Countering Rupert, 50 years on

In 1971 I met Rupert Murdoch to discuss selling him GoSet, a weekly tabloid newspaper for teenagers which I had co-founded in 1966. His conditions included my remaining as editor — ie working for him — which I had no intention of doing. Instead, that year I launched the Australian edition of Rolling Stone, under licence from Jann Wenner in San Francisco, and Murdoch agreed to print and distribute it every fortnight. Then, when he saw and read the first issue hot off his own presses, he reneged on the deal and pulped the entire print-run except for 400 copies rescued by my mate Tez Cleary to hand out at our media launches at Monsalvat Melbourne and next day at the Yellow House in Sydney.

Here’s an interview from ABCTV’s GTK program about that launch of the Aussie Rolling Stone. Jeune Pritchard and I discuss things under a tree in the Fitzroy Gardens, as I recall.