The first edition of The Sydney Herald appeared on the 18th of April 1831, a four-page weekly with a print run of just 750 copies, founded by three former employees of the now-defunct Sydney Gazette: Ward Stephens, Frederick Stokes, and William McGarvie. This humble beginning would evolve into the oldest continuously published newspaper in Australia, a title that has stood for over two centuries. The paper began publishing daily in 1840, and in 1841, it was purchased by an Englishman named John Fairfax, who renamed it The Sydney Morning Herald the following year. Fairfax, whose family would control the newspaper for almost 150 years, established editorial policies based on principles of candour, honesty, and honour, stating that they had no wish to mislead and no interest to gratify by unsparing abuse or indiscriminate approbation. The original four-page weekly had a print run of 750, and the newspaper began to publish daily in 1840, and the operation was purchased in 1841 by an Englishman named John Fairfax who renamed it The Sydney Morning Herald the following year.
From Broadsheet to Compact
The newspaper has undergone significant physical transformations, most notably the shift from broadsheet to compact format, a decision that was first announced in May 2007 but abandoned before being re-announced in June 2012. The final Saturday edition was produced in broadsheet format on the 22nd of February 2014, with the conversion to compact format taking effect on the 1st of March 2014, ahead of the decommissioning of the printing plant at Chullora in June 2014. This change was part of an overall digital first strategy, which included cutting staff across the entire group by 1,900 over three years and erecting paywalls around the papers' websites. The subscription type was to be a freemium model, limiting readers to a number of free stories per month, with a payment required for further access. The announcement was part of an overall digital first strategy of increasingly digital or online content over printed delivery, to increase sharing of editorial content, and to assist the management's wish for full integration of its online, print and mobile platforms.
The Fairfax Dynasty
John Fairfax, who purchased the newspaper in 1841, established a family dynasty that would control the paper for almost 150 years, with his great-great-grandson Warwick Fairfax attempting to privatise the group by borrowing $1.8 billion in 1990. The group collapsed spectacularly on the 11th of December 1990 when Warwick Fairfax, who was the great-great-grandson of John Fairfax, attempted to privatise the group by borrowing $1.8 billion. The group was bought by Conrad Black before being re-listed in 1992. In 2006, Fairfax announced a merger with Rural Press, which brought in a Fairfax family member, John B. Fairfax, as a significant player in the company. From the 10th of December 2018, Fairfax Media merged into Nine Entertainment, making the paper a sister to the Nine Network's TCN station. This reunited the paper with a television station; Fairfax had been the founding owner of ATN, which became the flagship of what became the Seven Network.
As The Sydney Herald, the newspaper's editorial stance at times reflected racist attitudes within the colony, with the paper urging squatters across Australia to emulate the mass killing of Native Americans. The front page of the paper on the 26th of December 1836 read: If nothing but extermination will do, they will exterminate the savages as they would wild beasts. In the wake of the Myall Creek massacre in which at least twenty-eight unarmed Wirraayaraay men, women and children were murdered by a group of white stockmen, the paper published a long letter from a squatter in defence the killings. The squatter described the Indigenous inhabitants of Australia as the most degenerate, despicable, and brutal race of beings in existence, writing: they will, and must become extinct , civilization destroys them , where labor and industry flourish, they die! The Herald's editorialisation on the trials contrasted with other newspapers which were more respectful on the matter and on the notion of Aboriginal Australians being protected under the law as British subjects, the same as settlers. In 2023, the paper apologised for its coverage of the massacre and the subsequent trials of the perpetrators.
The Evolution of Opinion
The contemporary editorial stance of The Sydney Morning Herald is generally centrist, described as the most centrist of Australia's three major news publications, with market libertarianism and social liberalism guiding its editorial stance since 2004. The newspaper has evolved significantly in its political endorsements, not endorsing the Labor Party for federal office in the first six decades of Federation, always endorsing a conservative government. The newspaper has since endorsed Labor in seven federal elections: 1961 (Calwell), 1984 and 1987 (Hawke), 2007 (Rudd), 2010 (Gillard), 2019 (Shorten), 2022 (Albanese), and 2025 (Albanese). During the 2004 Australian federal election, the Herald did not endorse a party, but subsequently resumed its practice of making endorsements. After endorsing the Coalition at the 2013 and 2016 federal elections, the newspaper endorsed Bill Shorten's Labor Party in 2019, after Malcolm Turnbull was ousted as prime minister. At the state level, the Herald has consistently backed the Coalition; the only time since 1973 that it endorsed a Labor government for New South Wales was Bob Carr's government in the 2003 election, though it declined to endorse either party three times during this period.
The Column That Became a Column
Column 8 is a short column to which Herald readers send their observations of interesting happenings, first published on the 11th of January 1947, and originally occupying the final 8th column of the broadsheet newspaper's front page. The name comes from the fact that it originally occupied the final 8th column of the broadsheet newspaper's front page. In a front-page redesign in the lead-up to the Sydney Olympic Games in 2000, Column 8 moved to the back page of the first section from the 31st of July 2000. As at February 2024, the column is the final column on the Opinion pages. The content tends to the quirky, typically involving strange urban occurrences, instances of confusing signs often in Engrish, word play, and discussion of more or less esoteric topics. The column is also sometimes affectionately known as Granny's Column, after a fictional grandmother who supposedly edited it. The column's original logo was a caricature of Sydney Deamer, originator of the column and its author for 14 years. It was edited for 15 years by George Richards, who retired on the 31st of January 2004. Other editors besides Deamer and Richards have been Duncan Thompson, Bill Fitter, Col Allison, Jim Cunningham, Pat Sheil, and briefly, Peter Bowers and Lenore Nicklin. The column is, as of March 2017, edited by Herald journalist Tim Barlass, who frequently appends reader contributions with puns; and who made the decision to reduce the column's publication from its traditional six days a week, down to just weekdays.
The Digital Transformation
In 1995, the company launched the newspaper's web edition, smh.com.au, which has since grown to include interactive and multimedia features beyond the content in the print edition. Around the same time, the organisation moved from Jones Street to new offices at Darling Park and built a new printing press at Chullora, in the city's west. The SMH later moved with other Sydney Fairfax divisions to a building at Darling Island. The paper has been partially digitised as part of the Australian Newspapers Digitation Program project of the National Library of Australia. In May 2007, Fairfax Media announced it would be moving from a broadsheet format to the smaller compact or tabloid-size, in the footsteps of The Times, for both The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age. After abandoning these plans later in the year, Fairfax Media again announced in June 2012 its plan to shift both broadsheet newspapers to tabloid size, with effect from March 2013. Fairfax also announced it would cut staff across the entire group by 1,900 over three years and erect paywalls around the papers' websites. The subscription type was to be a freemium model, limiting readers to a number of free stories per month, with a payment required for further access.
The Modern Editorial Landscape
The executive editor is James Chessell and the editor is Jordan Baker, with Tory Maguire as national editor, Monique Farmer as life editor, and Chris Janz as chief digital and publishing officer. Former editors include Bevan Shields, Darren Goodsir, Judith Whelan, Sean Aylmer, Peter Fray, Meryl Constance, Amanda Wilson the first female editor, appointed in 1911, William Curnow, John Langdon Bonython, Andrew Garran, Frederick William Ward editor from 1884 to 1890, Charles Brunsdon Fletcher, Colin Bingham, Max Prisk, John Alexander, Paul McGeough, Alan Revell, Alan Oakley, and Lisa Davies. In November 2025, Shields resigned as editor and will hand the job over to political editor Jordan Baker in the beginning of 2026. The newspaper publishes a variety of supplements, including the magazines Good Weekend included in the Saturday edition of The Sydney Morning Herald and Sunday Life. There are a variety of lift-outs, some of them co-branded with online classified-advertising sites: The Guide television on Mondays, Good Food food and Domain real estate on Tuesdays, Money personal finance on Wednesdays, Drive motoring, Shortlist entertainment on Fridays, News Review, Spectrum arts and entertainment guide, Domain real estate, Drive motoring and MyCareer employment on Saturdays.