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Fairfax Media Limited
Company typePublic company (ASX – FXJ)
IndustryMedia
Founded1841
Defunct7 December 2018 Edit this on Wikidata
HeadquartersOne Darling Island Road, Pyrmont, Sydney
Area served
Australia, New Zealand
Key people
Greg Hywood (CEO)
Nick Falloon (Chairman)
ProductsNewspapers
Radio
Magazines
Internet
RevenueDecrease A$1.85 billion
(13 August 2015)[1]
Decrease A$143.4 million
(13 August 2015)[1]
Number of employees
Decrease 6,410 full-time employees
Decrease1,211 part-time and casual employees
(24 June 2012)[2]
Websitewww.fxj.com.au

Fairfax Media Limited [ASX:FXJ] is one of the largest media companies in Australia and New Zealand, with investment in newspaper, magazines, radio and internet. John Fairfax purchased The Sydney Morning Herald in 1841 and the family retained control of the business until late in the twentieth century.

Products and divisions

Fairfax has a portfolio of leading online products, including the digital news brands, SMH.com.au, an Australian news site and AFR.com, a financial news site. The group also has leading online marketplaces including Domain.com.au for real estate and Drive.com.au for motors.

The Fairfax divisions cover:

  • Australia Media: includes national brands The Sydney Morning Herald[3] and The Australian Financial Review[4] and metro titles The Age in Melbourne and The Canberra Times.
  • Life Media and Events: a major events business and owner of Australian lifestyle brands including "Goodfood";[5] "Essential Kids";[6] "Essential Baby"[7] and "Traveller".[8] This also includes Fairfax's joint venture "Drive",[9] an online motors portal.
  • Domain Group: a digital real estate business containing Domain.com.au, online property portal, APM Pricefinder, a property data business and MyDesktop, a SaaS platform for the real estate sector.
  • Digital Ventures: encompasses digital publisher Allure Media, and partnerships with Huffington Post for HuffPost Australia and Nine Entertainment Co. for Stan, the video streaming service.
  • New Zealand Media: including national brand Stuff.co.nz and metro titles The Dominion Post in Wellington and The Press in Christchurch.

In 2014, Fairfax entered into a joint venture partnership with Nine Entertainment Co, called StreamCo, the creators behind Australia’s newest subscription video on demand service, "Stan.com.au".

Fairfax has a 54.5% interest in Macquarie Radio Network [ASX:MRN], following the merger of Fairfax’s radio business with Macquarie’s in 2015, with the leading News, Talk and Sport stations in Sydney and Melbourne.

In 2015, Fairfax Media and The Huffington Post Media Group launched HuffPost.com.au, an Australian edition of The Huffington Post. HuffPost Australia is The Huffington Post’s 15th site in the brand’s expanding global presence.

In December 2015, automotive digital business 112 and Fairfax's "Drive.com.au" announced the formation of a 50:50 joint venture in the online motor sector. Fairfax will license the Drive brand and "Drive.com.au" URL to 112, which currently owns and operates "themotorreport.com.au", a unique independent online car-buyer resource.

The group's chairman is Nick Falloon[10] and the chief executive officer is Greg Hywood.[11]

History

Fairfax Media building at Pyrmont, NSW

John Fairfax purchased The Sydney Morning Herald in 1841.[12] Several generations of the Fairfax family continued to control the company.

Fairfax Media was founded by the Fairfax family as John Fairfax and Sons, later to become John Fairfax Holdings. The Fairfax family lost control of the company in December 1990. It was renamed from John Fairfax Holdings to Fairfax Media in 2007.

1950s to 1999

The Australian Financial Review was founded in 1951. In that decade, Fairfax started two television stations, ATN and QTQ. Fairfax began expanding in the 1960s, acquiring, among others, The Age, The Newcastle Herald and the Illawarra Mercury. In 1979, Rupert Murdoch attempted to take over rival The Herald and Weekly Times. Due to the costs of defending the takeover, Fairfax sold its television properties, including the Seven Network. In 1988, Fairfax sold its magazines (including Woman's Day, People, Dolly, and Good Housekeeping) to Australian Consolidated Press, and discontinued its Sydney afternoon tabloid The Sun, transferring some of its content and the sponsorship of the City to Surf to its new Sunday tabloid The Sun-Herald which also replaced the broadsheet Sunday Herald.

In 1987, Warwick Fairfax, then aged 26, controversially bought out his family's holdings in the company by borrowing heavily. He successfully took it over; but, on 10 December 1990, the company collapsed and a receiver was appointed,[13] with company debts of A$1.7 billion.[12] By 1993, the company was re-listed on the Australian Stock Exchange and the two biggest shareholders of John Fairfax Holdings were the Canadian newspaper magnate Conrad Black and his Hollinger Group with 25%, and the Australian media mogul, Kerry Packer and his publicly listed company, Publishing and Broadcasting Limited with 15%. Due to Australian government concerns over media consolidation that limited any single foreign shareholder holding more than 25% interest in national and metropolitan newspapers,[14] after intense lobbying for the right to increase his stake, Black conceded defeat in 1996,[15][16][17] selling his holding to the New Zealand corporate "raider" Brierley Investments, that was ultimately subject to the same restrictions.[13]

2000 to 2009

In April 2003, Fairfax acquired the publishing assets of New Zealand's Independent Newspapers Limited (News Corp Australia), including many of New Zealand's highest-profile newspapers. In July 2005, Fairfax acquired the RSVP dating site for A$38 million.[18] In August 2005, Fairfax's general classifieds site created in March 2004, Cracker.com.au consistently exceeded 500,000 unique visitors a month.[citation needed] In December 2005, Fairfax acquired Stayz Pty Ltd[19] for A$12.7 million.[20] This investment proved to be very successful as Stayz was sold on 27 November 2013, for $220 million, far exceeding its estimated net debt of $154 million.[20]

In August 2005, Fairfax ended its 16-month search for a new chief executive officer with David Kirk, a former Rugby Union World Cup winning captain of the New Zealand All Blacks being appointed to replace departing CEO Fred Hilmer. David Kirk got the job ahead of Fairfax COO Brian Evans (former head of Fairfax New Zealand) and Doug Flynn, who took the top job at UK Pest control company Rentokil after negotiations with Fairfax broke off. In March 2006, Fairfax acquired New Zealand auction website Trademe.co.nz for NZ$700 million.[citation needed] On 4 March 2006, it was announced that Fairfax would purchase The Border Mail newspaper in Albury-Wodonga for A$162 million. In October 2006, speculation began to grow that the company would be bought out and split up after the passage of changes to Australian media laws. Rival media company News Corp Australia purchased a 7.5 per cent stake in the company at this time, with the stated aim of keeping Fairfax in one piece.[citation needed]

On 7 December 2006, John Fairfax Holdings and Rural Press announced the beginning of their merger proceedings. Once merged, the new entity formed a publishing company worth A$9 billion and resulted in regaining control of The Canberra Times (which it owned in the 1980s), and through John B. Fairfax of Rural Press, saw the return of the Fairfax family to the company board. The company also gained a number of other regional newspapers, radio stations and websites; plus agricultural publications in various countries.[citation needed] On 12 January 2007, John Fairfax Holdings changed its name to Fairfax Media.[21]

On 7 March 2007, Fairfax Media announced a new website for Brisbane, called the Brisbane Times. The website initially employed 14 journalists and was an attempt by Fairfax to break into the South East Queensland market.[citation needed] On 20 March 2007 Fairfax Media launched a new business website, BusinessDay.com.au that aggregated feeds from the other news vehicles in the Fairfax stable as well as "from the world's most respected news sources". It featured breaking news updated "every 15 minutes".[citation needed] Also in 2007 Fairfax Media bought the radio assets of Southern Cross Broadcasting. Macquarie Media Group purchased Southern Cross for A$1.35 billion and onsold these assets to the Fairfax Group.[22]

On 26 August 2007, Kirk and Deputy CEO Brian McCarthy announced that 550 staff would be cut as part of a "business improvement" programme. The staff reductions would take place in both Australia and New Zealand, with the latter country bearing the brunt of the cuts, with 160 full-time employees losing their jobs.[23] On 5 December, David Kirk tendered his resignation, and on 10 December Brian McCarthy (former Rural Press CEO) was appointed as CEO. A new campaign, "Fair Go, Fairfax: Don't discount journalism",[24] was launched by the MEAA[citation needed] in protest to the cuts arguing that the jobs losses will affect "quality journalism".

As of May 2008 Fairfax Media had a market capitalisation of over A$5 billion.[5] The number of printed edition readers has fallen since at least 2006 and the group's stock price has declined by more than 60 percent since 2007, to less than A$2 billion by September 2011, and by 85 percent at June 2012.[6]

On 11 July 2007, Fairfax Media acquired the former radio assets of Southern Cross Broadcasting (on-sold from Macquarie Media Group's purchase of SCB): 2UE Sydney, 3AW and Magic 1278 Melbourne, 4BC and 4BH Brisbane, and 6PR and 96fm Perth. Graham Mott will continue in his role as general manager of the broadcast radio group under Fairfax. Mott indicated at the time of the acquisition that national syndication of programming (such as that of the since-retired John Laws) would largely be replaced on the network with more localised syndication at a state level.[25]

Fairfax also acquired Satellite Music Australia (SMA) as part of the SCB deal, who provide music channels to retailers, as well as Foxtel and Austar[26] (where it is branded AIR). MyTalk Datacasting Channel was officially purchased from Southern Cross Broadcasting on 5 November 2007,[27] and ceased broadcasting on 25 February 2008.

2010 to present

In late 2011, John B. Fairfax and his family investment company, Marinya Media, sold their remaining 9.7 percent stake in Fairfax Media for A$189 million. The sale came after an earlier dispute between John B. Fairfax and Ron Walker, Chairman of the Board of Fairfax Media, which led to the very public departure of Walker. Continued poor performance of Fairfax Media in light of changing news services was cited as one of the reasons for the sale of Marinya Media's interests in Fairfax. John B. Fairfax had earlier stood down from the Fairfax board, and his son, Nick Fairfax, was reported to be discussing his future with the rest of the company board.[28][29][30][31]

In 2012 mining billionaire Gina Rinehart (the wealthiest person in Australia) became Fairfax's biggest shareholder, purchasing a 14 percent stake in the company. Rinehart also sought a position on the Fairfax board.[32] By June 2012, Rinehart had increased her stake in Fairfax Media to 18.67 percent, and was believed to seek three board seats and involvement in editorial decisions.[33] There were reports that Rinehart sought to increase her total share to 19.99%, the maximum allowed before a takeover offer must be made. But provisions in Fairfax Media's insurance policy denied cover for directors owning more than 15%, so Rinehart had to sell down to 14.99%. Rinehart was denied a place on the board because she would not agree to Fairfax's charter of independence, and sold her stake in 2015.

On 18 June 2012, as part of evolving to a sustainable model for its news media business, Fairfax Media announced it would cut 1,900 staff and begin to erect digital paywalls around its two main metropolitan news brands, the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age. It also announced it was shifting to "compact" or tabloid-sized editions of the broadsheet newspapers from March 2013, and that its two printing facilities at Chullora and Tullamarine would close. The changes, prompted by shrinking advertising revenue, were expected to generate A$235 million in annual savings over three years.

In 2012, Fairfax Media acquired Netus Pty Ltd, a technology investment company which owned 85% of Allure Media, and purchased the remaining 15% from minority shareholders. Allure Media own a range of websites, including the Australian licenses for Business Insider, Lifehacker, Gizmodo, and Kotaku.

In December 2014, Fairfax merged with Macquarie Radio Network. Under the deal, Fairfax gained a 55% share in Macquarie. A party may hold only two radio licences in each market, so some stations including 2CH and the Macquarie Regional Radio network were sold.[34] In turn, 96FM Perth was sold to Australian Radio Network.[35][36] The merger was completed in March 2015.[37][38]

In 2014, Fairfax Media founded online streaming company Stan with Nine Entertainment Co., investing AU$50 million into the joint venture.

In 2015, Fairfax created a partnership with Huffington Post to launch HuffPost Australia.

In December 2015, automotive digital business 112 and Fairfax's Drive.com.au announced the formation of a 50:50 joint venture in the online motor sector. Fairfax will license the Drive brand and Drive.com.au URL to 112, which currently owns and operates themotorreport.com.au, a unique independent online car-buyer resource.

In March 2016, many staff from its newspaper divisions went on a 4 day strike over planned job cuts of 120 editorial staff from The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and The Australian Financial Review. All printed and digital editions continued during the action but The Age web site was down on 25th and 26th March adding to a 2 week outage earlier in March.[39]

Properties

Australia

Newspapers

Fairfax Media publishes metropolitan, agricultural, regional and community newspapers, financial and consumer magazines. In Australia, mastheads include The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, The Australian Financial Review, The Canberra Times, The Sun-Herald, Stock And Land and The Land.

Fairfax publishes the second most circulated daily papers in both Melbourne and Sydney, The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald respectively. It also publishes a daily business tabloid, The Australian Financial Review.

Fairfax also owns papers in major regional centres, including the Illawarra Mercury (Wollongong), The Newcastle Herald (Newcastle), The Border Mail (Albury-Wodonga), The Daily Advertiser (Wagga Wagga), The Warrnambool Standard (Warrnambool), The Courier (Ballarat) and The Bendigo Advertiser (Bendigo). In addition, its subsidiary Fairfax Community Newspapers publishes 35 community newspapers serving suburban Victoria and New South Wales.

As a result of its Rural Press acquisition, Fairfax has taken control of many newspapers including The Canberra Times and The Land.

Magazines

Fairfax publishes a number of magazines, such as the(sydney)magazine, The Age magazine(melbourne) and Good Weekend, which are distributed with their newspapers. In addition, the company publishes business-centred magazines including BRW (since December 2013, only published online),[40] AFR Smart Investor, AFR Magazine, AFR Boss, CFO Australia, MIS (magazine) and Asset (Magazine).

Digital

Fairfax owns a profitable Australian online subsidiary, Fairfax Digital, which was once known as the F2 Network. Fairfax publishes web editions of most of its newspaper titles, as well as digital only news sites in South-East Queensland as the Brisbane Times; and in Western Australia as WA Today. Both The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald produce a limited amount of video content, which is only available online. As a rival to Ninemsn's Nine News and Yahoo7's Seven News, Fairfax websites previously had non-exclusive licensing deals to replay news video content from broadcaster Network Ten and its former main news service Ten News at Five (now Ten Eyewitness News). Fairfax's deal with Ten has now discontinued when their news video content are now being shown on Ten's catch-up service, Tenplay which launched in late 2013. From 2014, Fairfax now have non-exclusive licensing deal with Channel Seven by using clips from Seven News with Mark Ferguson.

Rural Press owns a range of similar classifieds and local newspaper websites.

On 21 December 2012, Fairfax Media announced the acquisition of Netus Pty Ltd, a technology investment company. Netus owned 85% of Allure Media. Fairfax purchased the remaining 15 per cent of Allure Media from minority shareholders resulting in Fairfax ownership of 100 per cent of Allure Media.[41] Allure Media own a range of websites, including the Australian licenses for Lifehacker, Gizmodo and Kotaku.

Syndication

Fairfax Syndication[42] manages the commercial licensing and distribution of text, photographic and multimedia content to media companies and commercial clients worldwide. Fairfax Syndication has enabled instant online licensing and has developed a customised syndication application 'API' that allows existing and future syndication clients access to real-time content from multiple websites for immediate use on other platforms. The division also represents their image library and photo syndication service containing over 16 million images.

New Zealand

The New Zealand subsidiary is Fairfax New Zealand Limited and publishes the stable of papers formerly owned by Independent Newspapers Limited (News Corp Australia),

In New Zealand mastheads include The Dominion Post, The Press, The Sunday Star-Times, TV Guide, NZ House and Garden and New Zealand Fishing News, as well as agricultural publications and Suburban Newspapers in Auckland. It also owns over 60 community newspapers.

On 1 September 2011 Fairfax New Zealand announced the launch of Fairfax New Zealand News (FNZ), partly in response to the New Zealand Press Association (NZPA) closure, but also as part of its drive to improve its journalism.

Fairfax New Zealand's websites form the Stuff.co.nz portal. Sites include News, Employment, Property, Personals and Shopping. Fairfax also owns the Cuisine website as part of its ownership of the magazine of the same name.[43]

Magazines

  • Cuisine
  • NZ House & Garden
  • NZ Gardener
  • NZ Life & Leisure
  • TV Guide
  • NZ Autocar
  • NZ Fishing News
  • World
  • The Cut
  • NZ Lifestyle Block
  • NZ Horse & Pony
  • NZ Trucking
  • Fish & Game

Rural Press Limited:

  • NZDairyFarmer
  • NZFarmer
  • AgTrader
  • Central Districts Field Days

References

  1. ^ a b http://www.fairfaxmedia.com.au/ArticleDocuments/193/2015-08-13_FAIRFAX%20Full%20Year%20Results-%20Presentation.pdf.aspx?Embed=Y
  2. ^ "Annual Report" (PDF). 2014.
  3. ^ smh.com.au
  4. ^ afr.com
  5. ^ "Recipes, Restaurant Reviews & Food Guides from goodfood.com.au". Good Food. Retrieved 28 April 2016.
  6. ^ "Essential Kids - Practical Advice for Parents". Essential Kids. Retrieved 28 April 2016.
  7. ^ "Essential Baby: Parenting Information For Mothers, Fathers, Parents & Parents to be". Essential Baby. Retrieved 28 April 2016.
  8. ^ Ben Groundwater. "Traveller.com.au - Your Destination for Travel Inspiration". Traveller. Retrieved 28 April 2016.
  9. ^ "Drive.com.au - Reviews & Advice, Buy - Sell New & Used Cars". Drive. Retrieved 28 April 2016.
  10. ^ "Nick Falloon confirmed as Chairman upon the retirement of Roger Corbett". fairfaxmedia.com.au. Retrieved 16 September 2015.
  11. ^ Lee, Julian. "Fairfax chief executive quits". Brisbane Times. Australia. Retrieved 6 December 2010.
  12. ^ a b "History of the Sydney Morning Herald". The Sydney Morning Herald. 2011. Archived from the original on 10 April 2013. Retrieved 12 November 2011.
  13. ^ a b "Let battle commence". The Economist. 24 April 1997. Retrieved 12 November 2011.
  14. ^ Gardiner-Garden, John; Chowns, Jonathan (30 May 2006). "Media Ownership Regulation in Australia". Parliamentary Library. Parliament of Australia. {{cite journal}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help)
  15. ^ Schatzker, Erik (18 November 2003). "Conrad Black quits". The Age. Australia. Retrieved 12 November 2011.
  16. ^ Smith, Michael (11 December 2007). "Conrad Black's legacy in Australia". The Drum. Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 12 November 2011.
  17. ^ Suich, Max (26 February 2005). "Review: The Fall of Conrad Black". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 12 November 2011.
  18. ^ "Fairfax buys online dating service". The Sydney Morning Herald. 11 July 2005. Retrieved 6 January 2011.
  19. ^ "Stayz Holiday Accommodation – Holiday Rentals". Stayz. Retrieved 13 November 2010.
  20. ^ a b Johnston, Eric (5 December 2013). "Fairfax sells Stayz accommodation website for $220m to HomeAway". The Age. Melbourne. Retrieved 5 December 2013.
  21. ^ "Fairfax Name Change". 12 January 2007. Retrieved 24 March 2007.[dead link]
  22. ^ "Southern Cross Broadcasting sold for $1.35b". Australia: ABC News. 3 June 2007. Retrieved 3 June 2007.
  23. ^ "Fairfax email to staff about job cuts". The Australian. Retrieved 26 August 2008.[dead link]
  24. ^ "A message from the Media, Entertainment & Arts Alliance (MEAA) - News". fairgofairfax.org.au. Retrieved 16 September 2015.
  25. ^ Tabakoff, Nick (7 November 2007). "Fairfax to axe syndicated programs". The Australian. News. Retrieved 12 November 2007.
  26. ^ "Interview: Colin Fraser". Australian Music Online. 2004. Archived from the original on 10 September 2007. Retrieved 12 November 2007. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  27. ^ "Southern Cross falls to Mac and Fairfax". The Australian. 3 June 2007. Retrieved 3 June 2007.[dead link]
  28. ^ Bartholomeusz, Stephen (10 November 2011). "Fairfax ends the romance". Business Spectator. Retrieved 12 November 2011.
  29. ^ Dick, Tim (11 November 2011). "End of an era as Fairfax family calls it quits". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 12 November 2011.
  30. ^ "Marinya Media divests ownership of Fairfax Media" (PDF). The Australian Financial Review (Press release). 10 November 2011. Retrieved 12 November 2011.
  31. ^ Jackson, Sally; Kitney, Damon (12 November 2011). "Questions over timing of Fairfax's volatile farewell". The Australian. Retrieved 12 November 2011.
  32. ^ Walters, Kath (17 May 2012). "Rinehart's pitch for Fairfax board: why it's going wrong". Leading Company.
  33. ^ Simpson, Kirsty (18 June 2012). "Rinehart steps up Fairfax board battle". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 18 June 2012.
  34. ^ Fairfax and Macquarie to merge radio networks ABC News 22 December 2014
  35. ^ "Kiis acquires Perth's 96FM to complete national network". AdNews. 22 December 2014. Retrieved 19 January 2015.
  36. ^ "96FM Perth sold to ARN for $78m". Radio Today. 22 December 2014. Retrieved 19 January 2015.
  37. ^ "And the deal is done... finally!". Radio Today. 31 March 2015. Retrieved 1 April 2015.
  38. ^ "MRN Fairfax merger complete". Radioinfo. 1 April 2015. Retrieved 1 April 2015.
  39. ^ "Fairfax job cuts plan prompts mass walk out as staff 'take a stand'". ABC News. 17 March 2016. Retrieved 19 March 2016.
  40. ^ Jackson, Sally (12 October 2013). "Publisher loses fight to keep BRW in print". The Australian. News Ltd. Retrieved 5 December 2013.
  41. ^ "Fairfax Media Acquires Netus Pty Ltd" (PDF). 2012.
  42. ^ Fairfax Syndication. fairfaxsyndication.com
  43. ^ "Home page". Cuisine. Retrieved 12 November 2011.

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