The Australian has begun celebrating its 60th anniversary, supported by commercial partners including Qantas, Harvey Norman, Hancock Prospecting, CommBank, Ampol, and Woodside.
The Australian’s managing director, John Lehmann, said: “We are thrilled to partner with some of Australia’s most iconic brands, some of which have been with us since those early years and have helped to shape the nation.”
On 15 July 1964, Rupert Murdoch published the first issue of The Australian. Today, according to Roy Morgan, it is the most read national newspaper in the country with 4.091 million readers across print and digital.
“Today, we reach more Australians than ever before, across more platforms than we ever thought possible in 1964,” The Australian’s editor-in-chief, Michelle Gunn, said.
“Our audience is invested, engaged and determined to help build a better Australia. Our subscribers play a critical role in our commitment to serve the country into the future.”
Starting today, The Australian will begin rolling out a special editorial series, Six Decades in Six Weeks. The series will highlight the biggest news stories, cultural and lifestyle events, business and sporting achievements, and memorable pictures and cartoons of the past 60 years, decade by decade.
On 13 July, The Australian will publish a special glossy 104-page 60th Anniversary Collector’s Edition magazine, featuring influential people from the past 60 years.
The list will include prime ministers, business titans, sports champions, musicians, scientists, and artists.
The special magazine is supported by Rolex, Omega, Viking Cruises, Abercrombie & Kent, and Bolton Clark among others.
As well as editorial content across print, digital, video, social, and a podcast via The Front, there will also be a gala black-tie anniversary event on 25 July – Rupert Murdoch himself is expected to attend – and a consumer marketing campaign across print, digital, social, radio, television, and outdoor.
“Sixty years ago this month, a young ambitious publisher was boldly preparing for the launch of what would be this country’s first truly national daily newspaper, The Australian,” the paper wrote over the weekend.
“As staff gathered in an unfinished, unheated building in freezing Canberra, the 33-year-old Rupert Murdoch was telling potential readers about the new publication.
“A promotional book outlined the desire for ‘a newspaper of intelligence, of broad outlook, of independent spirit and of elegant appearance’. This was ‘the birth of a great newspaper.'”
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