Sign, Herald 1960s

Summary

This sign advertising the ‘Herald’ newspaper on one side and the ‘Sun’ on the other was acquired for the City Gallery exhibition ‘Ink in the Blood’, curated by Andrew Stephens and held from October 2017 to February 2018. The exhibition mapped the life of Melbourne’s big newspapers and their deep imprint on the city, its culture and collective psyche. Originally, this double-sided sign would likely have been fixed perpendicular to the exterior wall of a newsagent or milk bar. From that lofty position, it would have caught the eyes of passers-by, alerting them to the inky wares peddled within. The enamel-painted metal sign is thought to date to around the 1960s, perhaps earlier. The ‘Herald’ was an evening broadsheet that commenced publication in 1840 as Melbourne’s fourth newspaper and ran for 150 years. In 1987, its parent company the Herald & Weekly Times Limited was purchased by Rupert Murdoch’s News Ltd. Three years later publication of the Herald ceased. In effect, it was merged with the morning tabloid ‘The Sun’ to create the ‘Herald Sun’, the evening tabloid that is still very much in print today.