Sir Frank Packer

This absorbing biography traces the newspaper career of Frank's father R.C. Packer from Hobart and the outback to the founding of Smith's Weekly in 1919. Overshadowed by his brilliant father, Frank was an academic failure at school and a mediocre cadet reporter. Despite his own lack of promise as a journalist, Frank came to rule the Australian media landscape with an iron fist.

“"It is as full a measure of a colourful Australin tycoon's life and times as I have read much warmer and more intimate than any of the biographies that have been written of the global media entrepreneur, Rupert Murdoch." -- V. J. Carroll, The Bulletin”

‘It is as full a measure of a colourful Australin tycoon’s life and times as I have read … much warmer and more intimate than any of the biographies that have been written of the global media entrepreneur, Rupert Murdoch.’ -- V. J. Carroll The Bulletin
'Griffin-Foley’s engaging writing style makes this an easy read for anyone interested in early Australian journalism and the media wars between the 1930s and 1960s.' -- Celeste Lawson Media International Australia

Bridget Griffen-Foley is professor of media at Macquarie University and the director of the Centre for Media History.

This absorbing biography traces the newspaper career of Frank's father R.C. Packer from Hobart and the outback to the founding of Smith's Weekly in 1919. Overshadowed by his brilliant father, Frank was an academic failure at school and a mediocre cadet reporter. Despite his own lack of promise as a journalist, Frank came to rule the Australian media landscape with an iron fist.

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