The Courier-Mail facts for kids
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| Type | Daily newspaper |
|---|---|
| Format | Tabloid |
| Owner(s) | News Corp Australia |
| Publisher | Queensland Newspapers |
| Founded | 1846 |
| Language | English |
| Headquarters | Brisbane, Australia 41 Campbell St Bowen Hills QLD 4006 |
| Circulation | 172,801 Monday–Friday 228,650 Saturday |
| ISSN | 1322-5235 |
The Courier-Mail is a well-known Australian newspaper that comes out in Brisbane. It's owned by a company called News Corp Australia. You can buy it every day from Monday to Saturday. This newspaper is printed in a smaller size called a tabloid. Its main offices are in Bowen Hills, a suburb of Brisbane. The paper is printed in Yandina on the Sunshine Coast. You can find The Courier-Mail online and in print across Queensland and parts of Northern New South Wales.
Contents
The Story of The Courier-Mail
How the Newspaper Started
The story of The Courier-Mail goes back a long way, through four different newspaper names. It began as the Moreton Bay Courier in 1846. Then it became The Courier, and later the Brisbane Courier. In 1933, it joined with another paper, the Daily Mail, and became The Courier-Mail.
The Moreton Bay Courier first came out once a week in June 1846. Its first editor, Arthur Sidney Lyon, wanted the paper to share what the community needed. He also wanted it to show the truth about the colony to people far away. He hoped it would help the area grow and become successful.
The newspaper started coming out more often. By 1861, it was a daily paper. Arthur Sidney Lyon is known as the founder and first editor. He worked with a printer named James Swan, who later became the mayor of Brisbane. Lyon and Swan started the paper in Brisbane in 1846. The first issue had four pages and came out on June 20, 1846.
After a while, Lyon and Swan had different ideas about the newspaper. Lyon eventually gave full control to Swan. Swan then sold the paper to Thomas Blacket Stephens around 1859. The paper changed its name to The Courier, and then to the Brisbane Courier in 1864.
The 1900s and Beyond
John James Knight was the editor-in-chief of The Brisbane Courier from 1906 to 1916. He later became the head of all the company's newspapers.
The very first edition of The Courier-Mail was printed on August 28, 1933. This happened after Keith Murdoch's company bought and combined The Brisbane Courier and the Daily Mail. In 1987, Rupert Murdoch's company, News Limited, took over the newspaper.
The Courier-Mail launched its first website in 1998. This allowed people to read the news online.
Changes in the 2000s
For many years, until 2006, The Courier-Mail was a large-sized newspaper called a broadsheet. But in December 2005, they announced a change. The paper would become a smaller size, a tabloid, in early 2006. They called it "compact" instead of "tabloid." This was because many people thought tabloids were lower quality.
The last large-sized paper came out on March 11, 2006. The first smaller-sized paper was published on March 13, 2006. On the same day, the newspaper's website was updated and made bigger. Changing to a tabloid size made The Courier-Mail similar to other daily newspapers owned by News Limited in Australia.
Awards and Recognition
The Courier-Mail has won several awards. It has been named the news destination of the year twice by a group called the Pacific Area Publishers Association. It was also once named the national/metro daily newspaper of the year.
The newspaper is known for speaking up for its community. In 2022, it was recognized for helping to get an extra $425 million each year for mental health services.
In 2015, The Courier-Mail was added to the Queensland Business Leaders Hall of Fame. This is a special honor for important businesses in Queensland.
Newspaper's Viewpoint
The Courier-Mail is generally considered a newspaper that leans to the right in its political views. This means it often supports the Coalition political parties. It usually supports free market economic ideas and globalization. For example, it supported the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
In 2007, a news website called Crikey described it as a newspaper that is "to the right." They said it often shows "lazy populism" rather than strong political beliefs.
How Many People Read It?
In 2013, The Courier-Mail was the fourth most-read daily newspaper in Australia. Between January and March 2013, about 172,801 copies were sold from Monday to Friday. On Saturdays, about 228,650 copies were sold. These numbers were a bit lower than the year before.
In March 2013, about 488,000 people read the paper from Monday to Friday. On Saturdays, about 616,000 people read it. Most of the people who read the paper, about three-quarters, live in the Brisbane area.
Even though it's often said to be Brisbane's only daily newspaper, it has had some competition. From 2007, News Corp itself published a free afternoon paper called mX, but it stopped in 2015. Also, since 2007, another company has published an online-only newspaper called Brisbane Times.
As of August 2015, The Courier-Mail's website was one of the most visited news websites in Australia. It attracted almost 2.6 million visitors each month.
Awards It Helps Sponsor
The Courier-Mail has helped sponsor two sets of literary awards.
One was The Courier-Mail Book of the Year Award. It started in 1999 and gave out a prize of $30,000. This award covered many types of writing. The first prize was given in 2001, and the last in 2005. Some winners included:
- 2001: The Schoonermaster's Dance, by Alan Gould, and True History of the Kelly Gang, by Peter Carey
- 2005: The Silver Donkey: A Novel for Children, by Sonya Hartnett
Since 2012, The Courier-Mail has co-sponsored The Courier-Mail People's Choice Queensland Book of the Year. This award is part of the Queensland Literary Awards. It is given to an excellent book by an author from Queensland.
Digitizing Old Newspapers
Older issues of The Courier-Mail from before 1955 have been digitized. This means they have been scanned and put online. You can find them as part of the Australian Newspapers Digitisation Program at the National Library of Australia. This makes it easy for people to read old newspapers.
Editors and Journalists
For 30 years, Jack Reardon, a former Australian rugby league player, was the senior rugby league journalist for the paper. Tom Linneth, who was the sports editor, became the youngest editor in Australia in 1960 at age 29.
Chris Jones became the editor in 2020, taking over from Sam Weir. Jones had worked for News Corp for 21 years before that. As of November 2023, the newspaper's cartoonist is Sean Leahy.
See also
- The Sunday Mail
- List of newspapers in Australia
