The Australian
| Type | Daily newspaper |
|---|---|
| Format | Broadsheet |
| Owner(s) | News Corporation |
| Editor | Chris Mitchell |
| Founded | 1964 |
| Headquarters | 2 Holt Street, Surry Hills, Sydney, New South Wales,  Australia |
| Website | The Australian |
The Australian (informally referred to as The Oz) is a national daily broadsheet newspaper published by Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. Headquartered in Sydney, but with bureaux around Australia, it was founded in 1964, losing money for nearly thirty years. Its circulation is still quite small, with a weekday circulation of approximately 130,000 and a Saturday circulation of approximately 195,000.
The Australian is described as an influential paper not because of how many people read it but because of who reads it - the political elite and the business class.[citation needed]
The Australian tends to support free-trade economic policy, a realpolitik approach to foreign policy, and is particularly in favour of relaxed regulation of the media sector. It could be politically described as being an advocate of New Right ideas.
Unlike its more populist stablemates, such as The Daily Telegraph and the Herald Sun, the paper adopts a somewhat liberal approach on social issues. It has a particular focus on foreign news, especially in relation to Australia's immediate neighbours in South-East Asia. On Monday it has a liftout focussing on worldwide issues, on Tuesdays an IT liftout, Wealth and Higher Education liftouts on Wednesday, Media and Marketing on Thursdays and an expanded sport liftout on Fridays.
Amongst its regular columnists are the political journalist Paul Kelly, foreign editor Greg Sheridan, left-wing radio broadcaster Phillip Adams, and conservative writers Janet Albrechtsen, Imre Salusinszky and Angela Shanahan. It also features daily cartoons from Bill Leak and Peter Nicholson. The paper's editor-in-chief as at August 2006 was Chris Mitchell.
As the only national daily, with the exception of the business-oriented Australian Financial Review, its closest competitors in the major Australian markets are the Fairfax broadsheets The Sydney Morning Herald, and Melbourne's The Age.
Editors
- Chris Mitchell, Editor in Chief
- Michael Stutchbury, Editor
- Nick Cater, Deputy Editor
- Graham Erbacher, Deputy Editor
- Christopher Dore, Deputy Editor
- Paul Whittaker, Deputy Editor
- Deborah Jones, Executive Editor
- Martin Beesley, Managing Editor
- David Tanner, Sport Editor
- Tom Switzer, edits the "opinion" page
- Andrew White, Business Editor
Current journalists
- Steve Lewis
- Dennis Shanahan
- Cath Hart
- Blair Speedy, business writer
- Andrew Trounson, business writer
- Tim Boreham, business columnist
- Richard Gluyas, business writer
- Christine Jackman
- David King
- Dan Box
- Kevin Andrusiak
- James Madden
- Richard Kerbaj
- Natasha Robinson
- Ewin Hannan
- Rick Wallace
- George Megalogenis
- Chip Le Grand, Australian Football writer
- Michael Sainsbury, business writer
- James Riley
- Patricia Karvelas, political writer
- Clara Pirani, Medical reporter
- Stuart Rintoul
- Sian Powell
- Chris Adamek
- Elizabeth Colman, business writer
- Samantha Maiden, political writer
- Peter Wilson, Europe correspondent
- Dorothy Illing, education writer
- Brendan O'Keefe, education writer
- Lisa Macnamara, education writer
- Leigh Dayton, Science writer
- Bernard Lane, education writer
- Glenn Milne, columnist
- Alan Wood, economics
- Matt Price, columnist
- Greg Roberts
- Andrew Fraser
- Tony Koch, Chief Queensland reporter
- Kevin Meade
- Annabelle McDonald
- Hedley Thomas
- Michael McKenna
Occasional contributors
- Shahram Akbarzadeh, lecturer Monash University, Australia
- Ross Fitzgerald
- Antonella Gambotto (now Gambotto-Burke)