Fairfax and Syme: David Syme and The Age

Syme and The Age

This page considers the Melbourne Age (part of the Fairfax group from 1972) and the Syme family.

It covers -

  • introduction
  • early history
  • Macdonald and Perkin
  • studies

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.