Independent draws last breath, Fairfax looks on the bright side
The Independent newspaper is on its death bed and, as of 1 July, will cease to exist. But the newspaper’s owner, Fairfax Media, seems surprisingly upbeat about its passing.
It’s been a slow death (some would say a prolonged life) for The Independent, which was launched in 1992 and purchased by Fairfax in 2006. One business journalist spoken to says it was once a credible alternative to the National Business Review, which certainly had to up its game in response to the new competition. But it’s been a long time since the “plucky little rag” was seen as a legitimate challenger.
The figures certainly bear that out: as of December 2009, according to Audit Bureau of Circulation figures, the NBR had 9198 paid subscribers for its print edition, about three times as many as the The Independent (and that’s before factoring in the NBR’s paid online subscribers).
In fact, the Independent doesn’t really even have a web presence (it did have a website for a while but that didn’t last long), just a subscription page that, despite the news of its demise, is still live today. And, in what could be seen as a sad indication of the publication’s current health, there’s also a banner that reads: ‘the Independent is sponsored by The Independent’).
The newspaper did represent something (especially during the Wine Box enquiry) and the dedication of the “hack’s hack” Warren Berryman, who died in 2004, and his wife Jenni McManus, meant that it tried to live up to the name on the tin (Rob O’Neill has a good summation of the man and the editorial environment at the paper and here’s another goodun’ from Russell Brown’s Mediawatch show on Radio New Zealand). But, in case you hadn’t noticed, the times have changed considerably and given the increased competition in the business media marketplace as a result of online news services and improved coverage by the dailies, its closure was always a distinct possibility.
“Well, you’ve got to say that this was about 15 years in the coming. The paper never looked healthy, even in its heyday. Without Berryman as its driving force and a passionate and wealthy backer in Tony Timpson, it was bound to die. The merger with Fairfax was a lifesaver but economics prevailed. It was a noble experiment but that revealed how New Zealand cannot sustain multiple business newspapers,” says Vincent Heeringa, StopPress publisher and past employee of The Independent.
One has to wonder what this decision by Fairfax means for the future of some of the other titles within the Fairfax Business Media stable, which is made up of IDG’s remaining publishing assets and is run as a self-contained operation that’s separate from Fairfax Media. Unlimited, for example, doesn’t really seem to fit into the BusinessDay strategy and, with circulation decreasing steadily, down to 6775 as of December last year, compared to 8153 at the end of 2004, it’s not looking too healthy. Of course, that’s not a particularly unusual situation for magazines in this fair land.
But there doesn’t seem to be any mourning from Fairfax Media. It sees the closure of the Independent as a positive thing (the title of its press release was ‘Best in the business at business’), claiming that it is a major expansion of its business journalism offering, both in its daily newspapers and online, and is “in line with its integrated, multi-media business model” (it’s also in line with Fairfax’s Australian BusinessDay model).
Some are wondering if writing off the value of these print publications to create Stuff’s online mega, meta-news service is a wise business strategy, while others seem to think the logic of the aggregation site has finally prevailed, because New Zealand simply can’t sustain this many newspapers.
Fairfax already has New Zealand’s largest team of business journalists and their work appears in the BusinessDay sections in The Dominion Post, The Press and the Waikato Times, as well as in the Sunday Star-Times business section and on Businessday.co.nz. Now it will have the eight more journalists from the Independent in its Auckland business newsroom to provide more content to the Fairfax brands.
Despite the pooled journalism talent in Auckland, Fairfax says local business content will remain paramount for the Fairfax Media titles, with regional business teams remaining in place and the BusinessDay newsroom being freed up to deliver “strong journalism from Auckland with a national focus”.
But is this mere semantics from Fairfax? Plenty of Independent stories already went up on the Stuff website before this announcement. So, aside from the addition of the Chalkie column and a weekly feature that will be included in the new incarnation, not too much seems to have changed.
“Readers can look forward to us focusing more on breaking news online and then moving those stories on in our daily and weekly print editions,” says Fiona Rotherham, current Independent editor and recently appointed Fairfax Media managing editor – business.
Fairfax group executive editor Paul Thompson says it is now more important to provide stronger business coverage online as that is where most readers of business news go first. Businessday.co.nz is already the most popular business site in New Zealand and a finalist in this year’s Qantas Media Awards. And Fairfax says the online expertise of Businessday.co.nz editor Kate geenty, formerly the managing editor of Australian Financial Publications magazine group and the business editor for news.com.au, has helped it claim the top online business spot, as measured by Nielsen Netratings. The site had more than 579,000 domestic unique users in May, 44,000 above nearest competitor nzherald.co.nz and also recorded 4.1 million page impressions for the same period, compared to 3.7 million for the nzherald.co.nz.
Preston
June 9, 2010
Good piece Ben. But for the REAL story you only had to look at this hard-hitting interview of Fairfax' Fiona Rotherham by Fairfax' David Gadd. And the Qantas Award for patsy question of the year goes to…
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/3790347/Business-reporting-boost-for-Fairfax-Media
peter mac
June 9, 2010
",… the Fairfax Business Media stable, which is made up of IDG’s remaining publishing assets and is run as a self-contained operation that’s separate from Fairfax Media…"
wee clarification… Fairfax Business Media shifted its NZ titles to Fairfax NZ in Nov 2008. The division you refer to is called Fairfax Business Group (not helped by still having the old co's web address, obviously).
And did Vincent Heeringa really say "you’ve got to say that this was about 15 years in the coming." ? Good England, bro. Hire a sub. Or two.
Somer
June 9, 2010
Love that the press release doesn't include any indication of how they intend to make money from their latest plan. Just a vague notion of kicking off into the unknown and hoping for the best.
Perhaps if they balanced out their editorial 'investment' with more than a token commercial team they might come up with something that's actually worthy of the moniker 'business model'.
peter mac
June 10, 2010
my apologies for my cheeky comment on Vincent.
Graham Dunster
June 11, 2010
You'll have to fight for a refund as Fiona is only offering the opportunity to buy other Fairfax titles in her letter to subscribers. Great way to reward the premium readers they wanted to be loyal to them…
Bob
June 11, 2010
It's easy to claim that the demise of The Indy is due to the move to online. The truth is that the publication could and should have been a viable alternative to NBR in print and online. Reality is that when it was first purchased by F'fax it was an orphan and lacked leadership from someone with strong, agressive publishing skills that could have given it sales direction and gone on the offensive against NBR. By the time this started being addressed the writing was on the wall and it was just too late.
Vincent Heeringa
June 11, 2010
I disagree. Warren and Jenni were an awesome editorial force; they were the team that broke, and continued to cover in-depth, the wine-box enquiry (Fran O'Sullivan may beg to differ on this); and the journalism across the whole paper by Fiona Rotherham, Nikki Mandow, Pattrick Smellie, Marie Slade, Roger Armstrong, Mike Booker, Frances Martin, Rebecca Macfie and many others was the best in its class. All of us won Qantas Awards under Warren's editorship.
Tony Timpson was an astute business owner and the sales team under Thomas Chin (was that his name?) was aggressive and hungry.
But still the paper failed to make money.
I reckon no matter how good or aggressive the paper was, there just wasn't room for an NBR look alike.
The move to Wednesday publication didn't help. Nor did a new editor (following Warren's death) nor a change of owner.
Sometimes incumbents are too hard to displace: NBR was too strong, too well resourced and too good to challenge in too small a market.
Bob
June 11, 2010
Vince – You miss my point on two counts.
1. I was not talking about the editorial quality – The quality of which is not being doubted in any way.
2. I'm not talking pre F'fax sale but rather what was done with it or more to the point what wasn't done after the initial sale to F'fax
Chris
June 11, 2010
It was. Are you?
Vincent Heeringa
June 11, 2010
Maybe the point is that even with Fairfax as the new owner (and let's face it they are a good publishing outfit, Unlimited notwithstanding,) the paper still failed.
What would you have done with it?
Speaking of which, do you think they'd give me back Unlimited now? Feels like the prodigal child needs to come home.
Bob
June 11, 2010
Vince – Truth is most titles suffer when swallowed by a big publisher. The passion is not the same eg ACP buying NetGuide. Just wasn't a natural fit. What would I have done differently…I think you know, depending on how good your memory is. Put in an offer….oh, I forgot.
Vincent Heeringa
June 11, 2010
Bob – my offer: please give me back my IP. Pretty please.
Bruce
June 11, 2010
Vince – “fairfax are apretty good piblisher”? Sorry, but just look at what they did when they took the IDG titles (and failed to take your baby at that time). They put in manager with no knowledge of the market, the industry or NZ and didn’t listen to a damn thing any of the remaing experienced IDG people had to tell them. OK that was the Aussies, but I don’t see a track record of success there …
McMags - check out our $1 deals
June 11, 2010
Any independent title worth it's paper weight and more will die a slow death if sold to the big house. Sorry, I am yet to be convinced of a success story out of APN or FFX (Cuisine? Life & Liesure? World?) and I don't mean 'up on last year' bolix. Up YOY maybe…
Annabel
June 11, 2010
Re: Graham's comment, we are offering a refund to subscribers or the option of transferring across to another title.
Vincent Heeringa
June 11, 2010
Bruce & McMags – don't forget AutoCar.
Graham Dunster
June 11, 2010
The letter I received today only offered me the 'opportunity to change my print subscription to one of our many titles'. I had to call up, wait 15 minutes and then bully the call centre into agreeing that a refund would be made. Not designed to keep me as a friend.
Lynette
June 12, 2010
Funny how nobody has a thought for anybody other than editorial..
Troy McClure
June 13, 2010
What else is there?
jason brown
June 13, 2010
Yet more journalists for the scrap heap ay?
Before I launch into an impassioned plea for recognition of quantum as well as quality loss from New Zealand journalism, let me tip my hat to Lynette who illustrates how pathetic news media workers are at promoting much less protecting their own interests. If journalists with supposed communication skills can't represent themselves well, who can? A big thanks to all the graphic artists, ad setters, typists, receptionists, printers, delivery people, and other sundry print fullus about to be drop kicked out the door at the same time as the hacks.
Meantime, what is happening to The Independent reflects worldwide journalism in crisis with the loss of tens of thousands of reporters, editors, subs and other news room workers from so-called developed economies. The same economies responsible for cutting journalism to the bone, then cracking those bones to suck out the marrow.
The value of journalism to society, and current cost of its lack, can be guesstimated from an August 2009 article from The Telegraph of £7.1 trillion.
Crisis in journalism predates the internet, dating back to the 1970s when big business in the US grew increasingly alarmed at the ability of an independent media to upset fatly profitable apple carts and began buying up news assets on a regular basis, slashing news teams … well … you know the rest.
This trend looks set to continue in our own country with further cuts at TVNZ, some $5 million cut last year and the same amount due this year, with the loss of dozens of jobs.
With the OECD now recording New Zealand as one of the most unequal societies in the "first" world, questions must be asked how long can we afford, as a people, to ignore what journalism can do for the public good?
Or is that just the way things are?
jason brown
June 13, 2010
Sorry, the £7.1 trillion figure refers, of course, to the Global Financial Crisis, an event that surely typifies four decades of free market excellence more than any other measure.
peter mac
June 14, 2010
So, if (as Bob asserts) when an independently own title gets sold to a big publishing house, it will inevitably fail? Like, say, Idealogue being sold to Tangible Media? I don't buy that argument. Way too simplistic, and denies the quality of the staff making the mag.
peter mac
June 14, 2010
An example – Real Groove magazine. Sold off from Real Groovy (well before they went under) to Tangible Media and is still excelling -thanks to hiring good editorial staff, like editor Sam Wicks. And Netguide was dying when it was sold to ACP – by then even your mother was on the internet. And when ACP flicked it on, even your grandmother was online.
Bob
June 14, 2010
-> Peter. I hear where you're coming from but Tangible (and I know Julian and John) are not an ACP or F'Fax and I would imagine have no desires to be. Where these things fall down is when the ex-owner having got their earn out leaves the building – With it leaves the passion. Despite what you say about NG and it having had its day. Reality is that Phil Ryan's passion drove the publication as was the case when Julie D had Cuisine. Often titles go from being your lifeblood and passion that you live 24×7 to being yet another title with a P&L on a spreadsheet once the previous owner departs. Not suggesting Idealog will go the same way at all…..assuming the core team stays in place. I'm sure my grandmother would have been online by the time ACP sold it (if she had still been around). However they made serious mistakes.
John Baker
June 15, 2010
My experience of both ACP and Fairfax is that they are populated with magazine people who are incredibly passionate about their craft, care deeply about their medium and work their arses off.
Troy McClure
June 15, 2010
You all assume too much about the quality of the independents, which survive on the largess of advertisers and cannot afford to practice independent journalism. Fairfax and APN can upset and lose adverisers because they have so many lined up to replace them. Small may generate passions but it isn’t necessarily good.
John Baker
June 15, 2010
The judges of the Qantas Media Awards certainly thought an "independent" was capable independent and quality journalism.
"Under Gregor Paul’s editorship, it has raised the bar on what a specialist magazine can achieve.
“The magazine has both flair and reach. It serves its target readership well, but its entertaining writing, combative analysis, humour, clarity and intelligence make it an appealing package to a wider constituency.”
Anon
June 15, 2010
Jenni was not Warrens wife. Please get your facts straight.
McMags
June 15, 2010
If you are launching a magazine today, your business plan will no doubt have a 'BUY NOW' option 2 years down the track. That is, of course, if you can be a big enough pain in the butt to a big publisher by snapping at the ankles of one of their titles circulation (NZHouse & Garden vs Life & Leisure) FFX have a knee jerk reaction to such things so set your sites on annoying them!! I bet the company have allocated $$ for tactical buy outs. I'm surprised Mindfood magazine is still independent?
Fran O'Sullivan
June 24, 2010
Oh get real Vincent.
NBR continued to hold its market position because it had a talented team that won plenty of awards – best paper, journo of the year etc well after Warren & Jenni spat the dummy during the Examiner period.
It suited the W&J combo to portray anyone who worked for NBR as some fatuous craven running dog for the latest XXYYRR!! (you must have heard it to the point of boredom).
Madness to the point that even when I went on to joint the Herald (as a double Qantas Journo of Year I had surely earned my stripes) yet I still had to suffer an absurd and quite mad front page yarn in the Independent (written by Jenni) that was geared to trying to knockover my break that Air NZ was in trouble.That the Herald team I led later went on to win the Westpac financial journalism award for our coverage of the Air NZ bailout was no doubt proof positive to W&J of some conspiracy against them.
This fatal conceit that only W&J could produce journalism undermined their undoubted talents.
For the record – the first wine-box story actually appeared in the NBR (A Magnum deal) – I had a big swag of stuff in the SMH – W&J did a yarn in the Independent and we all got nailed with injuctions.
Fran
Vincent Heeringa
June 24, 2010
In your typical style Fran you failed the read the actual words I wrote ("NBR was too strong etc") and race to your own conclusions.
Most of us at the Indy never bought into W&J's NBR paranoia. The highlight was once when a mosquito appeared squashed on a picture of a McDonald's pie. The pic was illustrating a story about hygiene. Warren was furious and actually entertained the idea that Barry Colman let lose some Kamikaze flies into the plate room.
And yes it was boring to the point of being pathetic.
Phillip
January 17, 2011
I don't think Fairfax is to worried about scrapping a paper that was founded by a couple of clowns and regularly got it oh so wrong. I think Fairfax were sick and tired of the golden vomit to cover Rotherhams incompetence. As an aside you guys are all incredibly talented individuals. Any of you still subscribe to the notion that your best work is done when pissed or is that just an Independant journalist mantra. Anyone still running guns….flying Kaftans out of Afganistan or smuggling poached paua into China on a surf ski…. Keep the ego massaging up guys…. The readers really loved it….Not ! it would appear.
dermot nottingham
January 17, 2011
I think I played a major part in Fairfax deciding that the Independent was too expensive to run. I cannot inform how much they paid me for the article that defamed me to the extent that nothing was in fact true. Fiona Rotherham will no doubt continue to work for Fairfax, but that is their choice. People talk about the Independents coverage of the Wine box being its height. I could not agree more with that statement. Firstly because it was a complete "fizzer", and secondly because which journalist/s would promote a 'fizzer' as their best work?. Sad ones, thats who!.
I also believe that Fairfax researchers would have come to the conclusion that the readership of the Independent was the same as another paper in its stable. Of course I am talking about the venerable truth.