Further journalism downside coming:
Fairfax Media chief executive Greg Hywood will look for efficiencies in the publisher’s newspaper business after a further decline in print revenues, while outlining plans to shut down one-third of the company’s New Zealand print titles.
The head of The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, and Australian Financial Review said he had already cut costs by 11 per cent in the first half of fiscal 2018, “largely from savings in staff, technology and print production”.
As part of this, Mr Hywood confirmed Fairfax was in talks with News Corp Australia “to seek industry-wide efficiencies in printing and distribution”.
“We have had successful collaborations around shared trucking and printing titles for News in Queensland,” he said. News Corp is publisher of The Australian.
The comments came as Fairfax suffered a 9.1 per cent revenue fall in its newspaper division, hurt by a drop in print advertising.
That’s OK, just bring back The Cat:
Life has become even more ominous for Fairfax chief executive Greg Hywood and his chairman Nick Falloon after billionaire Alex Waislitz’s stunning intervention.
The fraught situation turns on the sudden departure four weeks ago of former Domain chief Antony “The Cat” Catalano.
Domain chairman-turned-executive chairman Falloon’s fingerprints are all over the precipitation of that event and its subsequent handling, including the provocative decision to not thank Catalano for his more than four years of toil at the group in the January 22 ASX statement that announced his departure.
There has been speculation — denied by Fairfax — that Hywood’s position is closer to bemused billionaire investor Waislitz, who yesterday afternoon told The Fin that Falloon should stand down as chairman of Domain.
Because more property will fix everything.
