*WINNER of the 2020 Colin Roderick Award*

*Longlisted for the 2020 Stella Prize*

' Prodigious researchilluminating detail.' - The Australian

' A tour de force.' - Professor Rodney Tiffen

Beforenewspapers were ravaged by the digital age, they were a powerful force,especially in Australia - a country of newspaper giants and kingmakers.

Thismagisterial book revealswho owned Australia' s newspapers and how they used them to wield politicalpower. A corporateand political history of Australian newspapers spanning 140 years, it explainshow Australia' s media system came to be dominated by a handful of empires andpowerful family dynasties. Many are household names, even now: Murdoch,Fairfax, Syme, Packer. Written with verve and insight and showing unparalleledcommand of a vast range of sources, Sally Young shows how newspaper ownersinfluenced policy-making, lobbied and bullied politicians, and shaped internalparty politics.

Thebook begins in 1803 with Australia' s first newspaper owner - a convict whobecame a wealthy bank owner - giving the industry a blend of notoriety, powerand wealth from the start.Throughout the twentieth century, Australians were unaware that they werereading newspapers owned by secret bankrupts and failed land boomers, powerfulmining magnates, Underbelly-style gangsters, bankers, and corporate titans. Itends with the downfall of Menzies in 1941 and his conviction that a handful ofpress barons brought him down. The intervening years are packed with politicaldrama, business machinations and a struggle for readers, all while the newspaper barons are peddling power and influence.

' Stunning.' - Dr Rachel Franks, The Dictionary of Sydney

An ' exceptional bookmasterfully achieved.' - Inside Story

' An invaluable volume.' - The Age and Sydney Morning Herald

' Better than a crime novel or work of fiction.' - Blue Wolf Reviews

' The best narrative of the power of the press seen for a long time.' - Otago Daily Times