Michael Gordon (Australian journalist)

Gordon joined The Age in 1973 at the age of 17 as a cadet journalist^[2] and spent most of his career with the newspaper in Melbourne, reporting on areas such as politics, police, industrial relations and sport.^[3] He retired from The Age in June 2017 at the rank of national political editor,^[2] the position he held since 2013,^[4] after working for the newspaper for 37 years.^[1][3] Gordon also worked for a time as a New York correspondent for The Herald in the late 1980s and later as national political editor for The Australian from 1994 to 1998.^[1][4]

Gordon won a Walkley Award in 2017 for Most Outstanding Contribution to Journalism 2017.^[5] Gordon was also the recipient of the 2005 Graeme Perkin Award for Australia's most outstanding journalist at the Quill Awards.^[6][1]

He died in February 2018, at the age of 62, from a heart attack while taking part in an ocean swim at Cowes in Phillip Island, Victoria.^[1][7] His death prompted messages of sympathy from Tony Wright (associate editor of The Age), Greg Hywood (Fairfax Media chief executive) and former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull.^[8]

After his death, a journalism fellowship in his name was set up by the Melbourne Press Club.