In 1892, Ager was articled to journalism in Bedford with the Bedfordshire Times and Independent before working on London and provincial newspapers.[5] In April 1898 he moved to Singapore to join The Straits Times in an editorial and commercial capacity.[5][8]
When Ager arrived at The Straits Times, the newspaper was ‘produced by two coolies turning the handle of the printing machine’ under the editorship of Mr. Arnot Reid.[5] A year later, Ager installed the first oil engine to be used in Singapore for the purpose of newspaper printing.[5] At the time of the Relief of Mafeking, Arnot Reid wrote an article condemning a group of expatriates who had driven to Government House offering their congratulations to Sir Alexander Swettenham but were promptly escorted off the premises by an armed guard.[5] The expatriates expressed their anger with the article, bizarrely through death threats to Arnot Reid; Ager later witnessed the attempted murder of Reid.[5] Fortunately for Reid, the police successfully intervened although the aggrieved expatriates then sought to acquire the newspaper; the newspaper was subsequently sold and Reid removed as editor.[5]
In 1903, Ager was made editor of The Straits Times until the appointment of Walter Makepeace.[2][9] Ager continued at the paper as General Manager and Assistant Editor until his retirement in 1929.[5] On his retirement, an article in The Straits Times honoured Ager as being largely responsible for the introduction of modern methods of newspaper production in Malaya and for making The Straits Times the most widely read newspaper in Singapore.[5]
