News Corp revenues down 4 per cent but Australian newspapers stablise with ‘green shoots on the Nullarbor Plain’
News Corp has reported that its revenues were down 4 per cent decline to US$8.57bn, compared with US$8.89bn last year, a result brought about in part through the continued cost cutting and improvements in the results in its real estate classified business and book publishing.
Today’s the company issued its first full-year results since Rupert Murdoch split the former News Corp in two, with chief executive Robert Thomson playing down 18 per cent declines in Australian newspaper revenues by noting that 10 per cent of that was due to changes in foreign currency as the Australian dollar fell rapidly, arguing Australian revenue was stabilising and that there are “green shoots on the Nullarbor Plain”.
“On the question of costs clearly we are finding new opportunities to consolidate and cut costs and that frankly is not going to stop,” said Thomson on an investor call this morning.
“That is separate from the trends in the advertising revenue, clearly the winds have been buffeting, but what we are seeing is different circumstances in different regions and at the moment there are indications that the rate of decline has declined in Australia. There are green shoots on the Nullarbor Plain.”
I guess that’s one way to spin it. Both newspaper advertising revenue and subscription revenue was significantly down. Robert Thomson also said they would be re-launching their paid digital mastheads. Again? How many times are they going to re-lauch them? They’ve thrown everything into them with little success. The amount of dollars that are chucked into advertising the tabloid digital subs is incredible – rolling outdoor campaigns and full-page ads in the papers every day. But nobody wants it.
News Corp has been running down their newspaper business over the past 5 years and it is not surprising the cost cutting is having a negative impact on the quality.
Revenue and circulation will not return until the quality is improved and even then it will take several years to convince readers the papers are worth buying.
I think it’s called a death spiral…. crap content – loose readers – loose journos, even crappier content, loose readers, loose advertisers, even crappier content – loose – losers, rinse and repeat…..
Revenues are falling still. That is the basic story. It’s also clear that like Fairfax the News metros are shickered and the shoots are indeed out on the Nullabor. Wall Street journal appears to be stuck in a bad place and they are having big problems with the corporate products like Factiva.
Basically they are hanging on with foxtel and REA.
Looks like the Fairfax numbers will be awful.
Time for more cost cutting (Thomson seems to have adopted Hywood’s dopey “cost cutting is in our DNA”).
Earth to publishers: you do not need expensive execs to squeeze a lemon dry. Adios!
News’ leaders are old school. They think that blanket, scatter-gun marketing will up their subs. When will they learn? Users / readers / viewers FIRST, revenue comes if the model works. In fact if the model works, you will not need to advertise your product, certainly not above the line. They want dollars but digital advertising yields in cents. They want to dominate, however launching into a new market is cheap as chips and smart start ups can blaze a trail and snare market share.
Is News Ltd’s publishing business on borrowed time?
Will the Murdoch Press be able to swing elections in 2020?
When newspapers of standing sink to the depths we have sunk you know it’s only a matter of time. The weekend oz front page story on Julian Disney is a prime example. Any editor who thinks that was worthy to run at all, let alone with any prominence, is on the wrong tram.
As for the Herald’s handling of the cartoon debacle…words fail.
The problems are all at the top.
Roy Morgan Newspaper Readership and Cross-Platform Audiences for June 2014: SMH extends lead, The Age bucks print trend, and AFR scores digital surge
http://www.roymorgan.com/findi.....1408070447