AUSTRALIAN NEWSPAPER HISTORY GROUP NEWSLETTER ISSN 1443-4962 No. 25 December 2003 Compiled for the ANHG by Rod Kirkpatrick, 13 Sumac Street, Middle Park, Qld, 4074, 07-3279 2279,
[email protected] 25.1 COPY DEADLINE AND WEBSITE ADDRESS Deadline for next Newsletter: 15 February 2004. Subscription details appear at end of Newsletter. [Number 1 appeared October 1999.] The Newsletter is online through the “Publications” link from the University of Queensland’s School of Journalism & Communication Website at www.uq.edu.au/journ-comm/ and through the ePrint Archives at the University of Queensland at http://eprint.uq.edu.au/), 25.2 SISTER ACT: BRISBANE BROADSHEET THINKS TABLOID Queensland Newspapers Pty Ltd is watching the progress of the so-called “mini-Indy”, the tabloid version of London’s broadsheet Independent, with a view to attempting a “mini-Mail”, a tabloid version of the Courier-Mail. The tabloid Indy exceeded expectations when it boosted overall sales of the Independent by 30,000 on its first day. It sold 42,000 copies of an 80,000 print run while sales of the broadsheet dipped 12,000. Queensland Newspapers managing director Jerry Harris believes the broadsheet/tabloid sister act could give the company the best of both worlds and act as a disincentive to Fairfax ambitions in the north. It could assist the company in some of the lower-circulation areas for the Courier-Mail, such as Brisbane’s south-west and regional Queensland (David Nason, ‘Independent’s tabloid turnaround gets Brisbane broadsheet thinking’, Australian, Media liftout, 30 October 2003, p.3).