Industry body The Newspaper Works has rebranded itself as NewsMediaWorks to reflect the diverse verticals of news publications.
The move comes as the body announced what it called a “world-first partnership” with Standard Media Index (SMI) for a quarterly report called News Media Index. The report will show the advertising revenue for the publishing industry. The results will be broken down into print, digital and newspaper inserted magazines.
Asked if NewsMediaWorks will look at giving a company-by-company breakdown of the figures, NewsMediaWorks CEO Mark Hollands said no.
In its first release, the News Media Index states Australia’s news media sector accounted for $2.4 billion in advertising revenue in 2015.
The revenue data for the report is taken from NewsMediaWorks’ foundation members: News Corp Australia, Fairfax Media, West Australian Newspapers, and APN News and Media. The publishers together represent about 90% of the Australian news media sector. SMI extracts the information directly from publisher financial systems.
In making the announcements, NewsMediaWorks chairman Michael Miller said the result for 2015 shows that the publishing industry is in a better shape than what is speculated.
“The News Media Index is the most accurate reporting of the healthy viability of the news media industry. It responds to requests of advertisers and investors to reveal that the Australian news media sector has been significantly undervalued by independent analysts,” Miller said.
Fairfax Media CEO Greg Hywood, Australian Regional Media CEO Neil Monaghan, Standard Media Index managing director Jane Schulze and News Corp Australasia executive chairman Michael Miller
The partnership and the name change news was delivered by Miller at NewsMediaWorks’ offices in Pyrmont. Also present during the media briefing were Fairfax Media boss Greg Hywood, Australian Regional Media CEO Neil Monaghan, and SMI managing director Jane Schulze.
During a Q and A session after the briefing, Hywood faced several questions from journalists about the forced redundancies at Fairfax Media. He was asked about how they reflected on the figures in the report, which according Miller shows the industry is healthier than what was speculated.
“All publishers get revenues and mass audience from multiple platforms. The mix of where the audience comes from has changed dramatically. The decisions we make in our business are to reflect the consumer habits. If 60-70% are consuming journalism on a digital platform, then we have to provide that offering. The economics of the digital platforms are different to print, so you have to adjust your businesses accordingly.
“No one likes redundancies and I feel for every one involved.”
Hywood was also asked if Fairfax could survive on news properties alone if Domain was separated from the business. “Absolutely,” he answered. “The whole point of what we have been talking about at Fairfax is that there is a hybrid model of print and digital that we’ll be securing into the future.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vka_zY-igLI
Featured photo: Australian Regional Media CEO Neil Monaghan, Fairfax Media CEO Greg Hywood, News Corp Australasia executive chairman Michael Miller, Standard Media Index managing director Jane Schulze and NewsMediaWorks CEO Mark Hollands