AUTHOR THANKS TO Andrew Stephens is a writer and The Lord Mayor Robert Doyle, Ron Tandberg and editor. A former Age journalist Rachel Buchanan for their opening remarks; the 5 October 2017 – Ink in the Blood: (1987–2016), he worked as a reporter, staff of Arts Melbourne, City of Melbourne, for 17 February 2018 subeditor and feature writer. He did The life of Melbourne’s his cadetship at The Sun News-Pictorial commissioning and guiding this project; Ron City Gallery (1983–87) when there were still Tandberg, cartoonist; Michelle Stillman, Fairfax Melbourne Town Hall newspapers typewriters. librarian; Rachel Buchanan, Germaine Greer The life of isbn 978-1-74250-901-3 archivist; Sandy Shaw, Newsboys Foundation CEO; melbourne.vic.gov.au/ Melbourne’s newspapers have Ken Williams, Dean Donoghue, Michael Gawenda, Melbourne’s citygallery Jim Pavlidis, Robin Cowcher, Rod Kirkpatrick, newspapers long had a daily race against the Kenny Pittock, Stephen Armstrong, Victor Issacs, clock to reflect the city’s life and Bob Urquhart, Catherine Reade, Siobahn Dee and Stella Marr. Special thanks to Kenneth, Timothy personality, and connect it to the and Adelaide. world. They have deeply affected the psychogeography of our metropolis. INK IN THE BLOOD INK THIS IS A IN THE STORY OF BLOOD BUSY HANDS AND TICKING CLOCKS. 3.30pm 1.00pm Cartoonists City workers The day’s big events are becoming clear Newsgirls and the cartoonists and graphic artists In the City Square, the Treasury have been briefed. The graphic artists She was once a stringer, then a cadet, Gardens, the park benches along prepare maps, tables, panels and ‘do-ups’. then a journalist, then a historian, a Swanston, Bourke, Collins or Cartoonists, guided by a deep perception university lecturer and an archivist. Elizabeth Streets, and down by of the fragilities and steelier sides of On a March day in 2014, Rachel 10.00am the river alongside the railyards, human nature, do working roughs. Some Buchanan, author of Stop Press: the News conference lunchtime people eat sandwiches evolve into classics, others become scraps last days of newspapers, is on the street and catch up with the news. These with two of her daughters, at a time News conference begins very early at on the ground. are the days before swiping tiny when The Age has just moved from the Herald & Weekly Times building screens. In the mid-20th century, the broadsheet to ‘compact’, The Saturday on Flinders Street, the senior Herald city centre’s workforce is diverse: Paper has just been launched, and the editors meeting at breakfast, the Sun heavier industries grimily inhabit 4.00pm Fairfax printing centre at Tullamarine 9.00pm team meeting about 10am. There the fringes of the central business is about to close. Buchanan and are people such as the chief-of-staff, Advertising room Golden Age and district and some—such as the rag daughters are handing out 525 news editor, pictorial editor, arts There is a fierce line between the trade of Flinders Lane—cling to free copies of Melbourne Sirius, a The Phoenix editor, business editor and sports advertising and editorial people. the very centre. Likewise, the big newspaper about newspapers. Inside, Pubs are often referred to as ‘the branch editor, along with people from the Journalists don’t like them on the newspapers have their presses on-site, it documents 525 dead newspapers office’: journalists are known for heavy interstate bureaux and the graphics editorial floor because they think they such as Flinders Street (the Herald & produced in Melbourne since 1838, drinking. It is the 1970s–80s and the department. And, of course, the Editor. are trying to influence them. Yet ads are Weekly Times) or Spencer Street (The plus 175 of their mastheads. To mark Phoenix services the H&WT in Flinders They briefly analyse the previous the fuel for the editorial engine, and at Age). Blue overalls and boiler suits the publication, produced as part of Street while the Golden Age is just day’s paper—now, as they say in the times when newspapers are the best are the identifying uniform. At their a State Library of Victoria creative around the corner from The Age. 8.00am industry, today’s fish’n’chip wrapper. vehicle for advertising, the luscious workplaces—porters in their booths, fellowship, Buchanan and her The switch Then, they sort out today’s news-list, waves of ads flowing in are known as There are also less official drinking clerks at their desks, shop-ladies in daughters become newsgirls at places holes closer to office desks. Many The phones ring, the switch lights who has been assigned to what, picture ‘rivers of gold’. their tea-rooms, loading-dock workers such as the old Argus, Herald journalists, particularly subeditors, up. News tips, complaints, publicists, opportunities. Reporters are briefed. leaning against timber beams— & Weekly Times and Age buildings. beaver away into the night, so, at The nutters, queries, suggestions, Calls are made. Phone books and reading the paper is the usual morning ‘This is Sirius! Get your Sirius here!’ Sun, they have The Subs’ Club. No one advertisers, newsagents. In the bowels Melway directories and dictionaries activity. The crossword, death notices, 4.30pm they cry, continuing that long can say for sure when this started, but of the newspaper office—or perhaps at consulted. Library clippings perused. classifieds, letters-to-the-editor, comic- tradition of raucous newspaper- it becomes an institution, with ‘its its heart—the switchboard operators Dictaphones are proffered, shorthand Truck drivers strips, shipping news, stock exchange, selling in which girls did occasionally own freemasonry of rituals and coded field these calls. They are brisk and deciphered, typewriters assaulted. They The loading bay men are changing shifts: law notices, market prices, Corinella, figure—an early poster for The Age language’. ‘Every night,’ says former no-nonsense and are the junction walk everywhere. They meet contacts. The Herald goes out in various editions Weg, Keith Dunstan, Bob Millington, shows a girl offering the paper, mouth subeditor, Dean Donoghue, ‘when the where reporters, editors, advertising They go to press conferences. They and the late shift will do tomorrow’s Leunig, Tandberg: these are as open with her clarion call. second edition went to press around managers, typists and senior executives infiltrate the city. They see evidence Sun. The trucks depart what is usually compelling and well-read as what 1am, the chief subeditor would open encounter the general and opinionated of their newspaper everywhere: being called ‘the Herald building’, historically editors and journalists call ‘hard news’. the batting with the cry: “All up.” At public. Ads are placed, classifieds typed read, carried, sold, advertised, re- significant as housing the publication of There’s something for everyone. this, the fridge, cunningly out of sight in, hot news of corruption listened to, purposed, scrunched up and discarded. The Herald, The Sun News-Pictorial, and, 6.00pm in a cupboard in the subs’ room, was messages delivered. ‘Just putting you later, The Herald Sun. Together, these Commuters unlocked and drinks could then be through now.’ have been the most popular Victorian On the red-rattler from the suburbs, taken. No one in the building seems to know 1.30pm newspapers since the 1920s. 10.30am the young man has his lunchbox at ‘At The Age, the make-do spirit of the exactly where the switchboard room is The drivers’ trucks out the front The tea lady Letters to the Editor his side and his Sun News-Pictorial times gave birth to The Bog Bar. This 5.00am apart from the telephonists themselves. of this building were, in previous They froth, they rage, they praise and aloft. As the train passes under Princes was so named because it shared its These women are efficient and largely She does the rounds of the building incarnations, horses and carriages. Street sweepers they make it plain: letter-writers have Bridge into the platforms reeking meagre facilities with the men’s loo and characterised by their distinctive and calls everyone ‘love’, from the The drivers have no inkling of a future Early-opener business owners and collectively contributed (without of fish’n’chips and salt’n’vinegar, he locker room. Actually, it was the men’s voices: some warm, some dry, some executives along Mahogany Row where the ground floor of this building municipal workers are out sweeping pay) to what has long been a mainstay finishes reading. He always starts loo and locker room, transformed with a bit sharp. They are vital, they have (called Chipboard Row by disrespectful will be a feted restaurant called The various lengths of city street. It is cold for Melbourne’s newspapers—the with the ‘other’ front page (Sport, a little imagination into the twilight journalists) to the women in classifieds, Press Club, or where the floors above views, and they aren’t shy about daily letters pages. For editors and back page) then flips it around to read 12 and gusts of chill wind blow bits of to the men in the composing room, room. Sort of.’ passing them on, even to the Editor journalists, these often feisty and will be apartments. It is beyond these news, working through to the letters newspaper along the footpath, the 1 to the rabbles of journalists. Tea, coffee, when they patch through a call. passionate readers who take the time drivers’ imaginations that one day and comics. He folds it and leaves it on crest on The Sun saying ‘Daily at dawn’. fruit buns, biscuits, sandwiches. to write and post their two-bob’s newspaper delivery will involve news the seat. It will be read by a student, a It’s yesterday’s news.