John Hartigan, CEO of News Ltd in a speech July 1 talking about the decline of newspapers
I mean, at its most basic, it?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢s just bad reporting. There?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢s almost no evidence.
For starters, newspaper ad revenue in Australia has been growing ?¢‚Ǩ‚Äú not declining over the past 5 years as it has in the US and the UK.
Even in the past year, the decline in ad revenue in Australia is a fraction of what?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢s been happening overseas.
ABC’s AM this morning (August 6)
Now this slump in profits comes mainly because of plunging revenue, particularly in the newspaper industry. Rupert Murdoch says his papers in Australia have endured a 30 per cent slump in classified ads and a 12 per cent drop in display ads in the fourth quarter, and that’s thanks mainly to a drop-off in car and real estate and employment advertisements, Tony.
Take away question: did Hartigan deceive the market July 1? That’s a fairly significant fall, perhaps not as hard as the US, but likewise you couldn’t describe it fairly as a fraction either.
