Fairfax Media will not back out of its commitment to radio and is in broadcasting for the long haul, even as the rest of the company continues to pursue a digital first strategy, chief executive Greg Hywood has said.
In a speech to the Melbourne Press Club on Friday Hywood returned serve to critics saying a book about Fairfax should be written with the title: “Fairfax Media – Alive! How 180 year old newspaper company weathered the storm and confounded them all”.
He described recent criticisms of the company as “conga-line of hysteria” and said that the company's health was rooted in its audiences and its increasingly diverse revenue streams.
“While media companies have made a self-serving art form of interpreting the various industry measurement diagnostics, there are a couple of numbers that can’t be challenged – Fairfax Media reaches 10.6 million Australians aged 14+ a month across our publishing mastheads,” Hywood said.
“Our publishing earnings are solid; our share price is up 80% over the last year; and key parts of our business, notably Domain, are growing rapidly.”
Hywood was unapologetic about job losses at Fairfax in recent years as the company redefined its model, but said even as people left the business, new roles were being created and were over-subscribed with candidates.
He also said the company was now well on track developing multiple revenue sources across its digital and print platforms.
“We run our business on a 24/7 digital-first basis, where the production of a physical newspaper is an important but just one part of the process,” he said.
“And talking about our newspapers – and I am going to be explicit here – the metros are increasing their profitability – they provide strong cash flows. I have said repeatedly Fairfax is committed to producing profitable newspapers. They are more profitable now than when I first said that.
“We are creating new revenues. While we were transforming our old newspaper business into a multi-platform media organisation – we have also been growing new businesses which are heavily aligned to our core – property services, marketing services, data services and events. This involves taking a 360-degree view of clients’ needs. It’s not only advertising, it’s a full suite model that goes way beyond traditional marketing.
“Look at the success of Domain. We said in May EBITDA growth year-on-year was 33%. We have just bought All Homes in Canberra which is the number one provider in that market. Earlier in the year we bought Property Data Solutions. I won’t go into too much detail about our future plans around Domain – ‘watch this space’. Fairfax is in a strong position, not just to build its current businesses, but to invest for the future.”
And he insisted with $100 million in the bank and no debt, radio would be a part of its future.
“We are investing for the future,” he said.
“We believe that shaping the conversation in our communities through news and talk is a better place to be than in music which is being massively disrupted by new streaming technologies. So we are committed to radio. We are getting it right. It won’t happen overnight. We are here for the long haul.”
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