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The Argus was a morning daily newspaper in Melbourne that was established in 1846 and closed in 1957 and was considered to be the general Australian newspaper of record for this period. Widely known as a conservative newspaper for most of its history, it adopted a left leaning approach from 1949. The main competitor over the life of the newspaper was David Syme's more liberal-minded The Age.
History
The newspaper was originally owned by William Kerr, a journalist who had worked with the Sydney Gazette before moving to Melbourne in 1839 to work on John Pascoe Fawkner's Port Phillip Patriot. The first edition was published on 2 June 1846.
The paper was known for its scurrilous abuse and sarcasm and by 1853 Kerr lost ownership through a series of libel suits. The paper was then published under the name of Edward Wilson. The paper was also to become a stablemate to the weekly The Australasian which was to become The Australasian Post in 1946.
During the Depression in 1933 it launched the Melbourne Evening Star in competition with The Herald newspaper of The Herald and Weekly Times Ltd, but was forced to close the venture in 1936.
In 1949 the paper was acquired by the London-based Daily Mirror newspaper group. On 28 July 1952, The Argus became the first newspaper in the world to publish colour photographs in a daily paper. The paper had interests in radio and, in 1956, the new medium of television, being part of the consortium General Telecasters Victoria (GTV), and its television station GTV-9. The company's newspaper operation experienced severe loss of profitability in the 1950s, attributable to increased costs of newsprint and acute competition for newspaper circulation in Melbourne. In 1957 the paper was discontinued and sold to the Herald and Weekly Times group (HWT), which undertook to re-employ Argus staff and continue publication of selected features. HWT made an allocation of shares to the UK owners. The final edition was published on 19 January 1957. The company's other print and broadcasting operations were unaffected.
Ironically, the takeover of The Argus by the powerful Mirror Group, of Fleet Street, led to hopes of a renaissance for The Argus. Fresh capital, new ideas, and new strategies from London. But instead, the new arrivals from England finished up destroying their new possession.