Fairfax to go digital-only
Fairfax CEO Greg Hywood says the media company will move to a digital-only model.
Hywood doesn’t put a date on it but says the move will be in the future and only if print becomes unprofitable.
This makes perfect sense even if there’s little evidence of other newspaper publishers making a successful move to digital.
Hobson's choice
Media companies have little choice, either shrink to a digital core and hope the mastheads continue to carry weight, or hang around for the inevitable day when the presses stop running.
Of course, anyone reading this site will have known that was true a decade ago.
Hywood says Fairfax’s digital strategy is ahead of the company’s competitors and ahead of most traditional media companies around the world.
Born digital publishers threaten the old order
He is only part right. Fairfax’s most serious competition comes from media companies that were born digital.
Speaking of businesses born digital, Fairfax’s strategy looks strange in the light of its part sale of TradeMe, the popular New Zealand auction site. You could be forgiven for thinking digital media strategy would place a property like TradeMe at the core of the business.
You might also wonder why Fairfax didn't move to establish an Australian version of TradeMe. Likewise, it would make sense to replace the ugly, low-value bottom feeding ads that clutter the Fairfax sites with links driving traffic to TradeMe auctions. .
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