The scholar Bernard Roshco declared that ‘the history of the American press can be seen as an account of how it continually enlarged its conception of the information it could properly publish’ (1975, 23). The last chapter looked at the presentation of news, while this chapter examines its content. What was constant and what changed in what newspapers offered their readers, and what might be the reasons? The results do not wholly support Roshco's optimism, but they do show substantial changes.

Sport and the Melbourne Olympics

Sport was the biggest category in both 1956 and 2006, with around one-fifth of all items (Table 5.1). With a very slight increase overall, the table also shows an increasing range between the papers and a different patterning in the two years. In 1956, the Australian Rules football states carried many more sporting stories than the Rugby League states. With the surge in sporting stories in the Telegraph and the sharp drop in the Age, the pattern changed. In Melbourne and Sydney in 2006, the two broadsheets had a substantially lower proportion than the two tabloids, while among the regional monopolies, the AFL-oriented West Australian still gave sport a higher priority than the rugby league Courier-Mail.

Such a concentration on sport is not confined to Australia. When Rupert Murdoch transformed the world's most competitive newspaper market in the 1970s, sport was one of his key weapons. His London Sun newspaper displaced the previous circulation leader, the Daily Mirror, and during their fierce competition, both changed their news priorities. They both emphasised sport and show business stories to an unprecedented degree. Coverage of sport and show business already comprised 31 per cent of the Mirror's editorial space and 33 per cent of the Sun's in 1968. But by 1998, the two figures were fully 52 per cent and 63 per cent (Rooney 2000, 103). So the Australian tabloids have been more restrained than their London counterparts. Similarly, during the 2005 UK election, over three-quarters of the front pages on the British tabloids were about non-election issues compared to an average of 46 per cent for Australian tabloids in 2007 (Young 2010, 178).