Fairfax Media was a

media Media may refer to: Communication * Media (communication), tools used to deliver information or data ** Advertising media, various media, content, buying and placement for advertising ** Broadcast media, communications delivered over mass el ...

company in Australia and New Zealand, with investments in newspaper, magazines, radio and digital properties. The company was founded by

John Fairfax John Fairfax (24 October 1804 – 16 June 1877) was an English-born journalist, company director, politician, librarian and newspaper owner, known for the incorporation of the major newspapers of modern-day Australia. Early life Fairfax was bo ...

as John Fairfax and Sons, who purchased ''

The Sydney Morning Herald ''The Sydney Morning Herald'' (''SMH'') is a daily compact newspaper published in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, and owned by Nine. Founded in 1831 as the ''Sydney Herald'', the ''Herald'' is the oldest continuously published newspaper ...

'' in 1841. The Fairfax family retained control of the business until late in the 20th century. The company also owned several regional and national Australian newspapers, including ''

The Age ''The Age'' is a daily newspaper in Melbourne, Australia, that has been published since 1854. Owned and published by Nine Entertainment, ''The Age'' primarily serves Victoria (Australia), Victoria, but copies also sell in Tasmania, the Austral ...

'', ''

Australian Financial Review ''The Australian Financial Review'' (abbreviated to the ''AFR'') is an Australian business-focused, compact daily newspaper covering the current business and economic affairs of Australia and the world. The newspaper is based in Sydney, New Sou ...

'' and ''

Canberra Times ''The Canberra Times'' is a daily newspaper in Canberra, Australia, which is published by Australian Community Media. It was founded in 1926, and has changed ownership and format several times. History ''The Canberra Times'' was launched in ...

'', majority stakes in property business

Domain Group Domain Group (or simply Domain) is an Australian digital property portal and associated real-estate industry business. The company was founded by Fairfax Media, when the publisher branded their real-estate sections in print with the Domain brand ...

and the

Macquarie Radio Network Nine Radio (formerly Macquarie Media Limited) is an Australian media company, owned by parent company Nine Entertainment Co. and headquartered in North Sydney, New South Wales, the company operates radio stations nationally in the capital cit ...

, and joint ventures in streaming service

Stan Stan or STAN may refer to: People * Stan (given name), a list of people with the given name ** Stan Laurel (1890–1965), English comic actor, part of duo Laurel and Hardy * Stan (surname), a Romanian surname * Stan! (born 1964), American author ...

and online publisher

HuffPost Australia ''HuffPost'' (formerly ''The Huffington Post'' until 2017 and sometimes abbreviated ''HuffPo'') is an American progressive news website, with localized and international editions. The site offers news, satire, blogs, and original content, and ...

. The group's last chairman was Nick Falloon and the chief executive officer was

Greg Hywood Gregory Colin Hywood (born 26 September 1954) is an Australian journalist, editor and media executive who was CEO of Fairfax Media, one of Australia's largest media organisations, from 2010 to 2018. Career Early journalism Gregory Hywood graduat ...

. On 26 July 2018, Fairfax Media and

Nine Entertainment Co. Nine Entertainment (registered as Nine Entertainment Co. Pty Ltd) is an Australian publicly listed media company with holdings in radio and television broadcasting, newspaper publications and digital media. It uses Nine as its corporate brand ...

announced it had agreed on terms for a merger between the two companies. Shareholders in Nine Entertainment Co. took a 51% of the combined entity and Fairfax shareholders own 49%. Fairfax Media was delisted from the

Australian Securities Exchange Australian Securities Exchange Ltd or ASX, is an Australian public company that operates Australia's primary securities exchange, the Australian Securities Exchange (sometimes referred to outside of Australia as, or confused within Australia as ...

in December 2018. Its metro publishing assets continue to be published by the group as

Nine Publishing Nine Entertainment (registered as Nine Entertainment Co. Pty Ltd) is an Australian publicly listed media company with holdings in radio and television broadcasting, newspaper publications and digital media. It uses Nine as its corporate brandi ...

. Many of its other assets, such as its community media holdings were sold shortly after the merger was completed.

History

purchased ''

'' in 1841. Several generations of the Fairfax family continued to control the company. Fairfax Media was founded by the Fairfax family as John Fairfax and Sons, later to become John Fairfax Holdings. The Fairfax family lost control of the company in December 1990. It was renamed from John Fairfax Holdings to Fairfax Media in 2007.

1950s to 1999

The Australian Financial Review ''The Australian Financial Review'' (abbreviated to the ''AFR'') is an Australian business-focused, compact daily newspaper covering the current business and economic affairs of Australia and the world. The newspaper is based in Sydney, New Sou ...

'' was founded in 1951. In that decade, Fairfax started two television stations,

ATN ATN is the Sydney flagship television station of the Seven Network in Australia. The licence, issued to a company named Amalgamated Television Services, a subsidiary of John Fairfax & Sons, was one of the first four licences (two in Sydney, two ...

and

QTQ QTQ is an Australian television station, licensed to, and serving Brisbane, Queensland. It is owned by the Nine Entertainment Co., and is part of the Nine Network. It broadcasts on VHF Channel 8 (digital). QTQ began broadcasting on 16 August 19 ...

. Fairfax began expanding in the 1960s, acquiring, among others, ''

'', ''

The Newcastle Herald The ''Newcastle Herald'' (formerly branded as ''The Herald'') is a local tabloid newspaper published daily, Monday to Saturday, in Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia. It is the only local newspaper that serves the greater Hunter Region and ...

'' and the ''

Illawarra Mercury The ''Illawarra Mercury'' is a daily newspaper serving the Illawarra region of New South Wales, Australia. It has been published since 1855, making it one of Australia's oldest newspapers and the second oldest regional newspaper in New South Wal ...

''. In 1979,

Rupert Murdoch Keith Rupert Murdoch ( ; born 11 March 1931) is an Australian-born American business magnate. Through his company News Corp, he is the owner of hundreds of local, national, and international publishing outlets around the world, including ...

attempted to acquire rival

The Herald and Weekly Times The Herald and Weekly Times Pty Ltd (HWT) is a newspaper publishing company based in Melbourne, Australia. It is owned and operated by News Pty Ltd, which as News Ltd, purchased the HWT in 1987. Newspapers The HWT's newspaper interests date ba ...

. Due to the costs of defending the acquisition, Fairfax sold its television properties, including the

Seven Network The Seven Network (commonly known as Channel Seven or simply Seven) is a major Australian commercial free-to-air Television broadcasting in Australia, television network. It is owned by Seven West Media, Seven West Media Limited, and is one of ...

. In 1988, Fairfax sold its magazines (including ''

Woman's Day ''Woman's Day'' is an American women's monthly magazine that covers such topics as homemaking, food, nutrition, physical fitness, physical attractiveness, and fashion. The print edition is one of the Seven Sisters magazines. The magazine was fir ...

'', ''

People A person (plural, : people) is a being that has certain capacities or attributes such as reason, morality, consciousness or self-consciousness, and being a part of a culturally established form of social relations such as kinship, ownership of pr ...

'', ''

Dolly Dolly may refer to: Tools *Dolly (tool), a portable anvil * A posser, also known as a dolly, used for laundering * A variety of wheeled tools, including: **Dolly (trailer), for towing behind a vehicle **Boat dolly or launching dolly, a device fo ...

'', and ''

Good Housekeeping ''Good Housekeeping'' is an American women's magazine featuring articles about women's interests, product testing by The Good Housekeeping Institute, recipes, diet, and health, as well as literary articles. It is well known for the "Good House ...

'') to

Australian Consolidated Press Are Media is an Australian media company that was formed after the 2020 purchase of the assets of Bauer Media Australia, which had in turn acquired the assets of Pacific Magazines, AP Magazines and Australian Consolidated Press during the 2010s ...

, and discontinued its

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

afternoon tabloid '' The Sun'', transferring some of its content and the sponsorship of the '' City to Surf'' to its new Sunday tabloid ''

The Sun-Herald ''The Sun-Herald'' is an Australian newspaper published in tabloid or compact format on Sundays in Sydney by Nine Publishing. It is the Sunday counterpart of ''The Sydney Morning Herald''. In the 6 months to September 2005, ''The Sun-Herald' ...

'' which also replaced the broadsheet ''Sunday Herald''. In 1987,

Warwick Fairfax Warwick Fairfax (born December 1960) is an Australian businessman and consultant based in the United States. He was well known in the 1990s as the media heir and business tycoon who privatised the publicly listed media company, John Fairfax Hold ...

, then aged 26, bought out his family's holdings in the company using borrowed debts. He successfully took ownership of the company, selling some properties to his half-brother John B. Fairfax, who formed

Rural Press Australian Community Media (ACM) is a media company in Australia responsible for over 160 regional publications. Its mastheads include the ''Canberra Times'', ''Newcastle Herald'', '' The Examiner'', ''The Border Mail'', '' The Courier'' and th ...

. On 10 December 1990, the company collapsed and a receiver was appointed, with company debts of A$1.7 billion. By 1993, the company was re-listed on the

and the two biggest shareholders of John Fairfax Holdings were the Canadian newspaper magnate

Conrad Black Conrad Moffat Black, Baron Black of Crossharbour (born 25 August 1944), is a Canadian-born British former newspaper publisher, businessman, and writer. His father was businessman George Montegu Black II, who had significant holdings in Canadi ...

and his Hollinger Group with 25%, and the Australian media mogul,

Kerry Packer Kerry Francis Bullmore Packer (17 December 1937 – 26 December 2005) was an Australian media tycoon, and was considered one of Australia's most powerful media proprietors of the twentieth century. The Packer family company owned a controlling ...

and his

publicly listed A public company is a company whose ownership is organized via shares of share capital, stock which are intended to be freely traded on a stock exchange or in Over-the-counter (finance), over-the-counter markets. A public (publicly traded) comp ...

company,

Publishing and Broadcasting Limited Publishing and Broadcasting Limited (PBL) was one of Australia's largest corporations. With interests primarily in media and gambling, for the entirety of its existence it was largely controlled by the Packer family. History Predecessors PB ...

with 15%. Due to Australian government concerns over

media consolidation Concentration of media ownership (also known as media consolidation or media convergence) is a process whereby progressively fewer individuals or organizations control increasing shares of the mass media. Contemporary research demonstrates in ...

that limited any single foreign shareholder holding more than 25% interest in national and metropolitan newspapers, after intense lobbying for the right to increase his stake, Black conceded defeat in 1996, selling his holding to the New Zealand

corporate raider A corporation is an organization—usually a group of people or a company—authorized by the state to act as a single entity (a legal entity recognized by private and public law "born out of statute"; a legal person in legal context) and re ...

Brierley Investments GL Limited is an investment company listed on the Singapore Exchange. Founded as Brierley Investments in 1961, it was formerly listed on the Australian, London and New Zealand exchanges. History Brierley Investments was founded by Ron Brierley i ...

, that was ultimately subject to the same restrictions.

2000 to 2009

In 2003, Fairfax acquired many of New Zealand's highest-profile newspapers when it bought the publishing assets of that country's

Independent Newspapers Limited Independent Newspapers Limited (INL) was a newspaper publisher in New Zealand. Started as the Wellington Publishing Company in 1906 to publish ''The Dominion'', it began taking over other newspapers in the 1970s and was renamed Independent New ...

, whose cornerstone shareholder was

News Corp Australia News Corp Australia is an Australian media conglomerate and wholly owned subsidiary of the American News Corp. One of Australia's largest media conglomerates, News Corp Australia employs more than 8,000 staff nationwide and approximately 3,00 ...

. In July 2005, Fairfax acquired the RSVP dating site for A$38 million. 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 Pty Ltd for A$12.7 million. This investment proved to be successful as Stayz was sold on 27 November 2013, for $220 million, exceeding its estimated net debt of $154 million. In September 2007, Fairfax acquired online funds management business, InvestSMART, from founders Ron Hodge and Nigel Poole for A$12M. In August 2013, Fairfax sold the InvestSMART business to Australasian Wealth Investments Limited, now called InvestSMART Group Limited, for A$7M. In August 2005, Fairfax ended its 16-month search for a new chief executive officer with

David Kirk David Edward Kirk (born 5 October 1960) is a former New Zealand rugby union player. He is best known for having been the captain of the All Blacks when they won the inaugural Rugby World Cup in 1987. Early years Kirk was born in Wellington and ...

, a former

Rugby Union World Cup The Rugby World Cup is a men's rugby union tournament contested every four years between the top international teams. The tournament is administered by World Rugby, the sport's international governing body. The winners are awarded the Webb E ...

winning captain of the

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

All Blacks The New Zealand national rugby union team, commonly known as the All Blacks ( mi, Ōpango), represents New Zealand in men's international rugby union, which is considered the country's national sport. The team won the Rugby World Cup in 1987 ...

being appointed to replace departing CEO

Fred Hilmer Frederick George Hilmer AO (born 2 February 1945) is an Australian academic and business figure. He was the president and eighth vice-chancellor of the University of New South Wales, an appointment he held from June 2006 till January 2015. He h ...

. David Kirk got the job ahead of Fairfax COO Brian Evans (former head of Fairfax New Zealand) and

Doug Flynn Robert Douglas Flynn, Jr. (born April 18, 1951) is an American former professional baseball player. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) from 1975 to 1985 as an infielder for the Cincinnati Reds, New York Mets, Texas Rangers, Montreal Expos a ...

, who took the top job at UK Pest control company

Rentokil Rentokil Initial is a British business services group based in Crawley, England. It was founded in 1925 as a pest-control business but subsequently expanded and diversified, in part through organic growth under the leadership of Sir Clive Thomp ...

after negotiations with Fairfax broke off. In March 2006, Fairfax acquired New Zealand auction website Trademe.co.nz for NZ$700 million. On 4 March 2006, it was announced that Fairfax would purchase ''

The Border Mail ''The Border Mail'' is a daily newspaper and online news brand published in Albury-Wodonga, Australia, serving the twin cities and the surrounding region. It was originally published as ''The Border Morning Mail and Riverina Times'' and later a ...

'' newspaper in Albury-Wodonga for A$162 million. In October 2006, speculation began to grow that the company would be bought out and split up after the passage of changes to Australian media laws. Rival media company

purchased a 7.5 per cent stake in the company at this time, This was with the stated aim of keeping Fairfax in one piece. On 7 December 2006, John Fairfax Holdings and

announced the beginning of their merger proceedings. Once merged, the new entity formed a publishing company worth A$9 billion and resulted in regaining control of ''

The Canberra Times ''The Canberra Times'' is a daily newspaper in Canberra, Australia, which is published by Australian Community Media. It was founded in 1926, and has changed ownership and format several times. History ''The Canberra Times'' was launched in ...

'' (which it owned in the 1980s), and through John B. Fairfax of Rural Press, saw the return of the Fairfax family to the company board. The company also gained a number of other regional newspapers, radio stations and websites; plus agricultural publications in various countries. On 12 January 2007, John Fairfax Holdings changed its name to Fairfax Media. On 7 March 2007, Fairfax Media announced a new website for Brisbane, called the ''

Brisbane Times Brisbane ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Queensland, and the third-most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of approximately 2.6 million. Brisbane lies at the centre of the South ...

''. The website initially employed 14 journalists and was an attempt by Fairfax to break into the South East Queensland market. On 20 March 2007 Fairfax Media launched a new business website, BusinessDay.com.au that aggregated feeds from the other news vehicles in the Fairfax stable as well as "from the world's most respected news sources". It featured breaking news updated "every 15 minutes". Also in 2007 Fairfax Media bought the radio assets of

Southern Cross Broadcasting Southern Cross Broadcasting (Australia) Limited was a diversified Australian media company, that owned and operated a variety of media businesses, primarily in radio and television. History Tony Bell was managing director of the business betwee ...

. Macquarie Media Group purchased Southern Cross for A$1.35 billion and onsold these assets to the Fairfax Group. On 26 August 2007, Kirk and Deputy CEO Brian McCarthy announced that 550 staff would be cut as part of a "business improvement" programme. The staff reductions would take place in both Australia and New Zealand, with the latter country bearing the brunt of the cuts, with 160 full-time employees losing their jobs. On 5 December, David Kirk tendered his resignation, and on 10 December Brian McCarthy (former Rural Press CEO) was appointed as CEO. A new campaign, "Fair Go, Fairfax: Don't discount journalism", was launched by the

MEAA The Media, Entertainment & Arts Alliance (MEAA), also sometimes referred to as the Alliance, is the Australian trade union and professional organisation which covers the media, entertainment, sports and arts industries. Its Musicians section c ...

in protest to the cuts arguing that the jobs losses will affect "quality journalism". As of May 2008 Fairfax Media had a market capitalisation of over A$5 billion. The number of printed edition readers has fallen since 2006 and the group's stock price has declined by more than 60 percent since 2007, to less than A$2 billion by September 2011, and by 85 percent at June 2012. On 11 July 2007, Fairfax Media acquired the former radio assets of Southern Cross Broadcasting (on-sold from Macquarie Media Group's purchase of SCB):

2UE 2UE is an all-music radio station in Sydney owned by Nine Entertainment Co and run under a lease agreement by Ace Radio. It currently broadcasts from its studios in Pyrmont, New South Wales. History 1920s 2EU Electrical Utilities applied to the ...

Sydney,

3AW 3AW is a talkback radio station based in Melbourne. It broadcasts on 693 kHz AM. It began transmission on 22 February 1932 as Melbourne's fifth commercial radio station. The station is owned and operated by Nine Entertainment Co. Hist ...

and

Magic 1278 Magic 1278 (official callsign: 3EE) is a commercial radio station in Melbourne, Australia owned by Nine Entertainment Co, and run under a lease agreement by Ace Radio. History 1935–1991: 3XY 1935–1967 3XY began broadcasting on 8 Sept ...

Melbourne, 4BC and

4BH 4BH 1116 is the on-air identifier ( ACMA callsign: 4BH) of a radio station in Brisbane, the state capital of Queensland, Australia. It broadcasts on a frequency is 1116 kHz in the AM radio band and is simulcasted in DAB+ on channel 9B. It is o ...

Brisbane, and

6PR 6PR, known as 882 6PR, is a commercial radio station based in Perth, Western Australia. Owned by Nine Entertainment, its focus is on news, talk and sport, and is Perth's only commercial talkback radio station. It commenced broadcasting on 14 Oc ...

and 96fm Perth. Graham Mott will continue in his role as general manager 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 Richard John Sinclair Laws CBE (born 8 August 1935) is a Papua New Guinean-born Australian radio announcer. For 50 years, until 2007, he was the host of an Australian morning radio program combining music with interviews, opinion, live adverti ...

) would largely be replaced on the network with more localised syndication at a state level. Fairfax also acquired Satellite Music Australia (SMA) as part of the SCB deal, who provide music channels to retailers, as well as

Foxtel Foxtel is an Australian pay television company—operating in cable television, direct broadcast satellite television, and IPTV streaming services. It was formed in April 2018, superseding an earlier company from 1995. The service was establi ...

and

Austar Austar was an Australian telecommunications company. Its main business activity was subscription television but it has also been involved with internet access and mobile phones. It was founded in 1995 under the name Community Entertainment Telev ...

(where it is branded AIR).

MyTalk MyTalk was a Fairfax Media television channel available to viewers of digital television in Australia. The datacast channel, launched on 13 April 2007, was designed to supplement the Southern Cross Ten and Southern Cross Television digital telev ...

Datacasting Channel was officially purchased from Southern Cross Broadcasting on 5 November 2007, and ceased broadcasting on 25 February 2008.

2010 to 2013

In late 2011, John B. Fairfax and his family investment company, Marinya Media, sold their remaining 9.7 percent stake in Fairfax Media for A$189 million. The sale came after an earlier dispute between John B. Fairfax and Ron Walker, Chairman of the Board of Fairfax Media, which led to the very public departure of Walker. Continued poor performance of Fairfax Media in light of changing news services was cited as one of the reasons for the sale of Marinya Media's interests in Fairfax. John B. Fairfax had earlier stood down from the Fairfax board, and his son, Nick Fairfax, was reported to be discussing his future with the rest of the company board. In 2012, mining billionaire

Gina Rinehart Georgina Hope Rinehart (née Hancock, born 9 February 1954) is an Australian mining magnate and businesswoman. Rinehart is the Executive Chairman of Hancock Prospecting, a privately owned mineral exploration and extraction company founded by h ...

became Fairfax's biggest shareholder, purchasing a 14 percent stake in the company. Rinehart also sought a position on the Fairfax board. By June 2012, Rinehart had increased her stake in Fairfax Media to 18.67 percent, and was believed to seek three board seats and involvement in editorial decisions. There were reports that Rinehart sought to increase her total share to 19.99%, the maximum allowed before a takeover offer must be made. But provisions in Fairfax Media's insurance policy denied cover for directors owning more than 15%, so Rinehart had to sell down to 14.99%. Rinehart was denied a place on the board because she would not agree to Fairfax's charter of independence, and sold her stake in 2015. On 18 June 2012, as part of evolving to a sustainable model for its news media business, Fairfax Media announced it would cut 1,900 staff and begin to erect digital paywalls around its two main metropolitan news brands, ''The Sydney Morning Herald'' and ''The Age''. It also announced it was shifting to "compact" or tabloid-sized editions of the broadsheet newspapers from March 2013, and that its two printing facilities at

Chullora Chullora, a suburb in the City of Canterbury-Bankstown local government area, is located 15 kilometres west of the Sydney central business district, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. It is part of the Greater Western Sydney region. The ...

and

Tullamarine Tullamarine is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, north-west of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the Cities of Brimbank, Hume and Merri-bek local government areas. Tullamarine recorded a population of 6,733 at t ...

would close. The changes, prompted by shrinking advertising revenue, were expected to generate A$235 million in annual savings over three years. In 2012, Fairfax Media acquired Netus Pty Ltd, a technology investment company which owned 85% of Allure Media, and purchased the remaining 15% from minority shareholders. Allure Media own a range of websites, including the Australian licenses for Business Insider, Lifehacker, Gizmodo, and Kotaku.

2014 to 2018

In 2014, Fairfax Media founded online streaming company

with

, investing $50 million into the joint venture. In December 2014, Fairfax

merged Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) are business transactions in which the ownership of companies, other business organizations, or their operating units are transferred to or consolidated with another company or business organization. As an aspect ...

with

. Under the deal, Fairfax gained a 55% share in Macquarie. A party may hold only two radio licences in each market, so some stations including

2CH ''2CH'' was a commercial radio station in Sydney, Australia. It was owned by Pacific Star Network. The station changed formats on 10 June 2022 to sports. History 2CH commenced broadcasting on 15 February 1932 on 1210 kHz. It moved to ...

and the Macquarie Regional Radio network were sold. In turn, 96FM Perth was sold to

Australian Radio Network ARN is a group of commercial radio stations around Australia. It includes the Pure Gold, KIIS Network, CADA, ARN Regional and iHeartRadio brands. The company operates the ARN News service in Australia, which uses international correspondents ...

. The merger was completed in March 2015. In 2015, Fairfax created a partnership with ''

The Huffington Post ''HuffPost'' (formerly ''The Huffington Post'' until 2017 and sometimes abbreviated ''HuffPo'') is an American progressive news website, with localized and international editions. The site offers news, satire, blogs, and original content, and ...

'' to launch HuffPost Australia. In December 2015, automotive digital business 112 and Fairfax's Drive.com.au announced the formation of a 50:50 joint venture in the online motor sector, with Fairfax to license the Drive brand and Drive.com.au to 112, which owns and operates themotorreport.com.au, an online car-buyer resource. In March 2016, many staff from its newspaper divisions went on a 4-day strike over planned job cuts of 120 editorial staff from ''The Sydney Morning Herald'', ''The Age'' and ''The Australian Financial Review''. All printed and digital editions continued during the action. On May 18, 2017,

Hellman & Friedman Hellman & Friedman LLC (H&F) is an American private equity firm, founded in 1984 by Warren Hellman and Tully Friedman, that makes investments primarily through leveraged buyouts as well as growth capital investments. H&F has focused its efforts o ...

made a A$2.9 billion bid for Fairfax Media, starting a

bidding war A bid price is the highest price that a buyer (i.e., bidder) is willing to pay for some goods. It is usually referred to simply as the "bid". In bid and ask, the bid price stands in contrast to the ask price or "offer", and the difference betwee ...

with

TPG Capital TPG Inc., previously known as Texas Pacific Group and TPG Capital, is an American investment company based in Fort Worth, Texas. The private equity firm is focused on leveraged buyouts and growth capital. TPG manages investment funds in growth c ...

for Fairfax. Fairfax opened books to both parties, opening the door for ''The Sydney Morning Herald'' and ''The Age'' to pass into foreign ownership. On 26 July 2018, Fairfax Media and Nine Entertainment Co. announced it had agreed on terms for a merger between the two companies. Shareholders in Nine Entertainment Co. took a 51% of the combined entity and Fairfax shareholders own 49%. Fairfax Media was delisted from the

in December 2018.

Products and divisions

Fairfax had a portfolio of print and digital media assets. The Fairfax divisions cover: * Australian Metro Publishing: includes masthead newspaper brands ''

'', ''

'' and ''

'', and lifestyle brands, including "Goodfood", Drive, "Essential Baby", "Traveller", and a joint venture in Nabo. Australian Metro Publishing was largely succeeded by

. *

Australian Community Media Australian Community Media (ACM) is a media company in Australia responsible for over 160 regional publications. Its mastheads include the ''Canberra Times'', ''Newcastle Herald'', '' The Examiner'', ''The Border Mail'', '' The Courier'' and th ...

: a network of regional, rural and local newspapers, including ''

'', ''

'' and ''

'', as well as free community papers. This was spun-off into an independent company in 2019. * Printing: Printing facilities in Australia and New Zealand. * Events: arts, cultural, business, entertainment and sporting events, including Good Food Month and City2Surf and

City to Surf (Perth) The City to Surf is a popular road running event held annually in Perth, Western Australia, in which participants race from the CBD to City Beach, a distance of approximately . A shorter course is also held in conjunction. The event is both ...

. This entity was sold to Ironman Group. * Digital ventures: encompasses dating sites RSVP and Oasis, weather forecasters, including

Weatherzone Weatherzone, known before 9 August 2010 as The Weather Company and still trading under this name, is the main provider of value-added meteorological services in Australia. Their main business lines are services to energy, utilities and mining c ...

, digital publisher Allure Media (parent company of Gizmodo and PopSugar among others), and its partnerships with ''

'' for HuffPost Australia and

for

. * Radio: holds a 54.4% stake in

, the parent company of AM band radio stations, including

2GB 2GB is a commercial radio station in Sydney, Australia owned by parent company Nine Radio, a division of Nine Entertainment Co., who also own sister station 2UE. 2GB broadcasts on 873 kHz, AM. In 2010, 2GB held 14.7% of the total rad ...

4BC 4BC is a radio station in Brisbane, Queensland on 882 kHz AM. 4BC is Brisbane's only commercial talkback station. While the station's broadcasting facility is at Cannon Hill, its transmitting tower is located alongside the Gateway Motorway ...

and

, as well as music distributor Satellite Music Australia. * New Zealand:

Stuff Stuff, stuffed, and stuffing may refer to: *Physical matter *General, unspecific things, or entities Arts, media, and entertainment Books *''Stuff'' (1997), a novel by Joseph Connolly (author), Joseph Connolly *''Stuff'' (2005), a book by Jere ...

included national brand

Stuff.co.nz Stuff is a New Zealand news media website owned by newspaper conglomerate Stuff (company), Stuff Ltd (formerly called Fairfax). It is the most popular news website in New Zealand, with a monthly unique audience of more than 2 million. Stuff w ...

and metro titles '' The Dominion Post'' in Wellington and ''

The Press ''The Press'' is a daily newspaper published in Christchurch, New Zealand owned by media business Stuff Ltd. First published in 1861, the newspaper is the largest circulating daily in the South Island and publishes Monday to Saturday. One comm ...

'' in Christchurch, as well as magazine titles and events. Fairfax held a 60% stake in

, a digital real estate business containing Domain.com.au, which was a wholly owned subsidiary until it was spun off as a publicly listed company in November 2017.

Properties

Australia

Newspapers

Fairfax Media published metropolitan, agricultural, regional and community newspapers, financial and consumer magazines. In Australia, mastheads include ''

'', ''

'', '' Stock And Land'' and ''The Land''. Fairfax published ''The Age'' and ''The Sydney Morning Herald''. It also publishes a daily business tabloid, ''The Australian Financial Review''. Fairfax also owned papers in major regional centres, including the ''

'' (Wollongong), ''

'' (Newcastle), ''

'' (Albury-Wodonga), '' The Daily Advertiser'' (Wagga Wagga), ''

The Warrnambool Standard ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the ...

'' (Warrnambool), '' The Courier'' (Ballarat) and ''

Bendigo Advertiser The ''Bendigo Advertiser'' (commonly referred to as ''"The Addy"'') is an Australian regional newspaper. It is the daily (Monday–Saturday) newspaper for Bendigo, Victoria, and its surrounding region. The paper is published by Australian Communi ...

'' (Bendigo). In addition, its subsidiary Fairfax Community Newspapers publishes 35 community newspapers serving suburban

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada * Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory * Victoria, Seychelle ...

and

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

. As a result of its

acquisition, Fairfax took control of many newspapers including ''The Canberra Times'' and ''The Land''. On 30 April 2019, Nine announced the sale of Fairfax community papers to former Fairfax Media executive Antony 'The Cat' Catalano for $115 million.

Magazines

Fairfax published a number of magazines, such as ''The Magazine (Sydney)'', ''The Age Magazine (Melbourne)'' and ''Good Weekend'', which were distributed with their newspapers. In addition, the company published business-centered magazines including '' BRW'' (since December 2013, only published online), ''AFR Smart Investor'', ''AFR Magazine'', ''AFR Boss'', ''CFO Australia'', ''MIS (magazine)'' and ''Asset (Magazine)''.

Digital

Fairfax owned a profitable Australian online subsidiary, Fairfax Digital, which was once known as the F2 Network. Fairfax publishes web editions of most of its newspaper titles, as well as digital only news sites in

South East Queensland South East Queensland (SEQ) is a bio-geographical, metropolitan, political and administrative region of the state of Queensland in Australia, with a population of approximately 3.8 million people out of the state's population of 5.1 million. T ...

as the ''

''; and in Western Australia as ''

WAtoday WAtoday is an online newspaper, focusing its coverage on Perth and Western Australia. It was established on 10 June 2008, and is owned by Fairfax Digital (now Nine Publishing, under Nine Entertainment Co). The company employs ten journalists in ...

''. Both ''The Age'' and ''The Sydney Morning Herald'' produce a limited amount of video content, which is only available online. As a rival to

Nine.com.au Nine.com.au (formerly Ninemsn) is an Australian news and current events website, owned by ASX-listed company, Nine Entertainment Co. It was originally established as a 50:50 joint venture between Microsoft and PBL Media (now Nine Entertainment ...

Nine News ''Nine News'' (stylised ''9News'') is the national news service of the Nine Network in Australia. Its flagship program is the hour-long 6:00 pm state bulletin, produced by Nine's owned-and-operated stations in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, ...

and

Yahoo7 Yahoo! Australia (formerly Yahoo7 between 2006 and 2018) is the Australian subsidiary of global internet company Yahoo! Originally a 50/50 joint venture between Yahoo! and Seven West Media, it has been a 100% subsidiary of Verizon Media since M ...

Seven News ''7NEWS'' is the television news service of the Seven Network and, as of 2021, the highest-rating in Australia. National bulletins are presented from Seven's high-definition television, high definition studios in Martin Place, Sydney, while f ...

, Fairfax websites previously had non-exclusive licensing deals to replay news video content from broadcaster

Network Ten Network 10 (commonly known as Ten Network, Channel 10 or simply 10) is an Australian commercial television network owned by Ten Network Holdings, a division of the Paramount Networks UK & Australia subsidiary of Paramount Global. One of five ...

and its former main news service Ten News at Five (now ''Ten Eyewitness News''). Fairfax's deal with Ten has now discontinued when their news video content are now being shown on Ten's catch-up service,

Tenplay Network 10 (commonly known as Ten Network, Channel 10 or simply 10) is an Australian commercial television network owned by Ten Network Holdings, a division of the Paramount Networks UK & Australia subsidiary of Paramount Global. One of five ...

which launched in late 2013. From 2014, Fairfax now have non-exclusive licensing deal with Channel Seven by using clips from Seven News with Mark Ferguson. Rural Press owns a range of similar classifieds and local newspaper websites. On 21 December 2012, Fairfax Media announced the acquisition of Netus Pty Ltd, a technology investment company. Netus owned 85% of

Allure Media Fairfax Media was a media company in Australia and New Zealand, with investments in newspaper, magazines, radio and digital properties. The company was founded by John Fairfax as John Fairfax and Sons, who purchased ''The Sydney Morning Herald' ...

. Fairfax purchased the remaining 15 per cent of Allure Media from minority shareholders resulting in Fairfax ownership of 100 per cent of Allure Media. Allure Media own a range of websites, including the Australian licenses for

Lifehacker ''Lifehacker'' is a weblog about life hacks and software that launched on January 31, 2005. The site was originally launched by Gawker Media and is currently owned by G/O Media. The blog posts cover a wide range of topics including: Microsoft W ...

Gizmodo ''Gizmodo'' ( ) is a design, technology, science and science fiction website. It was originally launched as part of the Gawker Media network run by Nick Denton, and runs on the Kinja platform. ''Gizmodo'' also includes the subsite ''io9'', whic ...

and

Kotaku ''Kotaku'' is a video game website and blog that was originally launched in 2004 as part of the Gawker Media network. Notable former contributors to the site include Luke Smith, Cecilia D'Anastasio, Tim Rogers, and Jason Schreier. History ...

Syndication

Fairfax Syndication manages the commercial licensing and distribution of text, photographic and multimedia content to media companies and commercial clients worldwide. Fairfax Syndication has enabled instant online licensing and has developed a customised syndication application 'API' that allows existing and future syndication clients access to real-time content from multiple websites for immediate use on other platforms. The division also represents their image library and photo syndication service containing over 16 million images.

New Zealand

The New Zealand subsidiary was named Fairfax New Zealand Limited until 2018, when it was renamed

Stuff Limited Stuff Ltd (previously Fairfax New Zealand) is a privately held news media company operating in New Zealand. It operates Stuff (website), Stuff, the country's largest news website, and owns nine daily newspapers, including New Zealand's second ...

to align with the name of its flagship website. It was sold to its CEO

Sinead Boucher Sinead Marie Boucher (née O'Hanlon; born 26 June 1970) is a New Zealand journalist and chief executive of Stuff Ltd. On 31 May 2020 she became the owner of Stuff Ltd. Early life and family Born in 1970 to Sean and Mary O'Hanlon, Boucher moved w ...

in a

management buyout A management buyout (MBO) is a form of acquisition in which a company's existing managers acquire a large part, or all, of the company, whether from a parent company or individual. Management-, and/or leveraged buyout became noted phenomena of 1 ...

for $1 NZD in 2020. Parent company Nine retained most of the proceeds of the sale of Stuff's broadband subsidiary to

Vocus Group Vocus Group Limited, formerly known as Vocus Communications, is an international telecommunications company headquartered in North Sydney, Australia. Founded by James Spenceley as a wholesale, business, government and consumer telecommunicati ...

, and maintained control of its Wellington printing press operation. On 1 September 2011, Fairfax New Zealand announced the launch of the news agency Fairfax New Zealand News (FNZ), partly in response to the

New Zealand Press Association The New Zealand Press Association (NZPA) was a news agency that existed from 1879 to 2011 and provided national and international news to the media of New Zealand. The largest news agency in the country, it was founded as the United Press Associa ...

(NZPA) closure, but also as part of its drive to improve its journalism. In December 2014, Fairfax entered a partnership with local social media platform Neighbourly. Blog post from Neighbourly management: "... today we are excited to be announcing a very special partnership; Neighbourly has joined forces with Fairfax Media NZ." In 2016, Fairfax Media sold a number of its key special interest titles, including ''Boating New Zealand'' and ''New Zealand Fishing News'' magazines.

References

Fairfax archive collections

Fairfax Media Limited Business Archive
documents five generations of Fairfax dynasty ownership of the company, 1795-2006.

State Library of New South Wales The State Library of New South Wales, part of which is known as the Mitchell Library, is a large heritage-listed special collections, reference and research library open to the public and is one of the oldest libraries in Australia. Establish ...

MLMSS 9894
Series 001: Minutes of the meetings of the Board of Directors of John Fairfax Limited, 1956-1985

Series 005: Annual reports of The Sun Newspaper Company Limited, 1911-1919

Series 006: Annual Reports of Sun Newspapers Limited, 1921-1930

Series 029: Index to the Minutes of the Meetings of the Board of Directors of Associated Newspapers Limited, 1937-1951

Series 033: Rough Minute Books of meetings of Daily Telegraph News Pictorial Limited, 1927-1930

Series 038: Consolidated Annual Accounts John Fairfax & Sons Pty Ltd and subsidiaries, 1927-1979

External links

Fairfax Media corporate siteStories from Fairfax Business Archive
{{Authority control Fairfax Media Companies formerly listed on the Australian Securities Exchange Mass media in Sydney Australian news websites Defunct broadcasting companies of Australia Holding companies of Australia Companies based in Sydney Newspaper companies of Australia Nine Entertainment Publishing companies established in 1841 Mass media companies disestablished in 2018 Australian companies established in 1841 Australian companies disestablished in 2018 2018 mergers and acquisitions

History

1950s to 1999

2000 to 2009

2010 to 2013

2014 to 2018

Products and divisions

Properties

Australia

Newspapers

Magazines

Digital

Syndication

New Zealand

See also

References

Fairfax archive collections

External links