'[The] Sydney Mail, the weekly companion to the Sydney Morning Herald, was published 1860-1938. Like its rival the Australian Town and Country Journal, it was popular with both country and city readers, and combined general news with agricultural, pastoral, mining, sporting and literary features and included illustrations.'

Source: William H. Wilde, Joy Hooton, Barry Andrews, The Oxford Companion to Australian Literature (1994): 734.

The Triad was founded in New Zealand in 1892 by C. N. Baeyertz (q.v.) who edited, managed, and wrote most of the magazine for its first twelve years. When Frank Morton (q.v.) joined the magazine in 1905, he became the most predominant contributor to the Triad (writing under his own name and several pseudonyms) until his death in 1923. The first Australian number of the Triad appeared in October 1915, proceeding in tandem with its New Zealand affiliate but with different volume numbering.

The Triad was subtitled 'A Journal Devoted to Literary, Pictorial, Musical and Dramatic Art', and each issue carried the magazine's mission statement: 'The Triad is fearless, and tries always to be honest. Its chief concern is to tell the truth. It may err on the side of indulgence occasionally, being human; but its criticisms are, in every case, unbiassed and impartial'. To stress its impartiality, Triad frequently advertised that it did not accept review copies of books or complimentary tickets, but Morton's view of the world gave the magazine a distinct character. In columns and reviews, he frequently attacked the 'puritanism' that he believed had become out of hand after the end of the First World War. While not always literary or artistic, Morton's topics were drawn from all of the arts identified in the magazine's subtitle and contributions were written for a general readership rather than for a narrow literary or artistic audience.

In addition to Morton's contributions, the work of many other Australian writers was published in the Triad. Contributors included Hugh McCrae, Kenneth Slessor, Furnley Maurice, Ethel Anderson, Randolph Bedford, Will Lawson, Mary Gilmore, Louis Esson, and Cecil Mann (qq.v.).

During 1925, L. L. Woolacott (q.v.) was appointed associate editor. By October, he had taken over the editorship and Baeyertz took on a managerial role. Baeyertz sold the Triad to Art in Australia Ltd in the last months of 1926, and Woolacott was retained as editor. But under Woolacott, the Triad was in decline, producing consistent financial losses.

Relieving the strain on Art in Australia Ltd, Ernest Watt (q.v.) , a director of the company, bought the Triad in March 1927. He took the magazine in a different direction, renaming it the New Triad and appointing Hugh McCrae and himself as editors. The first number of the New Triad appeared in August 1927. The new look magazine included articles on motoring, horse racing, society, and lawn tennis. It also offered regular competitions, crosswords, and a more professional layout, bringing it close to the standard of Home and Art in Australia. Literary contributors to the New Triad included Louis Esson, R. D. FitzGerald, Hugh McCrae, Vance Palmer, Dora Wilcox, David McKee Wright, and Les Robinson (qq.v.). But, despite the change in format, the New Triad did not last a year. Its last number appeared in July 1928.

The first issue of Art in Australia appeared in 1916, edited by Sydney Ure Smith, Bertram Stevens and Charles Lloyd Jones. Initially, all three editors were involved in other projects: Ure Smith, a graphic artist was director of the advertising agency, Smith and Julius; Stevens continued as editor of the Lone Hand; and Jones, the grandson of retailer David Jones, was training as a store manager. Employing the services of highly skilled technicians, Art in Australia published reproductions of extremely high quality, building, over time, a network of important associations with many of Australia's visual artists, advertisers, printers and publishers. During the first five years of operation, the magazine was published and distributed by Angus and Robertson, but the editors retained significant control over the layout and content, frequently ignoring objections from the publisher. The company Art in Australia was incorporated in 1921, becoming the publisher of Art in Australia and several other magazines, including the Home.

At first, the journal was devoted to the pictorial arts but pressure from Norman Lindsay influenced consideration of an expanded scope to include literary works. A literary supplement to Art in Australia was proposed in 1917 and prepared during 1918, but by December the plan had fallen through. Despite Lindsay's plans, Art in Australia published only a small amount of poetry and fiction during the 1920s. Regular contributions were received from Lindsay, his son, Jack, Kenneth Slessor and Hugh McCrae, frequently exhibiting Lindsay's beliefs about literature and art. The Lindsays and Hugh McCrae all had individual numbers devoted to their works, the latter contributing a greater combination of writing and art. Other contributors included Dorothea Mackellar, Zora Cross, Dowell O'Reilly and Furnley Maurice.

Poetry dominated the literary contributions, but an attempt was made in 1924 to encourage the writing of fiction with a short story competition: the winning story was Katharine Susannah Prichard's 'The Grey Horse'. Prichard contributed several other stories and poems, but by the early 1930s literature was rarely printed in Art and Australia. The companion magazine, the Home, however, printed many of these contributors, becoming the more dominant publisher of prose and poetry in the Art in Australia conglomerate.

Art in Australia was an expensive production, relying, in its first years, on advertising and occasional contributions from Jones to meet costs. At its peak price of twelve shillings and sixpence, it was out of the reach of many artists, but changes to format and price, secured a loyal readership and a significant influence on the Australian art scene. Furthermore, profits from the Home often balanced any shortfall by Art in Australia, enabling Art in Australia Pty Ltd to further enhance its reputation in the industry. This was confirmed in 1934 when the Fairfax press bought the magazines, hoping to challenge the dominance of Fashion and Society and Vogue. Ure Smith and Leon Gellert (who became co-editor after Stevens' death in 1922) were retained but the magazines did not produce the challenge Fairfax had hoped for. After an inamicable retirement in 1938, Ure Smith and Gellert were replaced by Kenneth Wilkinson who remained as editor until 1941 when Peter Bellew was appointed for the final eighteen months of the magazine's life. During this time, Art in Australia adopted a more sympathetic position towards modernist art and occasionally published poetry, notably that of Max Harris and Alister Kershaw. Art in Australia ceased operation in August 1942.

In 1939, Sydney Ure Smith had recently retired as editor of Art in Australia and the Home, magazines he had co-founded in 1916 and 1920, respectively, and sold to the Fairfax press in 1934. After establishing a new company, Ure Smith Pty Publications, he began a number of projects, including a new magazine, Australia: National Journal.

With this new magazine, Ure Smith aimed to 'give expression to [Australia's]progress in Art, Architecture and Industry'. His previous magazines were admired for their developments in the reproduction of graphic art, and architecture had become a prominent feature of Art in Australia. With an additional focus on industry, Ure Smith's new magazine engaged with the progress of the modern world, but as with its predecessors, contemporary artistic movements such as futurism and surrealism were largely ignored.

By the early 1940s, the Second World War influenced the production and content of the magazine in a number of ways. Articles on industrial topics often focused on defence projects and advertisements used military images to promote many products, including paint, light globes and bank accounts. Responding to calls from the federal government, intranational travel was also promoted in the magazine with many advertisements and regular travel articles on Australian destinations. News from the front lines and biographies of prominent military figures featured with many photographs of military life. Furthermore, war-time paper rationing resulted in a smaller magazine than the issues of 1939-40, and the quality of the printing also declined. Nevertheless, throughout the war years Australia: National Journal maintained regular sections on the cinema, social happenings fashion and the theatre with photographs of Australian life from the beach to the bush.

Australia: National Journal attracted contributions from a different group of writers than Ure Smith's previous publications. Although occasional contributions were received from Hugh McCrae, Norman Lindsay and Lionel Lindsay, a new group of writers were employed, including Allan Aldous, Marjorie Barnard, Jon Cleary, Charmian Clift, Eleanor Dark, Frank Dalby Davison, Mary Finnin, Donald Friend, Eric Irvin, Alan Marshall, Myra Morris, D'Arcy Niland and Ruth Park.