Fairfax Media full year results saw its metro publishing ad revenue drops 17 per cent but its revenue dropped 9 per cent with its EBITDA up 26 per cent.
Greg Hywood, CEO and managing director of Fairfax Media says, “Overall circulation revenue was stable, benefiting from the strong growth in paid digital subscriptions revenue which increased 21 per cent. The Sydney Morning Herald (SMH), The Age and The Australian Financial Review (AFR) have around 236,000 paid digital subscribers. All three titles delivered year-on-year growth. Declines in print circulation volumes were partially offset by cover price increases.
“The 12 per cent reduction in Metro publishing costs for the year reflected an acceleration in cost out in the second had, the 14 per cent cost improvement in H2 was partly attributable to early benefits from the Australian Metro Publishing restructure announced in April.
“New digital products will be launched for the SMH and The Age; shortly followed by AFR and lifestyle mastheads, along with new apps for the SMH and The Age. We are focusing editorial on distinctive content to strengthen our audience and subscriber position.”
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For Fairfax Media as a whole its full year results sees its statutory revenue $1.7bn down 4.8 per cent from prior corresponding period (PCP), its statutory net profit after tax (NPAT) $83.9m compared with $772.6m loss PCP and its significant items after tax totalled a $58.7m loss.
The underlying results see revenue of $1.7bn down 5.3 per cent PCP, its EBITDA of $271.1m down 4.3 per cent, its EBIT up 8 per cent to $230.3m, NPAT at $142,6m up 7.6 per cent with an earnings per share of 6.2c up 8.8 per cent.
Hywood comments on the Fairfax full year results saying, “Today’s result shows Fairfax is in great shape, we have delivered strong value for shareholders through growth and transformation initiatives. The strategy we commended five years ago has successfully maximized cash flows of our publishing assets and with that built growth businesses in Domain and Stan.
“Group operating EBITDA of $271m was achieve from revenue of $1.73bn. this result was higher than the preliminary and unaudited range of $263m to $266m provided to the market in early July. This was due to a strong year-end from Metro.
“Our three publishing businesses are modern, cost efficient and sustainable across digital and print. In the context of the global structural change impacting upon the media industry, the fact that our publications remain profitable and sustainable is an outstanding achievement.”
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