Nine prepares for trading with Fairfax assets from Monday, announces additional $15m cost savings
Nine has identified an additional $15m in cost savings ahead of Monday’s first day of trading as a joint business with Fairfax Media.
The business, which announced the merger in July this year, confirmed it had already realised $35m of the initial $50m cost cut plan through savings in corporate costs, sales and digital publishing, but had now identified a total of $65m worth of savings – a difference of $15m.
From Monday, Fairfax Media and Nine will become ‘Nine’
There was a time, back in the 1980s, when Nine boosted its journalism and market leadership by hiring a bunch of Fairfax and ABC folk to put lipstick on the pig. Part of a strategy to kick up the demographic, it worked and Nine had a premium on its ad rates for a while.
It is a very good bet that Nine today has bought Fairfax to squeeze a bit more out of the total cost base, which is what Marks has announced. He will keep a few figureheads, especially if they can work on TV or radio as well. But the essential staff of The Age, SMH and Fin Review are at the mercy of a management team that is even less interested in those brands and their audiences than were the Hywood, Hambly (+ L’il Roger) crew. The only good news here is that the great news brands of Australia will eventually make room for new, vigorous startups that deliver what people value.
https://twitter.com/mfharkin/status/1071880494390890497?s=21
First day of the merged entity… Apart from Domain the remainder of Fairfax masthead assets have been pretty much buried, or non-existant on any Nine sites, even on the corporate site. Content from these mastheads also looks like it’s being lifted, slightly altered and credited to the generic 9News Staff tag.
Makes this statement a complete load of bollocks.
“Monday will be our first day and presents an opportunity to reset and chart our course as one business. In the media landscape, we become Australia’s largest locally owned media company, evolved from two of the great heritage brands, Fairfax and Nine, who have served our community with the best entertainment, content, sport and news journalism for decades,” Marks said.