EXCLUSIVE: The new regime at Fairfax Media’s Financial Review Group will cut online subscriptions prices by 40% from next Monday for The Australian Financial Review, allow print subscribers full access to online content for free and launch an iPad app early in the new year as part of a major overhaul of the group's market strategy.
The moves were announced late yesterday and to staff in an email earlier in the day from FRG chief executive Brett Clegg, which AdNews has obtained a copy of.
In the staff email, Clegg said the short-term benefit would be that “more people will get immediate access to our content”. He said the changes were not about responding to competitors – a reference to the recent paywall launch from The Australian. Rival mastheads needed “to deal with issues in their own backyard”, Clegg told staff.
“These changes are about you and for you,” Clegg said in yesterday’s email. “They are about our loyal readers, our valued commercial stakeholders. They are not about our competitors or rivals – some of which, to be frank – need to deal with issues in their own backyard. Be competitive and be proud of your masthead.”
Clegg was lured back from The Australian earlier this year but had to serve six months gardening leave before starting in his role. He has since poached the former editor at The Australian, Michael Stutchbury, as editor-in-chief.
“We are a profitable publication with strong commercial underpinnings,” Clegg’s email to staff said, which could be interpreted as a subtle nod to ongoing conjecture about the profitability of its key rival The Australian. “Our position as a national publication, which produces unashamedly high quality journalism, is a great place to be.”
Clegg told AdNews two weeks ago he expected “double digit” audience increases to the afr.com in the next two years and flagged an “aspirational” target for online traffic to reach 50% of paid subscriptions, which is in line with international benchmarks for mastheads like The Wall Street Journal.
He has also been actively briefing chief marketing officers and media buyers in recent weeks about plans for the masthead.
“I was impressed,” said OMD chief executive Peter Horgan. “It’s always been a very specialist business target but what was interesting in what [Clegg] was saying was that the AFR could have a more mainstream emphasis and has a desire to be considered by a general upmarket reader rather than people who just want to get their business download. There’s a bit of broadening going on without alienating the business community.”
Clegg said in a statement yesterday: "It has been a terrific experience to wear out the shoe leather seeing our key commercial stakeholders. The feedback has been frank and enlightening. It has motivated us to step up innovation, especially across platforms and working with our colleagues within the broader Fairfax family of publications. Coupled with the changes announced today to our online model, the direct result has been that we are looking at a very significant pipeline of new advertising opportunities in the coming year."
The AFR will launch a marketing campaign on December 12, after deploying its new print and online subscription pricing plans on Monday. Under the new terms, a print and online subscription will cost $780 per year (previously $1140) and online-only will be $680 (previously $1140).
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