In The Argus: Life and Death of a Newspaper, contributor Bob Murray explained the factors that led to the paper’s unfortunate demise. They included its being used as a communist tool, accumulation of debt from colour printing and loss of conservative advertisers and wealthy supporters with its new liberal stance.
A nostalgic piece of The Argus still lives on today. The Argus Building, constructed in 1926, housed the newspaper until its closure and continues to stand in Melbourne’s city centre.
