News Corp’s Australian newspaper revenues fall by $350m – three times more than Fairfax’s drop
The extent of News Corp’s financial woes in Australia have been revealed for the first time in a filing to the Securities and Exchange Commission in the US. The filing reveals that the company saw its Australian newspaper revenues fall by $350m compared to the previous year, a fall of 15 per cent. It also wrote down the value of its Australian newspaper assets by $1.4bn.
It is clear for the first time that the company’s revenues have fallen far harder than rival publisher Fairfax Media, which had been perceived by many in the market as the media company in the worst trouble. In the same period, Fairfax’s metro and regional newspaper revenues went backwards by about $120m, about a third of the fall experienced by News Corp.
The fall came during the short tenure of Kim Williams who abruptly left the company a month ago. New CEO Julian Clarke has already moved to reverse many of the changes to the advertising sales structure put in place by Williams.
Thanks to the split of the old News Corp into the two companies of the new News Corp – which includes the Australian business – and 21st Century Fox, the company is obliged for the first time to give greater transparency about how its Australian businesses are doing.
Because of the acquisition of the 50 per cent of Fox Sports it did not already own and better results in the UK, News Corp’s overall revenues were up slightly. But the annual report said: “These increases were partially offset by lower revenues at the Australian newspapers of $350 million, primarily reflecting lower newspaper advertising revenues principally due to the continued challenging economic environment in Australia.” Later in the report, News Corp disclosed that this amounted to a 15 per cent revenue drop in the year ending June 30 compared to the 12 months prior.
The $350m fall in News Corp’s newspaper revenues dwarfs the problems of rival Fairfax Media whose metro and regional mastheads saw a fall in revenue from $1.384bn to $1.263bn, a fall of 8.7 per cent, numbers published last month revealed.
News Corp’s mastheads include The Australian, The Daily Telegraph, the Courier Mail and the Herald Sun. Fairfax’s key newspaper assets include the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.
In addition, News Corp spent $293m on restructuring last year while it also wrote down the value of its mastheads in the last quarter of the financial year which ended in June. The report said:
“As a result of adverse developments in the Company’s industry and challenging economic and market conditions, the Company may recognize impairment charges for write-downs of goodwill and intangible assets, as well as restructuring charges relating to the reorganization of its businesses, which negatively impact the Company’s financial results. In the fourth quarter of fiscal 2013, as part of its long-range planning process in preparation for the Separation, the Company adjusted its future outlook and related strategy principally with respect to its News and Information Services business in Australia and secondarily with respect to its News and Information Services businesses in the U.S. These adjustments reflect adverse trends affecting the Company’s News and Information Services segment, including declines in advertising revenue and continued declines in the economic environment in Australia, and resulted in a reduction in expected future cash flows. Consequently, the Company determined that the fair value of these reporting units had declined below their respective carrying values and recorded an impairment charge of approximately $1.4 billion ($1.1 billion, net of tax) in the fiscal year ended June 30, 2013. In response to these challenging conditions the Company has reorganized its Australian newspaper businesses, and the Company recognized $293 million of restructuring charges in the year ended June 30, 2013, a significant portion of which resulted from its restructuring activities in Australia and the U.K.”
Later in the filing the company reveals that the goodwill value – the intangible value that cannot be tangibly measured – attached to its newspaper assets around the world has been drastically reduced from $1.17bn to $317m.
The filing will also give credence to those who claimed that News Corp was campaigning against the previous Labor government because it saw the National Broadband Network as a threat to Foxtel’s business model.
At the time News Corp and Foxtel – which is 50 per cent owned by News Corp – put out statements claiming there were business opportunities for Foxtel in the NBN. But the filing to the SEC said:
“Content owners are increasingly delivering their content directly to consumers over the Internet, often without charge, and innovations in distribution platforms have enabled consumers to view such Internet-delivered content on portable devices and televisions. There is a risk that the Company’s responses to these changes and strategies to remain competitive, including distribution of its content on a “pay” basis, may not be adopted by consumers. In addition, enhanced Internet capabilities and other new media may reduce the demand for newspapers and television viewership, which could negatively affect the Company’s revenues. The trend toward digital media may drive down the price consumers are willing to spend on the Company’s products disproportionately to the costs associated with generating content. The Company’s failure to protect and exploit the value of its content, while responding to and developing new products and business models to take advantage of advancements in technology and the latest consumer preferences, could have a significant adverse effect on its businesses, asset values and results of operations.”
And the report also referred to News Corp’s vigorous campaigns against former media minister Stephen Conroy’s proposals for media regulation, telling shareholders:
“On April 30, 2012, the then-Minister for Broadband, Communications and Digital Economy released the Final Report of a comprehensive review of Australia’s communications and media regulation referred to as the Convergence Review. In March 2013, legislation was passed in response to the Convergence Review that, among other things, reduced the license fees payable by FTA networks. Certain other legislative changes that would have had a significant impact on the way the Company operates its business and which would have limited its ability to acquire new businesses were proposed by the Australian Government, but withdrawn without becoming law. Any further changes in Australian media regulations could adversely impact the Company’s Australian businesses. However, the government that commissioned the Convergence Review lost power in the Australian federal election held on September 7, 2013.”
In total, the company reported an EBITDA profit of $688m on revenues of $8.9bn.
Murdoch should acknowledge that some of this loss is a direct result of his bully campaign for the past 3.5 years against Julia Gilliard and Kevin Rudd – power to the people in boycotting his propaganda!
User ID not verified.
A Broken Model, that can’t be reinvented with a control-freak octogenarian at the helm.
User ID not verified.
Burn baby, burn.
User ID not verified.
Online subscriptions. When will the penny drop with News and Fairfax?
People don’t want their reading tracked. That’s why take-up is slow with this.
Issue prepaid cards through newsagents – they get their revenue, newsagents get to clip the ticket, consumers get to read without being snooped on by anonymous data predators.
Everybody’s happy.
Will they stick to their guns of credit-card only and lose millions, or acknowledge market and consumer reality and make a profit?
User ID not verified.
That’s what happens when you choose to dictate to your readers with a particular agenda rather than report the actual news.
User ID not verified.
The ‘economic environment’ has nothing to do with the reduction of sales in Australia. Its the hypocrisy and garbage that news corp implemented through the campaign and now they have to bite the bullet. Rot in hell news corp.
User ID not verified.
Fairfax is leading the charge with moving to a digital business model. There is good team there now. Lots of fat removed and continues to be removed. They need to move fast on the sales model though – NEWS taking the right response in state based.
User ID not verified.
Personally I have been researching which are News Corp enterprises and making sure to avoid them after Rupert decided that he should be running Australia and would sink to any level to do so.
I won’t be going back so they’ll never knowingly see MY money again
User ID not verified.
I think the Australian people are relishing this opportunity to kick Murdoch’s mob out.
User ID not verified.
Time for News Corp to stop boring the crap out of the punters and actually report the news?
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=516602215087911&set=a.119032021511601.28637.117859211628882&type=1&relevant_count=1
User ID not verified.
“Fairfax is leading the charge with moving to a digital business model. There is good team there now.”
Hahahha. Good one. At first I missed the sarcasm.
http://www.theage.com.au/feder.....2tcrd.html
User ID not verified.
Don’t think Gina is anywhere near the business Ex-reader…? But the blatant approach NEWS took to the election clearly horrified advertisers.
User ID not verified.
“It is clear for the first time that the company’s revenues have fallen far harder than rival publisher Fairfax Media, which had been perceived by many in the market as the media company in the worst trouble. In the same period, Fairfax’s metro and regional newspaper revenues went backwards by about $120m, about a third of the fall experienced by News Corp.”
Key point is ‘perceived by many in the market as the media company in the worst trouble’. That is because Mumbrella and The Australian are so focused on us and report every minor move in our company! We’re transforming, its not ideal. But it has to happen and everyone is focused. Best to not have media monopolies you’d think. Great to see Mumbrella FINALLY focusing on NEWS.
User ID not verified.
I know a number of people including myself who have stopped buying News Corp papers and cancelled online subscriptions due to their biased reporting of Labour. I have worked for News Limited and had loyalty to the brand but not any longer. Their blaming of Labour seems to be continuing even after the elections. without readers there will be no advertisers and Murdoch seems completely out of touch with the reality of his actions.
User ID not verified.
Australians are a mob of stupid sheep, that’s why they voted the coalition in.
They believe everything that they see on TV and read in the paper without even giving it a second thought. And, just like sheep they follow other people because they’re afraid to have a different opinion to what the media tells them to have. Well, these stupid idiots have condemned all of us to a fundamentalist Catholic government….MORONS.
User ID not verified.
Despite years of ignorant boards at Fairfax the digital teams have done a great job against the odds.
User ID not verified.
Will we see a real voter backlash against Throwback Tony as people shred his puppet master Rupert.
Much as the sheeple were sucked in by the insidious hate campaign waged by the lap dog Abbot once jobs start going, house prices start to crash as unemployment hits double digits the old school newspapers that carried these lies will vanish.
Murdoch is about as welcome here as a good dose of herpes, lets hope the anger rises over the next couple of years.
Much as Rupert may be hanging his future fortunes on Foxtel and Shine, the cable delivery method is dying in the arse as people realise what total and utter garbage it’s filled with so consumers will over the next 12 months turn off in droves.
User ID not verified.
This comment would have appeared on Mumbrella much earlier if my internet speed was quicker… I probably wrote this about 2 hours ago…. Thanks heaps Rupert.
User ID not verified.
Don’t let the Tele send you berserk and frothing like a cappuccino. It’s not that big a difference between FXJ and News. News Australian newspapers fell 15% and FXJ metro media (includes suburbans, Canberra Times and Domain and AFR group) fell 11.9%. FXJ newspapers, (including regional, digital, Australia and New Zealand) fell exactly 10% (before some overstatement of revenues in newspapers reported gross of newsagent commission in FY13 rather than net.). The News equivalent is not -15% if one adds REA’s 21% FY13 revenue rise. It would be about or less than FXJ’s -10%.
From an investment thesis, News newspapers globally with REA, exactly the same business activities, fell only 4% in US$ reporting. So where would one put ones investment dollars if these were the only two choices and at the same earnings multiple–News.
The key issue is competitive explosion. Pre internet, Sydney or Melbourne had two newspapers –Herald Sun/The Age and in Sydney SMH/Daily Telegraph. The Australian and AFR competed nationally in their respective opinion and finance specialisations. Now we have The Conversation, The Guardian, crikey, ABC and SBS, some with video, transcripts and often written words of reporting. From 2 to 7 competitors is a lot, and although one might laugh at the mouse to elephant comparison, who knows what the future brings. I wouldn’t buy both.
User ID not verified.
I cancelled my subscription when I could no longer stand their bullying headlines and partisan editorials packaged as news. Great to see I wasn’t alone!
User ID not verified.
I watched a documentary recently called ‘outfoxed’.
Watch it and you won’t need to read my comments because you will understand for yourself.
User ID not verified.
This day has been coming for a long time. The revenue drop is %15 for the full financial year but it was more like 40% for the last quarter.
The trend has been in place for several years. Kim Williams’ advertising changes are a factor, the negativity around the last election campaign is a factor but they are not responsible for the overall trend.
The reality is that this business has made a dogs breakfast out of the digital age. They have employed the wrong people, brought in the wrong consultants (the change management team typically have banking backgrounds and are fish utterly out of water in a media organisation under siege) and worst of all Rupert has let the wrong people stay at the top (including himself).
Murdoch has always run his business as a power plaything. Historically that coincided with (and mostly guaranteed) large profits. He has played favourites internally and rewarded those who pandered to him and shared his values. The landscape has shifted and NewsCorp has been caught on the hop. Comically displaying the 5 stages of grief (although spending longer in denial than most).
NewsCorp has been set adrift from the safety net of US profits and the 21st Century Fox money machine. The band is still playing but the iceberg has well and truly been hit.
The massive write down in ‘goodwill’ is interesting. Both Rupert and the brand are reeling from repeated blows. They have mostly been in monopoly or near monopoly situations (one paper towns, few competitors) and that has never been a problem before but in the new connected age it matters.
I have sympathy for the thousands of pawns who will get the axe before those responsible cop it in the neck. But in the meantime the staff are starting to have some fun at the management’s expense.
http://i.imgur.com/mxJaPvL.jpg
User ID not verified.
Come-uppance for Murdoch dystopia ~ deliciously delectibly delightful
User ID not verified.
Rupert doesn’t care if he looses money on the daily liar and other propaganda sheets he will be protecting the life of Foxtel which would face cheep/free broadband TV after extracting promises from the Liberals to wreck the NBN and replace it with fraudband.
User ID not verified.
I really think the approach taken by the Tele editor of the last 3 years, Paul Whittaker, has damaged the News brand in Australia – even more so than the impact of the hacking scandal. News Corp papers always had a conservative leaning but the Tele has become nothing short of extreme right-wing rabid. It was clearly a concerted effort to take a more aggressive approach with the paper. The trouble is it seems to have come at the cost of any journalistic standards. And as evidenced by the election results in western Sydney, not every person that lives in the western suburbs wants to have that sort of stuff shoved down their throat. The Tele should go back to the traditional tabloid stuff – celebrities, animal stories and the occasional ‘scandal’ chucked in.
User ID not verified.
Nobody I know reads the NewsCorp media, and they would be ridiculed if they did. Their ‘goodwill’ is overstated IMO.
User ID not verified.
The best news I’ve heard all day, I hope that slimy mongrel Murdoch goes broke!
User ID not verified.
Too many free media options, that are faster. People dont have the time they use to to read papers, online or in print.
User ID not verified.
Time for News Corp to reap what they sow. I boycotted them a fair while ago now, and told them why. I get my news online, and on the ABC and SBS. We’ve had right wing rubbish force fed to us for so long most dumb as dogshit Australians wouldn’t recognise unbiased reporting if it slapped them in their sheep-like faces.
User ID not verified.
I certainly cancelled my online subscription to the Australian due to the constant ‘ boy who cried wolf’ syndrome. How could you take anything seriously that was published in the Australian. This is very sad, given that the coverage of indigenous affairs in the Australian has been the best in the country.
User ID not verified.
Bottom line is the newspapers do not provide quality content.One can read about Texas man who married his horse on a home page for free or buy a Murdoch paper & read it there. Too little real coverage of Australia & lots of lazy Internet grabs.
User ID not verified.
It’s amazing. People whinge at News Corp for deciding (only after Gillard tried to change print media laws) that the ALP wasn’t good, yet not a word is said about Fairfax’s continuing declarations that everything non-left is evil. Seriously, bigotry much.
User ID not verified.
A bit short sighted to blame the News Oz election headlines for a yearly decline in revenue. The electorate had already made up its mind to boot Labor out long before the Telegraph suggested it. Gillard was already a disaster, and as it turned out, Rudd wasn’t strong enough to change enough minds. In similar vein, Brisbane’s Murdoch rags savaged the Liberal Campbell Newman and his wife for weeks in the lead up to the 2012 state elections, and Newman went on to annihilate the Bligh Labor government. Australians have been called sheep for voting Abbott in. So be it, but they have surely indicated that the way they vote may not be influenced by the Murdoch press, nor by the relentless anti-Abbott ranting of the ABC. Granted that Rupert is no saint, but despicable as he is, he’s a survivor. Gillard wasn’t nor was Rudd: We’ve yet to find out whether Abbott, Shorten and Albanese are.
User ID not verified.
@Mark
“People don’t want their reading tracked. That’s why take-up is slow with this.”
EVERYTHING you read on fairfax and news properties is being tracked irrespective of whether you’re paying for content or not. This is obviously excluding the small number of people using incognito, adblocker, or some other cookie blocking tech and they too will be unaffected by the paywall.
“Issue prepaid cards through newsagents” YES THAT’S EXACTLY WHAT THE 21ST CENTURY CONSUMER WANTS; CARDS SOLD AT NEWSAGENTS THEY CAN USE TO REDEEM INTERNET POINTS!!
User ID not verified.
I am a senior citizen who still enjoys reading the paper. Recently we returned to Adelaide after living in the eastern states for over thirty years. Imagine my chagrin when on our return I discovered the only local state paper was Rupert’s Advertiser!!
Fancy having a state in our country in the 21st century that has only Rupert’s opinions forced on the people. No wonder SA is the way it is. The only way to get a decent paper like the SMH or The Age is to be lucky enough to find one that has them flown
in each morning. These are very few and far between in the suburbs. I just can’t bring myself to buy a Murdoch paper . . . ever.
User ID not verified.
News Limited is a very apt title for a puppet media outlet. News Limited also appears to be an apt title for the Abbott government. Well I suppose they have worked together in the past. Hope the average Australian can soon return the favour and
….Kick both Mobs Out…!!!!
User ID not verified.
some of you really overstate the influence of newspapers in shaping opinion. surely they moreso reflect popular opinion rather than form it.
User ID not verified.
Producing trash only attracts scavengers.
User ID not verified.
Rupert Murdoch has historically swayed people’s opinions via the propaganda he tries to pass off as newspapers . He has done this in America England and Australia dating as far back as the English Thatcher government . In the age of social networking people should stand against him . Don’t buy his papers and stop supporting the company’s that advertise in his papers . A listing of this can be found on the Facebook page STop Rupert Murdoch Australia . Together with more support Australia might go back to being a democracy
User ID not verified.
In response to comment 37, you are kidding, right? Perhaps you’re smart enough to make up your own mind, but many who aren’t. Then there are the very special ones who let shock-jocks tell them how to think, and how to vote. When one company owns 70% of the print media in Australia, it DOES shape opinion, whether you like it or not. Fairfax is almost as bad, by the way. They make up crap as well when it suits their agenda.
User ID not verified.
I doubt he holds these assets with a view to making money on them directly. The enormous political clout it gives him is leveraged into commercial advantage elsewhere (NBN, for example). Quite what the point is blocking all effective efforts on climate change I cant imagine. Hedging his bets for when the miserable old c*** gets face to face with satan perhaps ?
User ID not verified.
I think everyone needs to take a chill pill. Why be so aggressive about this issue. Or is it because you can do it online as you would sheepishly whisper your views in a real public arena.
If you do’t like News Ltd then don’t buy their products.
Every article in every form of media you read has an agenda and if you think that is not true then you may not be as intelligent as you think.
User ID not verified.
Karma
User ID not verified.
The Karma Bus has only just warmed up.
ALL Australian Journalists, not just Murdochs’ henchmen, will be speed bumps under it’s wheels.
Repent now Journalists. Spill the beans to the Australian people. Spill them in Prime Time and on the FRONT pages of Newspapers.
How old are you Journalists? How long before you meet your maker or face the bus?
Repent now!!!!!!
User ID not verified.
I’m amazed they have $350m in revenue to lose.
Have you seen “The Australian” recently ? It’s just like Pravda (no ads) !
User ID not verified.
Newspapers? Yes I like to stoke my pipe in the morning and sit quietly rocking on the porch while I take in the events and opinions of the world.
I stopped buying newspapers about 15 years ago, mainly in objection to the horrendous waste of paper. Books, yes, they are small, not disposable and can last a century. You cannot justify this misuse of resourecs and energy. RSS feeds alllow you to select your sources from around the world and update you immedately and constantly. If you use mozilla thunderbird you emails feed into the same program, even if you have a gmail account, as well as any further comments to threads such as this one.
The days of Australians being forced into a choice from duopolies has nearly passed. We are now free to buy products, be informed and be entertained from any source in the world without the mediation and vested interests of the local overlords. Stop dwelling on the past and embrace all the great things we can do now, and drive our future in a direction you want by choosing to support or ignore what you see fit.
User ID not verified.
Well if ever they decide to become a news service again instead of a propaganda tool for one side of politics I might go back to using their services but as it stands now I won’t even purchase from companies that are closely associated with news corp let alone the company itself.
Give me proper investigative journalism that criticizes or praises BOTH sides when required.
User ID not verified.
Reading the comments it’s apparent that the stupid in our society think Newscorp and the like make a profit from the sale of newspapers, no really how dumb are people? Ok since you asked I will inform you, newspapers don’t make their money from the sale of newspapers, they make their money from Advertising and the Classifieds in them newspapers. You do know TV stations don’t make money from the sale of TV’s too I hope. The drop in revenue is a sign of tough economic climate provided free by Labor.
User ID not verified.
I loved the headlines of that paper, FINALLY WE HAVE THE CHANCE TO KICK THIS MOB OUT, it was exactly what the majority of right thinking people were thinking.
User ID not verified.
Rupert still lives in the sixties as do most of his acolytes
User ID not verified.
I think most of us get it that advertising is the primary revenue raiser however if they don’t have readers then there will be no advertisers!!
User ID not verified.
I used to love reading the Australian a decade or two ago. It felt intelligent and at least its right-wing bent was dispensed with a brain. Now it insults readers. Even Tory friends of mine find it too much to stomach. Bring back some intelligence and it may bounce back.
User ID not verified.
If your only job is to report the news however and with whatever medium and you DON”T then your not viable…. Its not intellectual. it’s simple, basic and common sense.
User ID not verified.
All the people that get on here and truly believe “everyone is brainwashed by Rupert”. Seriously, you people what are you smoking? So therefore if you are going to use that example then it must be said that everyone that watches the ABC or reads Fairfax is voting Labor as well for their Labor bias is sickening and obvious. We all know of the outright bias that the ABC has, so where are all the complaints about that? You will never here any because the sanctimonious hypocrisy of people that vote Labor is there for all to see. It won’t matter how good a job Tony Abbott does because the ABC and SMH will always find something to continually criticise him for. Where is your sanctimonious hypocrisy over Tony Jones, Qanda, Mike Carlton, Peter FitzSimons, Anne Summers, Emma Alberici, Kerry O’Brien, Jon Faine, Phillip Adams, Phillip Clark etc. Furthermore where are all you Labor supporters with your misguided biased opinions, you all have short hypocritical memories for Rupert Murdoch supported Kevin Rudd in 2007, but no, not a word about that. So Rupert should be shut down now but not in 2007 when he supported Rudd, not a word. All of you are hypocrites. At least Rupert got it right on this occasion.
User ID not verified.