Media have responded promptly and variously following the death of Queen Elizabeth II overnight AEDT, with some paywalls rarely (and selectively) suspended for coverage.

In Australia News Corp freed up access to some reports and blocked others, and there were some anomalies. A main story in the newsletter of its metro Courier-Mail headlined ‘Charles pays tribute to ‘beloved’ Queen’ led readers instead to ‘The Sussexes pay tribute to the Queen after pained Prince Harry arrives at Balmoral’, and like its ‘Queen Elizabeth dead at 96’, both were taglined ‘Entertainment | Celebrity’.

With 50 – or perhaps 70 – years to prepare for it, media were both ready and unready for the inevitable, many with pre-prepared coverage and supplements; some I saw included the line “at the time of writing” while another referred to “0-year” reign, perhaps to add as applicable.

Elsewhere there seemed to be confusion over titles, with ‘HRH’ used in at least one media report to describe a monarch whose title was ‘Her Majesty’ (HM), while an ABC TV news presenter invented “coronated” to describe what would happen at Charles’ upcoming crowning.

In today’s digital age, there’s seldom a good time to go to press with a news event. The Australian had to make do with the Royal family’s “bedside vigil” when it sent its front page to subscribers. A copy hit my mailbox at 1.35am, just two hours ahead of the event.

Saturday’s papers will however, make the most of tributes to the Queen, with News announcing its metro mastheads the Herald Sun, Daily Telegraph, Courier-Mail and The Advertiser will commit at least 36 pages to coverage.

Industry comment has included a LinkedIn tribute from advertising veteran Martin Sorrell who recalled watching her coronation “on our flickering black and white TV aged 8 in 1953”. That’s his age presumably, not that of the TV.

I never got to “see her passing by” – to borrow from former prime minister Robert Menzies – although my wife Maggie recalls covering the Queen’s visit to Canberra in 1970. As a (terrified) cadet on a local weekly where she was the only female, she joined the press pack for the opening of the Carillon – a gift from the UK – and Captain Cook memorial jet.

Like Sorrell, I have my own memories of the coronation – my publisher parents bought a new Marconiphone console for us to watch it – and indeed the classroom moment when my teacher turned on the radio for us to hear “The King is dead; long live the Queen”.

It’s been a memorable Elizabethan era graced by an outstanding woman notable for her “decency” (noted by prime minister Anthony Albanese) and in her own words, “quiet heart”. Charles III has a tough act to follow.

Peter Coleman

Pictured: A 1970 National Capital Authority picture of the 1970 visit, this time from Mt Ainslie