Leaked News Corp documents show financial state of its Australian newspapers
Leaked confidential News Corp financial documents have shown the Australian newspaper division dropped $320m in ad revenues and cut one in eight jobs in the 2012-13 financial year.
The documents, obtained by independent news website Crikey (paywall), reveal previously unproven claims about the collapse of News Corp print revenues with the publisher losing $320m in advertising revenue in 2012-13 and shedding more than 1,000 jobs that year.
Crikey’s publication of the documents has drawn an angry response from News Corp CEO Julian Clarke who said in a statement: “The figures quoted are 14 months out of date, have been illegally circulated and are not from our statutory accounts. They do not reflect the current performance of the business.”
The documents, which are from a confidential weekly operating statement, cast new light on the company’s performance locally between 2011-13 which ultimately saw the departure of CEO Kim Williams in August 2013.
The confidential operating accounts for News Corp Australia (then still known as News Limited), which are not provided to investors, provide line-by-line, year-on-year comparisons across the business. Crikey reports News Corp’s Australian newspapers fell 14 per cent to $1.9b in 2012-13, with circulation revenue dropping 5 per cent, while operating income fell 67 per cent to $94m.
Advertising revenue fell by 17.4 per cent, or $320m, in the 12-13 financial year to $1.4bn.
Crikey’s report also gives a window into the operating costs and staff numbers of some of big newspapers such as The Australian which has previously stated that it lost $30m last financial year.
The report shows that while total number of staff fell from 8,019 positions in June 2012 to 7,032 a year later. It also shows that The Australian was insulated from many of the cuts implemented by Williams in 2012, with the newspaper shedding only 54 jobs between 2012-13.
Crikey also claims that The Australian has a far higher average wage than its counterparts with the per employee average salary of $174,000, well above the pay levels of the tabloid newspapers.
News Corp’s CEO Clarke emailed staff this afternoon stating: “They certainly do not reflect the company’s current performance.
“We have continually emphasised our confidence in the future of our print and digital assets, driven by an experience management team which has robust plans for the future.”
Nic Christensen
Crikey’s extensive reports on the leaked News Corp document can be read at www.crikey.com.au
This is what happens when you let employees go and they hold a grudge.
User ID not verified.
I know, they should drop more money into EMMA and boost their readership numbers even further. This will fix it.
User ID not verified.
They could hire Mike Carlton.
User ID not verified.
Both news and fairfax are in the same boat. Both release annual results with massive spin, claiming everything is on the up and up ( which market analysts swallow hook, line and sinker). But for both, the reality is that their core publishing business are on the skids and on a road to nowhere ( except down). . For both, their publising businesses are propped up /subsidised by their digital and non publising assets . Fairfax by Domain and proceeds from the sale of Trademe, news by REA , foxtel and foxsprts. News is in a better position though – it’s non-publishing assets are bigger, better and more numerous than fairfax
User ID not verified.
“They are 14 months out of date. They do not reflect the current performance of the business”.
That means things are probably a lot worse now.
User ID not verified.
Lets watch News Limited cover up as much as possible…then blame Kim Wiliiams for all the mistakes.
I recall Ken Cowley making a few derogatory comments recently …only to be publicly savaged and then thrown on the scrap heap by News Limited.
Same company …continual denial…. and then blame someone else.
Ah…forgot to mention that recent court case [Edited under Mumbrella’s comment moderation policy]
User ID not verified.
So that will be another News v Fairfax bitch-off today then…joy.
User ID not verified.
Very prescient @Siri. It didn’t take them long. This piece of penetrating analysis from Darren Davidson in today’s The Australian – “Ghosts of Williams’ strategy laid bare as News forges ahead”
User ID not verified.
Fairfax in no position to point fingers. Its newspaper business is an equally parlous state and the have lost just as many staff.
User ID not verified.
Geez,
Hundreds of hard-working journos on News titles other than The Australian must be spewing to learn the average wage is $174,000 at the protested species..
Talk about inequity…what a kick in the guts.
User ID not verified.
news Corp CEO dismisses the figures in the grounds they “certainly do not reflect the company’s current performance”. Great – care to tell us what the company’s current performance actually is, then?
User ID not verified.
News Corp needs to focus on their own business rather than attacking their competitors. They really are a pathetic excuse for a company.
User ID not verified.
Bahaha, saw it coming a mile off and legged it. Absolute joke of an operating environment.
“Hey everyone, if we stick our heads DEEPER into the sand, it’ll get better!”
User ID not verified.
Maybe if News spent the same time and energy on getting its own house in order as it does relentlessly attacking the Fairfax business and various other perceived enemies (APC, ABC etc) , they might be in a better state. Talk about people in glass houses….
User ID not verified.
Don’t you worry about that. We’ll just get EMMA to massage the figures then publish a story in the Telegraph saying that readership and revenue is up.
User ID not verified.
Murdoch himself has just come out saying he will sue any media org that reports on the leaked News Ltd report. This from a company that relies on leaks and leaked reports for many of its stories, and which relishes reporting on leaked documents from rivals (eg the internal Fairfax document with restructuring recommendations from Bain just a few weeks ago). Hilarious. Seems they can dish it out (in spades) but can’t take it when tables are turned. The truth hurts.
User ID not verified.
@minnie – very true. The difference is that Fairfax doesn’t obsessi over what is/isn’t happening over at News, or use their mastheads to pursue their own petty agenda against their rivals and other “enemies”. fairfax are just getting on with it
User ID not verified.
The one number in this that’s hard to believe is the $174,000 average for hacks on The Oz. It’s hard to believe a down table sub or day to day news grunt would be earning anywhere near that. Still, plenty of chief propagandist Chris Mitchell’s columnist mates and section heads who know that their pay packet depends on toeing the Rupert line would be on that and then some … pity nobody with an inquiring mind reads them any more.
User ID not verified.
Pretty sure the hacks and flacks are not pulling $174k.
So remind me why all the angst and envy confected by Newscorpse following its publication of the leaked ABC senior journos pay rates?
Kan anyone say karma?
User ID not verified.
The Internet isn’t the whole story behind the drop in sales for News Corp.
The content of both papers, Daily Telegraph and Australian has become more and more Ideologically conservative mouthpiece, much of the content is cringe worthy.
Surely this has had an impact on their sales, I know one newsagent that refused to sell the tele after the whole ‘kick this mob out’ front page’.
User ID not verified.