Collection SummaryThe Biz Printery
1917-1972
Reconstruction DescriptionEstablished in 1917, The Biz was the first newspaper to be printed and published in the Fairfield district. The Biz (an abbreviation of ‘business’), consisted of four pages, the first issue printed on a small machine in Cabramatta by the founder A.E. Johnson. Shortly after, the paper was transferred to 14 Smart Street, Fairfield and was purchased by William (Bill) J. Bright in 1928, who installed a linotype machine.
The Biz was originally a free paper, but when Dad bought it he put a charge of one penny on the paper and despite predictions it grew in strength over the years, to eventually cost two pence.
Bill Bright Jnr
By the 1930s, The Biz was an eight page broadsheet, and was distributed to local shops and newsagents and read by about 20,000 readers each week. The Biz had a reputation for being a faithful chronicle of everything that happened in the Fairfield area. It kept the community informed on politics, social events, local news and contained advertising from local businesses.
The circulation was very wide, from the Horsley Gate Store, Granville to Liverpool, Lansdowne to Bonnyrigg.
Bill’s sons Bill and Ted began work in the printery in 1930. Bill jnr. operated the linotype and Ted became a cadet reporter and canvasser, doing his rounds on a bike. Lily Bright, Bill’s daughter, also worked the linotype machine and Ted Howard was a reporter and canvasser. Conditions during the Depression made advertising hard to sell, and contract rates for The Biz dropped to nine pence per single column inch. In the late 1930s, a casual ‘for sale’ advertisement cost from one shilling and sixpence for three lines. Contract advertisements, depending on size and decoration, cost from one shilling per single column inch deep. Publishing day was originally Thursday, but when Thursday night shopping was introduced the paper was distributed on a Wednesday.
In 1936 a flat-bed rotary press was installed to facilitate the production of The Biz, as well as The Liverpool News, and The Broadcaster, which were also printed from The Biz office at that time. For many years Norman McLeod wrote a column called ‘Smithfield News’, and later called ‘Paragraphs about People’, which covered much of the local gossip and news.
After the Brights purchased the Liverpool News office in the late 1930s, many of the commercial print jobs were carried out at the Liverpool office, where Bert Banyer worked as a printer and compositor. Bill’s wife, Nellie, executed the jobbing orders for the firm and then their second daughter, Maisie, ran the commercial printing section, a position which she held until the paper was sold in 1958. The new owner, Cumberland Newspapers, reduced The Biz in size from a broadsheet to a tabloid, and the paper ceased production in 1972.
All the machines and tools on display are originally from The Biz office. These include the Mergenthaler linotype machine (which produced the lines of lead type), two foot-operated Arab platen printing presses, an Elrod strip casting machine (for making lead spacers between lines of type), an ink mixer, a proofing press, a paper perforator, a lead furnace, original newspapers, compositing equipment including lead type for hand setting, spacers, galleys and wooden printing blocks. The soundscape in The Biz evokes the noises and atmosphere of the printery about 1932, while a new printing apprentice is being instructed on the use of the linotype machine and the printing presses.
