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Sun News-Pictorial Newspaper

Launched on 11 September 1922 and edited by Hugh Denison (who was also the owner of the Sydney Sun), the Sun News-Pictorial was Australia's first picture tabloid daily. In a design reminiscent of the London Mirror, the cover displayed up to ten photographs, with the remainder of the paper containing diverse, succinct stories.

In 1925 the Herald & Weekly Times Ltd acquired the paper, which it saw as complementing its afternoon broadsheet, the Herald. Although its chief executive, Sir Keith Murdoch, preferred the latter, by the late 1930s the Sun News-Pictorial became Australia's most popular daily newspaper, outselling its closest Victorian rival, the Age. In 1938 its circulation was 240 000, increasing to 550 000 in 1957 and peaking at 650 000 by 1971.

Considered socially and politically conservative and invariably nationalistic in tone, the Sun News-Pictorial reported on politics, immigration, war and communism with a particular slant. The broadsheet also had an avid interest in the monarchy, an obsession with sport and a fascination with crime (often accompanied by pithy, sensational headlines).

By the late 1980s fortunes had changed: the circulation of the Sun News-Pictorial was in decline, and the Herald faced imminent closure. New owners, Rupert Murdoch's News Ltd, opted to amalgamate the papers. The new '24-hour paper', the Herald Sun, first appeared on 6 October 1990. Known to its detractors as the 'Hun', it is often accused of reflecting its proprietor's political views and commercial interests.

Although the newspaper vacated its Flinders Street building in 1995, the landmark is heritage-listed, and the façade and distinctive neon Herald Sun advertising sign remain intact.

Fay Anderson