Our Brisbane History

The Daily Mail

Concerns about media monopolies have been the subject of public debate for much of this century. It is strange to imagine that in 1903 Brisbane had four metropolitan daily newspapers and thirteen weekly papers. Of the dailies, the Observer and Telegraph were afternoon papers and the Brisbane Courier and the newly established Daily Mail were published in the morning.

The Brisbane Courier was the most influential of the papers prior to the arrival of the Daily Mail. It had fought off competition from the Guardian, Queensland Express and the Colonist. However, it was subjected to renewed competition when a former Courier editor, Charles Hardie Buzzacott, launched the Daily Mail on 3 October 1903.

Buzzacott gave the Daily Mail a different style from the Brisbane Courier in an attempt to win readers. As was common at the time, both papers ran advertisements and not news on their front pages. However, the Daily Mail utilized photographs more lavishly than the Courier and carried a more interesting range advertisements. Both papers placed great emphasis on reporting British and of graphic commonwealth news.