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Fairfax Media
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Fairfax Media Limited | |
|---|---|
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| Type | Public (ASX - FXJ) |
| Founded |  Sydney, Australia |
| Headquarters | Sydney, Australia |
| Key people | David Kirk CEO; Ron Walker Chairman; Dan Ilic Digital Content Producer |
| Industry | Media |
| Products | Newspapers, Radio, Magazines |
| Revenue | AUD$1.9 billion (2005) |
| Employees | 7,200 (2004) |
| Website | www.fxj.com.au |
Fairfax Media, is a newspaper, magazine and website publisher operating in Australia and New Zealand. It was founded by the Fairfax family as John Fairfax Holdings but they lost control of the company on December 11, 1990. On July 3, 2007 Southern Cross Broadcasting recommended Macquarie Media Group's offer of AU$1.35 billion, for a takeover of the corporation. Under the deal, Macquarie Media Group will then on sell the metropolitan radio stations to Fairfax Media.[1]
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In April 2003, Fairfax acquired New Zealand's Independent Newspapers Limited (INL), owners of many of New Zealand's highest-profile newspapers.
In February 2004, a proposal was put to the board of Telstra to buy John Fairfax Holdings. This proposal was not supported by the board. This proposal was known as "Project Patrick", and if successful would have seen the Australian government become the majority owner of one of Australia's largest sources of news.
In July 2005, Fairfax acquired the RSVP dating site for A$38M.
In August 2005, Fairfax's general classifieds site created in March 2004, Cracker.com.au consistently exceeded 500,000 Unique Visitors a month.
In December 2005, Fairfax acquired Stayz.com.au for A$12M.
In August 2005, Fairfax ended its 16 month search for a new Chief Executive Officer with David Kirk, a former Rugby Union World Cup winning captain of the New Zealand All Blacks being appointed to replace departing CEO Fred Hilmer. David Kirk gets the nod ahead of Fairfax COO Brian Evans (former head of Fairfax New Zealand) and Doug Flynn, who took the top job at UK Pest control company Rentokil after negotiations with Fairfax broke off.
In March 2006, Fairfax acquired New Zealand auction website Trademe.co.nz for NZ$700M.
On 4th March 2006, it was announced that Fairfax would purchase The Border Mail newspaper in Albury-Wodonga for $162 million.
In October 2006 speculation began that the company would be bought out and split up began to grow after the passage of changes to Australian media laws. Rival media company News Corporation purchased a 7.5% stake in the company at this time, with the stated aim of keeping Fairfax in one piece.
On 7th December 2006, John Fairfax Holdings and Rural Press announced the beginning of their merger proceedings. If this merger is successful, it will form a publishing company worth AU$9 billion dollars. A merger would mean Fairfax regaining control of The Canberra Times (which it owned in the 1980s), and through John B. Fairfax of Rural Press, would see the return of the Fairfax family to the company board. The company would also gain a number of other regional newspapers, radio stations and websites; plus agricultural publications in various countries.
On 12th January 2007, John Fairfax Holdings changed its name to Fairfax Media.[2]
On 7th March 2007, Fairfax Media announced a new website for Brisbane, called the Brisbane Times. The website will initially employ 14 journalists and is an attempt by Fairfax to break into the South East Queensland market.
On 20th March 2007 Fairfax Media launched a new business website. BusinessDay.com.au aggregates feeds from the other news vehicles in the Fairfax stable as well as "from the world's most respected news sources". It features breaking news updated "every 15 minutes".
Fairfax publishes the second most circulated daily papers in both Sydney and Melbourne, The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age respectively. It also publishes a daily business tabloid, The Australian Financial Review.
Fairfax also owns papers in major regional centres, including the Illawarra Mercury (Wollongong), the The Newcastle Herald (Newcastle), The Border Mail (Albury-Wodonga) and The Warrnambool Standard (Warrnambool). In addition, its subsidiary Fairfax Community Newspapers publishes 35 community newspapers serving suburban New South Wales and Victoria.
As a result of its Rural Press acquisition, Fairfax will take control of many newspapers including The Canberra Times and The Land.
Fairfax publishes a number of magazines, such as the(sydney)magazine, theage(melbourne)magazine and Good Weekend, which are distributed with their newspapers. In addition, the company publishes business-centred magazines including BRW, AFR Access, AFR Smart Investor, AFR Magazine, AFR Boss, CFO Australia, MIS and Asset.
Fairfax owns a profitable Australian online subsidiary, Fairfax Digital which was once known as the F2 Network. The company's websites include the subject focused:
- News: Newsbreak
- Employment: My Career
- Free Classifieds and Forums: Cracker.com.au
- Australian Holiday Accommodation: Stayz.com.au
- Cars: Drive
- Real Estate: Domain
- Personals: RSVP
- Finance: Trading Room
- Business News Business Day
- Superannuation and Managed Funds: InvestSmart
- Personal Investment: Money Manager
- Australian Rules Football: Realfooty
- Rugby Union: Rugbyheaven
- Rugby League: League HQ
- Australian Towns: Walkabout
Fairfax also publishes web editions of most of its newspaper titles, as well as South-East Queensland digital-only news site Brisbane Times. Both The Age and SMH produce a limited amount of video content, which is only available online.
Rural Press owns a range of similar classifieds and local newspaper websites. It is expected that these will join Fairfax Digital, the classifieds ones merging with the appropriate Fairfax sites.
On 2007-11-07, Fairfax Media acquired the former radio assets of Southern Cross Broadcasting (on-sold from Macquarie Media Group's purchase of SCB): 2UE Sydney, 3AW and Magic 1278 Melbourne, 4BC and 4BH Brisbane, and 6PR and 96fm Perth. Graham Mott will continue in his role as general manger of the broadcast radio group under Fairfax. Mott indicated at the time of the acquisition that national syndication of programming (such as that of the since-retired John Laws) would largely be replaced on the network with more localised syndication at a state level.[3]
Fairfax also acquired Satellite Music Australia (SMA) as part of the SCB deal, who provide music channels to retailers, as well as Foxtel and Austar[4] (where it is branded AIR).
Fairfax Media also owns a number of stations in rural South Australia and Queensland, as part of its previous acquisition of Rural Press.[5]
In New Zealand, its subsidiary Fairfax New Zealand Limited publishes a stable of papers formerly owned by Independent Newspapers Limited (INL), including The Dominion Post in Wellington, The Christchurch Press in Christchurch and The Sunday Star-Times in Auckland. Fairfax also own over 60 community newspapers.
Fairfax New Zealand's magazines are mainly lifestyle-related.
In NZ, Fairfax's websites form the stuff portal. Sites include:
- News: stuff
- Employment: jobstuff
- Property: propertystuff
- Personals: personalstuff
- Food: Cuisine
- Shopping: stuff on sale
Fairfax will acquire a number of US agricultural publications when they absorb Rural Press.
The chairman is Ron Walker, the chief executive is David Kirk.
As of October 2006, the company reported a market capitalisation of over $4 billion.
- ^ Southern Cross Broadcasting sold for $1.35b. abc.net.au (2007-06-03). Retrieved on 2007-06-03.
- ^ Fairfax Name Change. Fairfax (12 January 2007). Retrieved on 2007-03-24.
- ^ Tabakoff, N. (2007-11-07). Fairfax to axe syndicated programs. Accessed on 2007-11-12.
- ^ Australian Music Online (2004). Interview: Colin Fraser. Accessed on 2007-11-12.
- ^ Rural Press Limited home page. Accessed on 2007-11-12.
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| Newspaper | The Age · The Sydney Morning Herald · Financial Review · The Illawarra Mercury · The Newcastle Herald · The Border Mail · The Canberra Times · The Dominion Post · The Press · The Sunday Star-Times · The Marlborough Express · The Nelson Mail · The Timaru Herald · Waikato Times |
| Radio | 2UE · 3AW · 4BC · 6PR · 3EE · 4BH · 96fm |
| Online | Brisbane Times · MyTalk |
| Other | Business Review Weekly · Endemol Southern Star · Fairfax New Zealand · Rural Press · Southern Star Group · Southern Star Entertainment |