15 Facts About The Age

The Age is a daily newspaper in Melbourne, Australia, that has been published since 1854.

The Age is considered a newspaper of record for Australia, and has variously been known for its investigative reporting, with its journalists having won dozens of Walkley Awards, Australia's most prestigious journalism prize.

The Age was founded by three Melbourne businessmen: brothers John and Henry Cooke and Walter Powell.

In 1882 The Age published an eight-part series written by journalist and future physician George E Morrison, who had sailed, undercover, for the New Hebrides, while posing as crew of the brigantine slave ship, Lavinia, as it made cargo of Kanakas.

Under the management of Sir Geoffrey Syme, and his editors, Gottlieb Schuler and Harold Campbell, The Age was unable to modernise, and gradually lost market share to The Argus and the tabloid The Sun News-Pictorial, with only its classified advertisement sections keeping the paper profitable.

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Perkin's editorship coincided with Gough Whitlam's reforms of the Labor Party, and The Age became a key supporter of the Whitlam government, which came to power in 1972.

Contrary to subsequent mythology The Age was not an uncritical supporter of Whitlam, and played a leading role in exposing the Loans Affair, one of the scandals which contributed to the demise of the Whitlam government.

The Age has always kept a stable of leading editorial cartoonists, notably Les Tanner, Bruce Petty, Ron Tandberg and Michael Leunig.

Macdonald was criticised by some members of the Syme family, but he argued that The Age was a natural partner for Fairfax's flagship property, The Sydney Morning Herald.

The Age believed the greater resources of the Fairfax group would enable The Age to remain competitive.

The Age was published from offices in Collins Street until 1969, when it moved to 250 Spencer Street .

The Age has been known for its tradition of investigative reporting.

The Age's reporting of the Unaoil international bribery scandal led to investigations by anti-corruption agencies in the UK, US, across Europe and Australia and several businessmen pleading guilty for paying bribes in nine countries over 17 years.

In 2014 The Age put a photograph of an innocent man, Abu Bakar Alam, on the front page, mistakenly identifying him as the perpetrator of the 2014 Endeavour Hills stabbings.

The Age was published from its office in Collins Street until 1969, when the newspaper moved to 250 Spencer Street.