How The Australian returned to profit for the first time since 2008
Earlier this week, The Australian revealed it has finished FY17 with an operating profit of $13m, pushing the paper back into black for the first time since 2008’s financial crisis. Mumbrella’s Zoe Samios speaks with Nicholas Gray, chief executive of The Australian, on the newspaper’s progress.
This week marked the first time since 2008 that News Corp’s national masthead, The Australian, turned over an operating profit – $13m in 2017 compared to 2016.
It was a milestone for the publication, especially since News Corp’s Australian newspapers had been written down by US$310m during the second quarter, bringing the value of its local mastheads to $US420m.
The profit is a major milestone for News Corp’s national masthead
I’m still not sure how (perhaps a little S&M) but I’m very pleased. All power to media owning media revenue.
As the spinners say, you can do anything with numbers. The Oz is about giving Rupert a seat at the table with the big boys in Canberra, whatever the cost – nothing more, nothing less.
It might have been $50M profit if The Australian woke up to themselves and provided what people want – a means to subscribe without having them snooping over the shoulder of every subscriber. When it’s credit card only, it’s very unappealing. A prepaid cash option will open up the subscriber base dramatically, while protecting consumers from data predators – who would seem to be in bed with the muddle-headed management at The Australian.
Shouldn’t be hard for the Official Organ of the Liberal Party to make money while those guys are in power. Once they’re out, it’ll be much less required reading.
It’s pretty clear that the Oz has cut its costs sharply. Their distribution is now tight (much fewer returns) and it’s no so obvious in the freebie spaces. Of course they’ve also cut staff quite heavily.
One thing Gray appears ignorant of is the business of his own industry. The Economist increased its sale into Australia very substantially during the early 2000s, hiking its prices at the same time. They appear to have done fairly well. And on the paid digital question he appears unaware of the fact that the AFR had a very strong pricing model for digital although that appears to have been junked when they decided to imitate the Oz about five years ago.
20% profit of a trillion $’s is a lot of money
20% profit of bgger all is bgger all
Buuuuuuuuulllllllshiiiiiiiiiittttttttt!