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syme
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Syme
and The Age
This page considers the Melbourne Age (part of
the Fairfax group from 1972) and the Syme family.
It covers -
 introduction
The history of The Age is that of a
worthy newspaper passing out of family control through
generational change (lost within the customary three generations)
and failure to strengthen its financial base through diversification
(eg into television and minor papers) and reinvestment
of profits.
early
history
The Age was founded in 1854 by retailers John
and Henry Cooke as a competitor to the Melbourne Argus
but failed twice in the next two years.
In 1856 it was acquired for £2,000 by Ebenezer Syme
(1826-1860) and his brother David (1827-1908), a gold-prospector
and road-building contractor. Each acquired 50% of the
paper with support from associates such as retailer James
McEwan. The brothers were the offspring of Scots cleric
George Alexander Syme. Ebenezer had earlier been associated
with Chapman's Westminister
Review in London and with Joseph Henry Abbott
(1830-1904) and miners' leader George Thomson
(1826-1889) had founded the Bendigo Diggers Advocate.
Ebeneezer (a former Cooke employee) served as editor of
The Age until his death in 1860. David Syme then
became the major owner, running the paper until his own
death in 1908. He bought out Ebenezer's heirs in 1891.
Brother George Alexander Syme (1822-1894) - father of
noted surgeon George Syme (1859-1929) - served as editor
of The Age and Leader but had no major
economic interest in the papers.
David Syme launched other papers - The Leader
ran from 1856 to 1957 - and acquired the morning Herald
(bought 1868, converted to evening title and sold). However
he was primarily concerned with The Age,
which became a dominant force in late colonial and early
federation era politics as a proponent of what became
the 'Australian Settlement' - cheap land, tariffs for
the protection of manufacturers, state socialism (inc
involvement in labour relations) to support workers.
Attention at Syme's passing centred on interment in a
superb quasi-Egyptian mausoleum in East Kew, reflecting
an interest in spiritualism evident in authorship of works
such as his 1903 The Soul, endorsed by fellow spiritualist
Prime Minister (and former employee) Alfred Deakin.
As Sybil Nolan points out in Half A Century of Obscurity
the restrictive nature of his will - valued for probate
at £880,000 - was more significant. It established
the David Syme Trust, prohibiting sale of the paper by
the trustees or division of its assets until the death
of his sons and all profits to be distributed to the beneficiaries
(arguably crippling the business). Sons Herbert and Geoffrey
were to run The Age. Circulation at that time
was around 150,000, the largest of a colonial paper.
Control passed to his eldest son John Herbert (1859-1939)
and fourth son Geoffrey (1873-1942), who served as Managing
Editor from 1908 to 1942. At the time of Geoffrey's death
circulation had declined to that of 1900, reflecting the
1930s Depression and vigorous competition from the Argus
and H&WT titles such as the
Herald and Sun News Pictorial.
David's surviving son Oswald (1878-1967) became Chair
of David Syme & Co Ltd in 1948, when as surviving
son he persuaded the court that the paper's financial
stability necessitated listing as a public company. David
Syme & Co Ltd was floated on the Melbourne Stock Exchange
with issue of £400,000 of non-voting preference
shares. The family rejected a takeover offer from Fairfax
at that time.
Ongoing financial problems resulted in issue of £200,000
of ordinary shares in 1950 but Syme struggled on into
the 1960s, avoiding the fate of The Argus. In
1956 it took a stake in Melbourne television station GTV-9,
acquired by Packer in 1960.
Macdonald
and Perkin
From early in the 1960s Oswald's grandson Ranald Macdonald
(Managing Director of The Age from 1964 to 1983)
and Editor Graham Perkin (1930-75) revolutionised the
paper's layout, news coverage and facilities.
The changes were tacitly endorsed by the Fairfaxes, which
in 1966 took a stake in David Syme & Co and committed
in a Deed of Agreement to
maintain
the independence of the company, to sustain and foster
the traditions of the late David Syme as developed and
expanded by his heirs and in particular to maintain
the influence of the Syme family in the affairs of the
company as publisher of The Age, to maintain
The Age as an independent newspaper of high
quality and responsibility in competition with other
newspapers circulating mainly in Victoria, to ensure
the continued dissemination through The Age
and other channels of news possessing a high degree
of objectivity, and to enable the company to take advantage
of the Associate's [ie Fairfax's] extensive experience
in the publication of newspapers and allied activities.
The
metropolitan afternoon daily Newsday was launched
in 1969 (print union opposition scuppered plans to launch
as a Sunday paper) but closed a year later. Syme had more
success in acquisition of suburban papers during the 1970s.
In 1972 Fairfax increased its stake in David Syme to over
50%, moving to 83% in 1973 and full ownership in 1983.
It thus suffered the excitement of Warwick Jr's failed
privatisation and maneuvering by Black
and Packer.
Syme's suburban papers had merged with Murdoch's Cumberland
chain in 1981 as Syme Community Newspapers (later Fairfax
Community Newspapers), with Murdoch's stake being acquired
in 1984.
In 1999 David Syme (and thus control of The Age)
became The Age Company Ltd as part of John Fairfax Holdings
Ltd.
A chronology of the group is here.
studies
The Syme family, builders of The Age, has not attracted
a study of the calibre of Gavin Souter's two studies of
the Sydney Morning Herald and the Fairfax family:
Company of Heralds and Heralds & Angels
(Melbourne: Melbourne Uni Press 1981 and 1991).
Rivalry with the Packers and Murdochs
features in most studies of those families.
Charles Sayers' David Syme (Melbourne: Cheshire
1965) is the major biography of the crusading Victorian
editor. Sayers contributed more succinct biographies of
David
and Ebenezer
Syme to volume 6 of the Australian Dictionary of Biography
(Melbourne: Melbourne Uni Press 1976). They are complemented
by David Syme (Cheltenham: Vantage House 1982)
from descendant Ranald Macdonald and by Michael Cannon’s
The Australian Thunderer: 'The Age' after the Gold
Rush, 1854-1859 (Melbourne: Heritage 1971)
Geoffrey Serle provided a crisp account of David's son
Sir Geoffrey Syme in volume 12 (1990) of the ADB.
It is complemented by Sybil Nolan's 2001 Half A Century
of Obscurity (PDF).
For Macdonald see in particular John Tidey's 1998 paper
The Last Syme: Ranald Macdonald's impact on The
Age, 1964-1983.
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