CQUniversity's Professor Denis Cryle has been pleased with the level of interest since the official launch of his new book: Murdoch's Flagship -  Twenty-Five Years of the Australian newspaper (1964-1989).

The book was launched recently (Dec 4) at our Sydney International Campus in conjunction with Melbourne University Press and the Centre for Media History at Macquarie University.

Newspaper's role in national life 'worth chronicling'

Professor Cryle with his new book

Guest speakers included Professor Ken McKinnon, Chairman of the Australian Press Council and Associate Professor Bridget Griffen-Foley, from the national Centre for Media History at Macquarie University.

The Australian newspaper of course sent a journalist and photographer along.

Professor Cryle said that, while the Fairfax and Packer media groups had received detailed historical coverage,  Murdoch's News Limited and the Australian had not been given the same systematic attention, "despite a plethora of biographies about Murdoch's overseas ventures and acquisitions".

"The Australian's uneven and uncharted progress over 3 eventful decades as an innovative national broadsheet ranks as one of the great post-war media stories," Professor Cryle said.

"In an industry traditionally dominated by state-based publications,  it offered both readers and journalists a fundamental change in the way the print community constituted the nation, redefining it in social and cultural as well as more conventional political terms, while accelerating a transfer in responsibility from state-based policies and administrations towards greater federal involvement".

Professor Ken McKinnon speaks at the launch 
Professor Cryle with Associate Professor Bridget Griffen-Foley at the launch