Fairfax Media re-commits to Monday to Friday print editions as ‘best commercial outcome for shareholders’
Fairfax Media has re-committed to the future of the Monday to Friday print editions of The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age with CEO Greg Hywood stating its the “best commercial outcome for shareholders”.
Greg Hywood: Six and seven-day publishing is the best commercial outcome for shareholders
In May, Hywood said it was “inevitable” the company would close its weekday metro print editions in favour of “weekend-only or more targeted printing”.
The comments, made in a speech to the Macquarie Australia Conference, sent the wider industry into months of speculation around when Fairfax would cease Monday to Friday printing.
Hi Miranda,
I’ll admit that he does look a little grey in the photo, but I’m not sure that warrants calling him “Grey Hywood” in the first sentence of your piece!
Strategy? Looks like the top deck of the Titanic; making sure their lifeboats are cosy.
Hi Typo,
That is quite an unfortunate typo! Thanks for pointing it out, it’s been fixed.
Cheers,
Miranda – Mumbrella
The reason that papers continue to be “the best commercial outcome for shareholders” is that digital revenues are nowhere near what Fairfax and the others had wanted them to be. This isn’t a vote of confidence in print, it’s a sign that digital is a disaster and the bosses are delaying the inevitable while they work out what to do. The other problem for Fairfax is that, if they kill the Mon-Fri editions of the SMH and Age, how are they going to properly distribute the Fin Review? They don’t sell many copies but they need that distribution network. Otherwise all three papers have to die.
Lets keep in mind, in December Fairfax said that they wouldn’t be spinning off Domain any time soon and then less than 3 months later… well, we all know how that panned out.