The Daily Telegraph (Australia)

History

The Tele, as it is also known, was founded in 1879. From 1936 to 1972, it was owned by Sir Frank Packer's Australian Consolidated Press. That year it was sold to News Limited (now News Corp Australia).

The paper ran as a Broadsheet until 1927, when it switched to a tabloid format. The paper returned to a broadsheet format in 1931, but wartime paper restrictions saw it return to tabloid format in 1942.

In October 1990, it merged with its afternoon sister paper The Daily Mirror to form The Daily Telegraph-Mirror with morning and afternoon editions.The new paper continued in this vein until January 1996 when reader pressure for a shorter title caused the name of the paper to revert to The Daily Telegraph, despite staff concerns that former Mirror readers would now feel disenfranchised. The paper continued morning and afternoon editions until January 2002, when the afternoon edition was discontinued.

The circulation of the newspaper during the June quarter 2013 was 310,724 on weekdays, the largest of a Sydney newspaper. In the 2013-14 financial year it decreased 9.65% to 280,731.

A 2013 poll conducted by Essential Research found that the Telegraph was Australia's least-trusted major newspaper, with 41% of respondents citing trust in the paper.

Counterparts

On Sundays, its counterpart is The Sunday Telegraph.

Its Melbourne counterparts are the Herald Sun and Sunday Herald Sun. In Brisbane, it is linked with The Courier-Mail and The Sunday Mail, in Adelaide, The Advertiser and Sunday Mail, in Perth, The Sunday Times, in Hobart, The Mercury and The Sunday Tasmanian, in Darwin, The Northern Territory News and Sunday Territorian.

Political stance

The Daily Telegraph has traditionally been opposed to the Australian Labor Party, and is often a supporter of the Australian Liberal Party. One noteworthy 2013 front-page headline said of the second Rudd Government "Finally, you now have the chance to kick this mob out". The paper's high-profile columnists are predominantly conservative, including Piers Akerman, Miranda Devine, Tim Blair and Andrew Bolt.

A Roy Morgan media credibility survey found that 40 per cent of journalists viewed News Limited newspapers as Australia's most partisan media outlet, ahead of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation on 25 per cent. The survey found that readers took a generally dim view of journalists. In response to the question "Which newspapers do you believe do not accurately and fairly report the news?", the Daily Telegraph came third (9%) behind the Herald Sun (11%) and "All of them" (16%).

At the Australian federal election, 2007 The Daily Telegraph for only the second time endorsed the Australian Labor Party. At the Australian federal election, 2010 the Newspaper endorsed the Coalition and Tony Abbott. In the 2013 election, the Daily Telegraph ran 177 stories that were pro Coalition 11 stories that leaned the other way.

John Brogden allegations

The Telegraph was widely criticised for its coverage of former New South Wales Liberal leader John Brogden. After Brogden resigned in 2005, the newspaper ran a front-page headline, "Brogden's Sordid Past: Disgraced Liberal leader damned by secret shame file," detailing past allegations of misconduct by Brogden. The following day, Brogden attempted suicide at his electoral office.

Rodney Tiffen, an academic at the University of Sydney, described the newspaper's coverage as an example of "hyena journalism", judging Brogden's personal life to be off limits following his withdrawal from public life.

Editor David Penberthy claimed that his source was from inside the Liberal Party and that none of the events would have happened if no one leaked from inside the party.

Mount Druitt High School

On 8 January 1997, the Telegraph published the headline, "The class we failed" concerning was the Year 12 class at Mount Druitt High School in outer Western Sydney in which no student scored a Tertiary Entrance Rank (TER) above 50 (the maximum possible mark is 100). Although the article made clear that the newspaper believed that the state had failed the students, many accused the Telegraph of branding the students themselves as failures and showing a full year photo identifying students.

The story led to a renewed focus on the quality of public schools in Western Sydney and precipitated several reviews of schooling in the area. But for many, the headline highlighted problems with interpreting Higher School Certificate results and the accompanying TER.

The students successfully sued the newspaper in the Supreme Court for defamation. The Telegraph subsequently apologised and settled for damages out of court. The published apology stated:

Later, criticising defamation laws, News Limited CEO John Hartigan said that

Call centres in India

In October 2006, The Telegraph claimed in a front page article that ANZ were using call centres in Bangalore, India. The paper even sent a journalist to Bangalore, Luke McIlveen, and a photographer to verify this claim. ANZ strongly denied the claim, stating that they do not employ overseas call centre staff in India. Subsequently, ANZ pulled all of its advertising from News Limited, including Foxtel and News websites.

In assuming blame, David Penberthy, editor-in-chief of News Limited, defended McIlveen.

Allegations of plagiarism

In 2002, former Telegraph journalist, Matt Sun, was accused of plagiarism by the TV program Media Watch. Editor at the time, Campbell Reid, responded by accusing Media Watch's host of having a conflict of interest that "destroyed the credibility of any judgement he could pass on the ethics and standards of others in the media".

Press Council complaint regarding Greens article

In May 2011, The Telegraph published an article making an assertion about the Australian Greens which subsequently prompted a complaint to the Australian Press Council. The article asserted that the Greens had managed to "force" the Government to divert money from flood relief, to fund various Green programs. The Press Council upheld the complaint and published the following statement (extract only):

Press Council complaint regarding series of misleading NBN articles

In June and July 2011, The Telegraph published a series of articles about the National Broadband Network. These articles triggered a complaint to the Australian Press Council, alleging that they were factually incorrect, unbalanced and misleading. In December 2011, the Press Council upheld the complaints on all three articles, forcing The Telegraph to publish the adjudication. The Council also published the following statement in regards to the issue:

Press Council complaint regarding Mark Latham article (Sunday Telegraph)

In December 2011, The Sunday Telegraph published two articles regarding former Labor leader Mark Latham and an alleged argument he had with his child's swimming teacher. Mr Latham complained to the Australian Press Council that there was a conflict of interest which should have been disclosed as the reporter was the daughter of one of the swim teachers at the school. Mr Latham also complained that the articles breached the privacy of his family, especially his young children, and were not in the public interest. The Press Council upheld the complaint and published the following statement (extract only):

The Council also found that there had been an "unreasonable intrusion on the children's privacy" and upheld that aspect of the complaint.

Press Council complaint regarding asylum seeker article

In November 2011, The Telegraph published an article regarding asylum seekers with the front-page heading 'OPEN THE FLOODGATES – Exclusive: Thousands of boat people to invade NSW'. Another headline stated 'Detainee Deluge for Sydney'. This prompted a complaint to the Australian Press Council, which was upheld. The Press Council published the following statement (extract only):

Press Council complaint regarding series of Clover Moore articles

Throughout 2011, The Telegraph published 17 articles regarding Sydney Lord Mayor and MP Clover Moore. The articles prompted a complaint to the Australian Press Council. The complainant argued that the articles provided unbalanced coverage and that many of the headlines and phrases were opinion rather than fact. The Press Council upheld the complaint in part and published the following statement (extract only):

This adjudication marked the 4th complaint to have been upheld against The Daily Telegraph under the editorship of Paul Whittaker, since commencing the role in April 2011.

Photoshopping of Mike Carlton onto Boston bombing victim

Following the resignation of Fairfax commentator Mike Carlton, The Daily Telegraph published a 2-page spread attacking Carlton and competing newspaper the Sydney Morning Herald. The spread included a composited image of Boston Marathon bombing victim James Costello, with Mr Carlton's face and wearing an Arab headdress. The photoshopped image portrayed Carlton 'escaping Gaza'. The image manipulation drew widespread criticism on social media, and forced the editor to apologise, saying he was unaware of the origin of the well known image.

Editors

The Telegraph is edited by Christopher Dore. Dore's predecessors are Paul Whittaker, Gary Linnell, David Penberthy, Campbell Reid, David Banks and Col Allan, who now serves as editor-in-chief at the Murdoch-owned New York Post.

Columnists

Columnists include Piers Akerman, Tim Blair, Miranda Devine and education specialist Maralyn Parker. Journalists include Joe Hildebrand, Samantha Maiden, Andrew Clennell, Mark Morri, Nick Tabakoff, Edward Boyd, Ashleigh Gleeson, Laura Banks and Daniel Meers.

Past employees

Past writers for the newspaper include Lucian Boz, Mark Day, Peter Frilingos, Mike Gibson, Peter Holder and David Luff.

Blogs

The Daily Telegraph website hosts the blogs of several columnists.

Circulation and readership

In the 2013-14 financial year weekday circulation decreased 9.65% to 280,731 while Saturday circulation dropped 8.67% to 265,711. Readership rose 1.53% to 1,191,000 readers on weekdays, while falling 1.62% on Saturdays to 909,000.

The average print circulation for The Daily Telegraph on weekdays was 310,724 during the June quarter 2013, having fallen 11.2 per cent compared to the June quarter 2012.

The Daily Telegraph's readership on weekdays has been estimated at 781,000 during 2012, down from 902,000 during 2011. Its readership on Saturdays has been estimated at 729,000 during 2012, down from 800,000 during 2011.

The Daily Telegraphs's website, according to third-party web analytics providers Alexa and SimilarWeb, is the 90th and 200nd most visited website in Australia respectively, as of July 2015. SimilarWeb rates the site as the 21st most visited news website in Australia, attracting almost 3.7 million visitors per month.