In an email to staff this morning, Fairfax chief executive Greg Hywood has slammed a News Limited report that the publisher is accelerating the timetable for the closure of its weekday print editions as "fabricated nonsense".
The Australian reported today that "senior Fairfax insiders" suggested the timetable to shut its print editions was being moved forward. It later amended the story online with Hywood's denial, which echoed comments made to investors last month that the company had no intention to reduce the frequency of print publication for any of its major mastheads "in the foreseeable future".
Hywood's staff email reads:
Dear All,
In The Australian’s media section today the writer Darren Davidson has a piece of fabricated nonsense which states Fairfax is bringing forward plans to close the Monday to Friday editions of the SMH and The Age.
There are no plans to bring forward. Such an option has not even been developed let alone put to me as an option.
Why would we be expanding our print facilities in North Richmond and Ballarat if we were considering such a move?!
When I heard Davidson was considering writing the article I personally called him. I told him what I have stated above.
That he chose to write this nonsense and The Australian chose to publish it says all that needs to be said about News Corporation.
All the very best.
Greg
Despite Fairfax's denial, media buyers have suggested they would not be surprised if at least some of the weekly metro mastheads from both major publishers are axed within the next few years. They pointed to the rapid decline in newspaper advertising spend – in one case down from around 20% of total media spend three years ago to just 12% today – suggesting that both News Limited and Fairfax could be forced to take action.
News rubbished that claim.
Asked whether it could rule out the closure of any of its major metro mastheads in the next few years, a spokesperson said: "We have no such plans. It's worth remembering the power of print – we sell and distribute over 17 million printed newspapers a week, which are read by over half the adult population of Australia. We are looking forward to the forthcoming readership metric EMMA, which will confirm how engaged Australians are with print."
In its latest Entertainment and Media Outlook, PwC predicts the Australian newspaper advertising market will lose $534 million over the next five years, declining at an average compound annual growth rate of -7.5% from $2.232 billion this year to $1.698 billion in 2017.
The report comes amid an ongoing spat between the two major publishers over Fairfax journalist Pamela Williams' book Killing Fairfax, which documents James Packer and Lachlan Murdoch's role in taking market share from the news organisation through online classified sites like Seek.com.au and Carsales.com.au.
The Sydney Morning Herald published an editorial on Saturday, republished today on SMH.com.au with a note from Hywood, rejecting the "false premises" that the company was dying, saying it "humbly welcomes the hubris and triumphalism of James Packer and Lachlan Murdoch".
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