Terry McCrann was the name of a man who became associated with Australian business journalism over 50 years. Having written more than 12,000 columns since 1978, he exerted power in newspapers, on television and boardrooms. The life of McCrann is one of the representatives of modern media that shows how much economics determines the course of the development of public policy, starting in the humblest beginnings in Sun News-Pictorial, to the peak of success by being a member of the Australian Media Hall of Fame.
A Formative Start at the Stock Exchange
McCrann was born in Victoria in 1948. Having received a degree in economics from Monash University, McCrann initially practised law. But lady luck had brought him to the Sun News-Pictorial in 1970, and he started to present live reports in the Melbourne Stock Exchange. According to contemporaries, as a training ground, it proved the case that McCrann used his finances journalism training experience to develop his intuition in the market.
By 1975, he was promoted to the position of finance editor, and he was working with legends such as Trevor Sykes and Christopher Skase. Mc Croann happened to be at the right time- he wrote about the crash of the stock market in 1987, the takeover battle that occurred at Ansett and the shake-up of the media empire by Rupert Murdoch, and it is these three events that made his name in business commentary by giving plain English interpretations.
Bringing Finance to the Front Page
McCrann was the first to turn business journalism into high-profile front-page news. He wrote syndicated columns that were read by millions in the Herald Sun, Sydney Telegraph-Mirror, Courier-Mail, The Age and The Weekend Australian. He introduced the concept of financial literacy in the homes throughout Australia by describing how business, politics and ordinary individuals interact.
McCrann wrote with great force and matched that with accuracy: his political cut-throughs and economic predictions made McCrann a must-read. He anticipated Hawke Keating’s financial deregulations, media mergers and acquisitions and the aftermath of the world crisis.
Scandal, Consequence, and Integrity
Bullish on controversy, McCrann topped newspapers in 1989 when he discovered that his home phone was tappable. The intrusion has been attributed to a private investigator hired by Bond Corporation in retaliation for the exposés by McCrann, which had questioned the business practices of Alan Bond. McCrann referred to it as a wake-up call and also evidence that journalistic courage was not a dead concept.
Through his courageous action, he was commended and criticised. Be it in denunciations of the mining tax introduced by the Rudd-Gillard government or in his merciless satire of Bankers during the Global Financial Crisis, McCrann had the view that the media should take nothing away and also give nothing away to power.
Awards, Accolades, and a Legendary Run
He was awarded the best honours: Walkley Award for business journalism, twice the Melbourne Press Club Gold Quill (1985, 2000), and Graham Perkin Journalist of the Year 1987. He also became one of the inductees of the Australian Media Hall of Fame because he pioneered business journalism into being a mainstream narration.
McCrann was also a television commentator and was a regular panellist on Channel Nine’s Business Sunday and widely syndicated on News Corp. He was everywhere the audiences turned to get context on business–print, TV, radio, everywhere.
The Final Column: 54 Years in the Saddle
McCrann authored his last regular column in August 2024, and that ended a 46-year daily career or 54 years in total in the media. Clearly remembering that final piece, he recalled being woken by crash alerts in 1987, writing about deregulation in the 1990s, and even surviving the game of Bond phone-tapping. His last words referred to a life in the public service–an eyewitness on the scene when great issues were being made.
Enduring Influence and the Journalistic Standard
It is not only longevity but also, most importantly, integrity with which you can find Terry McCrann different. His only aim remained the same: to demystify economics, reveal the manipulation and link business news to real life. Whether through the euphoria of removing regulation of the Reserve Bank to the grimmest depths of the GFC, his voice was able to communicate to Australians what was at stake.
He was a generational role model to a legion of journalists who proved it possible to give play-by-play coverage to economic games of power without any legal credentials at all but with nerves of steel, a clear eye and a sense of history.
A Legacy of Clarity and Critique
It is because McCrann is leaving regular columns that his legacy becomes more relevant than ever. In the era of spiralling soundbites and division of media, he represented a type of brash commentary: highly opinionated but based on factual examination. His career has become a standard of balance- critical, yet fact-based.
The influence of McCrann is passed on to present-day financial writers, career journalists, and enlightened commentators who take over where he had ceased to mention.
Final Thoughts
Terry McCrann has been working for more than 50 years; however, his presence reaches long after the bylines. He voiced business journalism, and he got public opinion formulated in boardrooms as well as living rooms. His method is skyscraper tall in an age of the media that has been accused of corroding the tone and losing the trust: curiosity without cowardice, capacity to analyse, desire to hold accountable.
His resignation is the end of a fantastic era. His work is still the required reading, though, which is evidence that economic commentary that is constructed well can not only tell the news, but can also contribute to the history of the country.
