Fairfax to Mumbrella: If you say our print revenues have declined it’s because you want to damage us

I think a graph of Fairfax revenues over the last 10 years is in order here.

I don’t think anyone would argue that The Age is a fantastic publication (in fact, all of Fairfax’s mastheads are excellent). However, if we’re going to have to listen to them cry foul over pieces such as yours Tim – accusing you of distoring the truth – then can we at least ask them to afford us the same concession?

Why don’t we start here:

a) Do your online readers really prefer videos to auto-play?

b) While a ‘commercial reality’ within Fairfax is auto-refresh fair to advertisers?

c) Why won’t Fairfax, and everyone else, publish full circulaitions? (inc all bullks, lesser rate sales, freely distributed copies, international distribution, and daily circulations).

Quid pro quo Fairfax. Maybe the installation of Greg Hywood heralds a new approach from Fairfax. The Australian media industry is holding its collective breath.

“On occasion it’s even been used by News Corp editors in various parts of the world.” On occasion meaning constantly and parts of the world meaning Australia?

You don’t have to look far to find another example of “nobody liks us, we don’t care” – how about The Times paywall?

Not to mention all the free wasted copies of The Age and SMH print copies I see at Fitness first gyms every morning – Of which I am sure are calculated into the Fairfax circ. figures.
Here in Sydney alone, the Kings Cross and Darlinghurst gyms are now leaving copies of the papers – approx. 100 copies each (fresh at 6.30am) outside their member areas allowing the general public to pick up a free copy (Darlinghurst gym has them within 2metres of the shopping centre/ gym entrance in full public view)…. come on down guys. Who needs to pay for news!!!

I assume that The Age receives (presumably increasing) income from online advertising in addition to that appearing in the printed product.
Am I wrong?

@SpryCorpse You make a good point. If we go back 20 years ‘The Age’ I presume, made all advertising revenue from print only. Now they have digital channels, plus print where revenues are achieved.

Does that mean The Age (all news groups) have the right to earn the same in print as per usual, plus digital revenues, or should some changes be made? For example = make print advertising cheaper..?

Do people feel that publishers should be reducing the cost of print advertising? Now that digital is creating revenues…?

SpryCorpse, you’re wrong on the online advertising revenues – they currently go to Fairfax Digital, not to The Age. This will be the big change under the recently announced restructure. Of course the most profitable parts of the current Fairfax Digital stable (Trade Me, transactions) are not going to be part of the ‘Metro’ division that only includes the newspapers and their ads, in print and online formats.

Newspaper editors all appear to have become very thin-skinned since their business models began failing.

I think it is their insecurity regarding their future place in the world.

People keep saying how important it is to preserve quality journalism and newsprint’s tradition – just as people in the early 20th century talked about preserving the noble art of riding and blacksmith’s profession.

Perhaps the newspaper journalist of today is like the dressage rider of 19th century….

The reality is that Fairfax has been failing for a decade. Partly due to structure shift in the industry due to digital, and partly due to inept management who clearly don’t get the new future.

Hundreds of wasted million dollars later, they still don’t get that people don’t want to watch a 30 sec TVC on the front of a 2 min web video – they simply don’t understand the new environment.

In the meantime, the quality of their journalism has taken a massive tumble, and this is simply why people dont buy the paper anymore – there’s precious little in it.

While management pretends these probems don’t exist, the writers can pretend to be journalists again, thanks to wikielaks doing their job for them..

Pipe down Failfax, unless you’re going to call for the resignation of some polticians due to the scandal…..Mark Arbib anyone??

I just clicked on an eye catching headline on the SMH. It is about Abib and Wikileaks. It is a good punchy article.

I was clicking through to READ this news ARTICLE. Guess what?! A video ad started playing, a few seconds in. The only reason I knew that the ad was playing after I had scrolled down to read the article – is because everyone around me looked at me, because my volume was on. I scrolled back up to a video ad playing that I did not request, nor want to view / hear.

FD are crooks applying this unethical tactic. They purposely delay the start of the video, in time for the user to scroll down and then (because most people at work have the volume down) the video plays without the user seeing it, nor hearing it.

I noted the client – it was Fujitsu. If the marketing team at Fujitsu is reading this – please take note of the above unethical tactics being played by FD. Your video ad’s are not being seen!!!

Sydney writes: “In the meantime, the quality of their journalism has taken a massive tumble, and this is simply why people dont buy the paper anymore – there’s precious little in it.”

Hallelujah, brother, you said it!

The Age and SMH deserve praise for getting an early look at those Wikileaks cables, but that and similar successes do not mitigate the vast bulk of ink smeared pointlessly on Fairfax newsprint every day.

If Hywood hopes to revive Fairfax’s dead-tree products the very first priority has to be the writing.

Oh, and some adults on the backbench would be a good idea, too.

I am more concerned that their Communications Manager doesn’t know the difference between “infer” and “imply”…

For christ’s sake, Annoyed, if you don’t want the video ads go and buy the paper. Tired of all this carping from those who surf the websites. All these people are meant to just give you their work for free?

Fairfax simply can no longer afford the quality journalism of the past. This was largely funded by the large profits from classifieds which have migrated to the web and in many instances not to Fairfax sites. In addition online classified advertising yields significantly less revenue per unit sold than print. Thus Fairfax has lost on two counts; firstly by losing their near classified monopoly in Melbourne and Sydney and then by earning far less profit from what share they do have.

The traditional Fairfax business model no longer works and hasn’t done for half a dozen years and for various reasons a succession of senior Fairfax executives would not face up to this and take action. It is far easier to produce reports blaming business cycles for poor performance, and protect your patch, than to acknowledge the challenges bought on by structural change in the operating environment.

And the Rural Press boys were the most disappointing of all. After arriving talking a big game they were found out quickly. It is one thing to manage a 1000 mastheads where there is low digital penetration and you have a near monopoly and another to manage the AGE and the SMH where you are competing in highly competitive markets for fragmented audiences. A more sophisticated strategy is needed than a focus on cost cutting.

Oh if it was so simple as to just improve the quality of the journalism.

Millwall fans do like to be likd, they are similar to NRL players, in that sense.

Age.com.au going to FD? That’s an accounting rule which can be changed at any time. I’d argue that we know in the online news space the following is good: A brand. A content base. Good journalists. Therefore you could report the on / off numbers into a single p+l account. That may tell a different story.
Print revenues will decline as a whole (i.e. Newspapers). Of course they will. There is more competition. I don’t agree that as channels, with unique qualities and therefore unique marketing solutions they will die. They may get less profitable. There may be a flight to quality. There may be a rationalisation of the number of titles in a segment or channel. And some forms of tradional advertising just work better via the intent engine AKA the internet. Classies for one. And there are going to be category killer / disruption models.

By the way, that is an opinion, my view. I don’t arrogantly profess to know.

B&T did a fantastic archive based presentation at the awards ceremony (declaration I work at RBI who own and run the awards) which parodied TV’s rise against Radio. If only the internet had been invented we’d be able to laugh at the ridiculous comments by individuals who fell into the die / not die camps. If only something so complictaed could produce just two outcomes.

I do agree that lots of people seem to believe that they can have a pop at traditional media companies (and agencies, etc) when they are not completely informed. Excuse my unsourced mis-quote. “Everyone has the right to a voice, not everyone has earnt the right to a microphone”. I’m pleased that Fairfax have chosen to exercise their right of reply.

Snowflake: A couple of good subs would make a big difference to the product at modest cost. No more infer/imply confusion — and no more misuse of “beg the question”!

Disappointed: The solution is two-pronged and obvious:

1/ Drastically cut the free and discounted copies and accept that the “natural” paid circulation base M-F is probably around 120,000. Accept that grim reality, revamp the paper, and build on it. Think of it as cutting off the split ends so your hair can regain its health and, eventually, its former length.

But how to re-focus?

The first step would be to acknowledge that there is no longer any point in producing a “news” paper. Too many news sources, too many rotations of the news cycle between daily editions. Why compete when you can’t compete? Leave breaking news to the website and take a fresh tack with the paper itself.

That means bringing out a daily magazine on newsprint. The news element — the criminal sentenced, the pollie exposed, the footy team beaten — needs to be the minor story on the page, while the major element has to be a next day colour/feature piece on what happened, what it means, what it was like to be there.

That means hiring good writers, which is what this journalism is supposed to be about.

Actually, there is a third way: Go tabloid and tackle the Herald Sun head-to-head. That is probably the best option, but it would require a reformation of the Fairfax culture and that, sadly, is probably impossible, Hywood’s best intentions notwithstanding.

The really important revalation in all this could be Tim is a Millwall supporter. Confirm or deny Tim?

Tim…’I suspect I’m one of the very few Sydney-based readers’….with friends like you, who needs enemies? You have to admit you don’t appear to be a fan of the printed word…you even manage to sneak a kick to News Limited in an article that’s basically about Fairfax…Good on them for defending themselves, your readers ask for some spreadsheets, how about you produce the numbers you based your story on? All care and no responsibilty?

I suspect you’d like to be the one to tell us that the Age is out of business….be carefull what you wish for Tim

Any further word from Miranda at Fairfax?

@Journo

I am not knocking content all all. I would actually be prepared to pay a small fee to access quality content that appeals to my area’s of interest. Many online sites have dropped the ball and forgotten what engages with an audience.

I do not believe that auto play videos is the way to go as we drive forward with the ever changing online medium.

The hard thing for Fairfax is that there is new competition and some are focused purely on one thing and do that one thing very well: Carsales as an example…

It cannot be easy for Fairfax, however conning advertisers is not the answer(.)
– Don’t bite the hand that feeds you.

@Annoyed , couldnt agree with you more. The bright side is atleast we wont see any of those shite expandable mrecs that dont close on here for a while.

The Age like all newspapers is dying. Overall, it must be a good thing. The planet will have less to make – and we’ll still get our news (but in a more up to date, portable format). Until the death of the newspaper let’s just be open and realistic. Instead of denying it how about talking about a long term strategy of migration – one your advertisers and readers can join you on.

ummmmm

Innovate.

Or whinge, that’s good too.

The funniest thin in Schuppan’s missive was the fact a newspaper flack uses the words ‘infer’ and ‘inference’ incorrectly. She should know that a speaker or writer implies or makes an implication, the listener or reader infers or makes an inference. When there’s no difference in the editorial standards of blogs and old-media Titans it’s no wonder the latter are dying.

BTW, if she’d wanted to mount a solid argument she could have at least thrown in a couple of facts and figures to back her claims. The fact that she didn’t speaks volumes.

The Age needs to do better than that piece of puffery. Poorly worded, shrill, and fails to address the key issues.

Circulation and readership figures don’t lie. They are public documents. Both show The Age in free fall.

You don’t have to be Einstein to notice that The Age classifieds are wafer thin or that it has taken a huge hit on EBIT with Catlano’s new Weekly Review venture undermining real estate revenues.

Instead of tMiranda Schuppan giving us drivel, maybe Ad Director David Hoath can explain where all the money has gone under his watch.

Newspapers are great at self-righteously dishing out criticism, but they sure as hell can’t take it. That’s one reason why old newspaper hacks loathe the web.

Watched Gorillaz last night in Sydney, they were excellent! Will there be a featured write up in SMH this weekend? Perhaps covering some of the stars who feature in the line up with an interview here and there?

I might buy a copy if there is…

With the plethora of news sources now available to them, I believe the Fairfax readership are waking up to the fact that (a) the papers can take several days to pick up stories one has read elsewhere, and (b) they present very editorially massaged politically correct viewpoints. Not as bad as the BBC News website, which gives the impression of being crafted in some Pravada-like bunker, but still lacking vitality and perspective. I wish I didn’t have to, but to find out what is really going on or is of concern to the citizens of Sydney and Melbourne it’s absolutely vital to read the HeraldSun & Daily Telegraph. If Fairfax was really doing its job that wouldn’t be necessary.

After all the years of suffering and slagging off The West Australian, I was interested to grab a copy of The Age when in Melbourne recently. I was somewhat surprised to find that it was trash. Just as bad as The West, just…wider.

All this talk of Fairfax excellence had led me to believe the Age would be good. Was just another terrible paper.

Oh, and further to my last comment, I got a free copy from the art gallery too.

@Jimbo absolutely vital to read the Herald Sun or Daily Telegraph!? Are you locked in a bunker yourself mate?

Grumpy Old Sub said: “That means bringing out a daily magazine on newsprint.”

This is the tack taken by the Herald Sun. Admittedly, that daily magazine is Woman’s Day, but whatever.

I’m not sure that Age readers are going to want that every day.