The digital side of Fairfax

Fairfax Digital is growing while Fairfax Media is being cut - that's the latest news coming out of the Australian media company. But how effective are the advertising and profit models at the moment. Can the company evolve into a digital information company?

Bright future for Fairfax Media digital division
Michael Sainsbury | September 01, 2008

FAIRFAX Media's booming digital division -- which provided the only bright spot in disappointing recent financials -- is gearing up to grab a slice of $3.3 billion in television advertising as the Australian internet industry moves towards a cohesive audience measurement system.

The Fairfax digital division, which will escape the axe-wielding announced at its Australian and New Zealand broadsheets, boosted profits by more than 50 per cent in Australia and New Zealand and is adding more staff to its existing 600.

In the days after Fairfax's main newspaper group announced staff cuts of 550 people, or 5 per cent of the workforce, Fairfax Digital chief Jack Matthews said the division had added about 100 people in the 2008 financial year.

Mr Matthews said staff growth would continue next year, although not at such a fast rate, and the group could pick up people who had lost their jobs in the newspaper division.

"We are operating in a very different environment but the same kind of pressures to be efficient and cost-effective exist here," Mr Matthews said.

"It's not like we have a blank chequebook. One difference is that our industry and our market are still high-growth areas and we need to invest in that growth.

"Even though revenue growth slowed a bit in the second half, year on year, the bottom line increased in the second half." MORE