Innovative columnist David Dale was once famously sacked by Kerry Packer
His column pricked the pomposity of politicians in Macquarie Street or Canberra, ran snippets of bizarre reports from around the world that usually ended up ignored in the wastebaskets of teleprinter rooms, and mixed fact, fiction, satire, gossip and humour with Dale's distaste for sycophancy that bustled the then broadsheet Herald into the 1980s.
The column was a springboard that took Dale to New York as the Herald 's correspondent and then the editorship of Kerry Packer's Bulletin magazine. He also worked as a broadcaster for ABC radio and 2GB Sydney and, when redundancy decimated the newspaper industry, he became a journalism lecturer at the University of Technology, Sydney and the University of NSW.
Dale did not relish working for Packer and often told the story of only accepting the offer from his right-hand man, Australian Consolidated Press director and publisher, Richard Walsh, while sitting in the smallest room in his New York hotel.
The loathing was mutual. Unimpressed that his new editor had driven up the circulation of the magazine, the mogul sacked Dale for defying his directive not to publish a second version of his Bulletin cover story 'Australia's 100 most appalling people', not least because many were Packer's friends.
For Dale, the best thing about his time at the Bulletin was that he recruited News Limited journalist Susan Williams. They married in Paris in 1991. Their daughter Millie was born in 1993.
The son of psychologist Keith Dale and university secretary Leigh, David was born in 1948 and grew up in the eastern suburbs, attending Coogee Primary School and Randwick Boys High School before taking honours in psychology at the University of Sydney.
On graduation, he travelled extensively in Europe but returned to Australia to take up a Herald cadetship. He did a stint as a political reporter on The Australian but returned to Fairfax where he worked on the National Times and The Sun-Herald before rejoining his old masthead in 1981 to write Stay in Touch for the next four years.
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Sydney Morning Herald
3 days ago
- Sydney Morning Herald
Innovative columnist David Dale was once famously sacked by Kerry Packer
Journalist David Dale, whose innovative daily column Stay In Touch helped lift the Herald into a golden age of rising circulation and influence, has died. He was 77. His column pricked the pomposity of politicians in Macquarie Street or Canberra, ran snippets of bizarre reports from around the world that usually ended up ignored in the wastebaskets of teleprinter rooms, and mixed fact, fiction, satire, gossip and humour with Dale's distaste for sycophancy that bustled the then broadsheet Herald into the 1980s. The column was a springboard that took Dale to New York as the Herald 's correspondent and then the editorship of Kerry Packer's Bulletin magazine. He also worked as a broadcaster for ABC radio and 2GB Sydney and, when redundancy decimated the newspaper industry, he became a journalism lecturer at the University of Technology, Sydney and the University of NSW. Dale did not relish working for Packer and often told the story of only accepting the offer from his right-hand man, Australian Consolidated Press director and publisher, Richard Walsh, while sitting in the smallest room in his New York hotel. The loathing was mutual. Unimpressed that his new editor had driven up the circulation of the magazine, the mogul sacked Dale for defying his directive not to publish a second version of his Bulletin cover story 'Australia's 100 most appalling people', not least because many were Packer's friends. For Dale, the best thing about his time at the Bulletin was that he recruited News Limited journalist Susan Williams. They married in Paris in 1991. Their daughter Millie was born in 1993. The son of psychologist Keith Dale and university secretary Leigh, David was born in 1948 and grew up in the eastern suburbs, attending Coogee Primary School and Randwick Boys High School before taking honours in psychology at the University of Sydney. On graduation, he travelled extensively in Europe but returned to Australia to take up a Herald cadetship. He did a stint as a political reporter on The Australian but returned to Fairfax where he worked on the National Times and The Sun-Herald before rejoining his old masthead in 1981 to write Stay in Touch for the next four years.
News.com.au
26-07-2025
- News.com.au
Jodhi Meares opens up about new life in Byron Bay after leaving Sydney: ‘I don't get bored'
Jodhi Meares has opened up about the real reason she left Sydney for Byron Bay, and the private life she has created for herself in the hinterland. In a new interview with Stellar, the fashion mogul and ex-wife of James Packer admits she was never comfortable in the spotlight and is 'definitely a behind the scenes person'. 'I'm a true introvert. I like to be able to watch people. I find people really interesting. 'Being in the public eye wrecked that a little bit,' Meares told Stellar. Late last year, Meares purchased a four-bedroom, Modernist-inspired home – which features an avocado, citrus, banana and papaw orchard, at Brooklet. The property is located inland between Ballina and Byron Bay in the NSW Northern Rivers region – and was purchased for a reported $4.1 million. Listen to a new episode of the Stellar podcast Something To Talk About below: Speaking to Stellar, The Upside designer explains why she is at home among the papaya trees, a dog named Soda Pop, and her five cows. 'I don't get bored and I don't get lonely. I suffer from other things, but I don't suffer from those things,' Meares said. 'Sometimes I have to ask myself, 'How many days has it been? I need to just go somewhere and speak to another human …'' The former Australia's Next Top Model host and Tigerlily founder also made a surprising confession about her time as a model, saying she 'never really loved having my photos taken'. 'It's been a means to an end. But I felt very lucky to be able to do it because I wasn't sure what I was going to do when I was young. 'And school and I didn't get along that well.' In the Stellar cover story, Meares also reflected on interviewing Australian supermodel Elle Macpherson – who stars in a new campaign for Meares' activewear brand, The Upside – for Stellar earlier this year. 'She's such a phenomenal woman. Elle doesn't have to do these things. I thought it was just very special,' Meares said. 'It was very beautiful, really touching that she was able to do that.' Listen to a new episode of the Stellar podcast Something To Talk About below:
Sydney Morning Herald
26-07-2025
- Sydney Morning Herald
Without writers and thinkers, Sydney risks becoming a cultural ghost city
It has been a big week for the nation's publishers, with the 2025 Miles Franklin Literary Award, won by Siang Lu for his novel Ghost Cities, bringing attention to the best Australian fiction published over the past year. But, as Linda Morris reports in today's Sun-Herald, key industry voices have warned that professional writing will become an unviable occupation within 20 years, without a steady flow of paid speaking gigs to supplement measly earnings from book sales. Australia's writers earn an average of $18,500 a year. In an attempt to increase the stream of such gigs, the Sydney Writers' Festival will move to deliver events year-round, becoming a resident company of the State Library. The move – supported by a $1.5 million state government investment – comes ahead of NSW's new writing and literature strategy, a welcome Australian first. Because, while Arts Minister John Graham is right to say that Sydney is 'not a shallow city', it is also an ever more expensive city – one which creatives are leaving in droves for cheaper Australian capitals or better opportunities abroad. As Australia's publishers grapple with how to foster a new generation of local writers, a similar crisis is being experienced by the nation's music industry, where artists, earning from streams a fraction of what they did from record sales, have been left to invest thousands of dollars touring music to try to escape the international algorithms that now determine airplay. Loading The Australian Recording Industry Association will change the way it calculates its charts from September, restricting the list to songs released in the past two years, amid concerns about older tunes sitting on the chart for years after it included streaming plays and not just record sales in its count. This has been a particular issue for ARIA's Australian music charts. Last week, the top song on the Australian Artist Singles chart was Don't Dream It's Over by Crowded House, released in 1986. AC/DC's Thunderstruck, released in 1990, was in second, having spent 181 consecutive weeks in the top 20. And that isn't even that long a stint: Vance Joy's 2013 Hottest 100 winner Riptide has been in the top 20 for 363 consecutive weeks, last week at number 4.
