Here’s a response from a anonymous Australian media librarian.

I love this question. Australia's newspaper industry is alive and well, not yet reduced to Marley's ghost status, like most of the papers in the US. The most intellectual paper is The Australian, but it is a Rupert Murdoch publication, so the editorials often makes the Wall Street Journal look quite progressive. I don't know where it's published and don't care. Does have interesting books sections (yes, they still exist!), and great travel reporting. Giving it a run for the money is the Melbourne Age, as Victorians think they are super cultured, and always trying to one-up Sydney (as in Morning Herald). But it's all show. The joke is that, in Melbourne, the Sports section should be renamed "Religion." So much for high culture.

Personally the best papers, anywhere in the world, are the local rags. It's the way you take the pulse of a community, learn about what makes it tick. In Adelaide it's The Adelaide Advertiser, which is full of murder,car accidents, cute puppies, kangaroos, penguins, etc., and australian rules football. Coverage of international news is generally superficial, with a high concentration on war, disasters, incomprehensible (to foreigners) US policy, and celebrities. In my old home state of Queensland, it's the Courier Mail, which is pretty right wing (the letters to the editor seem heavy on rude comments by racist and sexist illiterates) until you buy a copy of the Gold Coast Bulletin, which still has chicks in bikinis on page 1 let alone page 2, and all its coverage is about how, no way, the bottom hasn't fallen out of the local real estate market,and all anyone really needs to do is spend more money at the beach.

When you work in the media, it's a given you have an opinion (rational or not) about your product. Newspapers are highly personal. That's why they survive.

The Australian is the only national newspaper, and so has a very wide circulation.

The Age (from Melbourne) and The Sydney Morning Herald are the other well respected Australian newspapers.

They would be the equivalent of the New York Times and the Washington Post.

Carol Woo.

Serials Section

CQUniversity Library

Building 10, Bruce Highway

Rockhampton QLD 4702

AUSTRALIA

Ph: Myrna +61 7 4923 2665

Ph: Carol    +61 7 4923 2663

Ph: Di          +61 7 4923 2664
Fax: +61 7 4930 6381

Email: library-serials@cqu.edu.au

Website: www.cquni.edu.au

I'd guess maybe the Sydney Morning Herald (daily) and the Sunday Mail (weekly), and then maybe the Courier Mail??

I'm curious to hear what others say.

Andrea

At 10:22 AM 6/16/2011, you wrote:

I would like to tap the collective wisdom of our group. A faculty member asked me what is considered the most important Australian newspaper (equivalent to the New York Times). I'm clueless.
 
Linda Grooms
Periodicals Supervisor
duPont-Ball Library
Stetson University
 
 

Andrea Serra
Library Assistant, Electronic Resources
Vassar College Libraries
Technical Services, Box 20
124 Raymond Avenue
Poughkeepsie, NY 12604-0020
anserra@vassar.edu
Tel.  845.437.5773
Fax. 845.437.5864