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9
APN
annual report
2011
APN appointed
Warren Bright as Ceo
of Australian regional
Media in May 2011.
Warren has strengthened
his management team
and made important
changes to evolve
the division’s
business model.
Australian regional media (Arm)
connects with communities from
Coffs Harbour to mackay through
its 12 daily newspapers, more than
56 non-daily newspapers and a
digital regional news network of
29 web and mobile sites.
Arm’s publications reach an
audience of 1.2 million people
each week in print and 1.1
million online and mobile users,
offering the best coverage of
local news and events. Arm’s
longstanding publications have
excellent market positions and
are strong cash generators for
the Company.
the flourishing economic
conditions in mining centres
such as mackay and gladstone,
where Arm publishes the Daily
mercury and the Observer,
produced good financial results
for the division. unfortunately,
many of our local communities
were severely affected by
widespread flooding and a
significant downturn in the
tourism industry. these factors,
together with restrained levels
of commerce being experienced
elsewhere in Australia, had a
significant net impact on the
division’s overall result. revenue
was down 5% and eBIt was
down 27%.
In 2011, Warren and his team
completed a detailed review of
operations and evolved Arm’s
operating model to increase
productivity in its commercial
teams and improve efficiency
in its editorial teams.
this included centralising Arm’s
advertising services bureau,
which now produces the vast
majority of creative work and
prepress for each of the regional
operations. Overall production
headcount is down 24% and
productivity per team member
has improved by more than 30%.
Other changes included
centralising the editorial
production of each of the daily
and non-daily newspapers at
‘Centro’, a sub-editing facility
on the Sunshine Coast. this
has improved both the quality
and the efficiency of the
sub-editing process.
Overall, the review delivered
$14 million in sustainable cost
reductions that resulted in no net
increase in costs in 2011. Arm
expects comparable costs to
fall 3% in 2012.
Arm is actively addressing
the changing ways in which
people consume media and is
redesigning all its print products,
sales and editorial processes.
the new approach is aimed
at ensuring all print, web and
mobile products are considered
an essential part of its audiences’
daily lives. Advertising sales are
made across all platforms in joint
packages and journalists file
copy for online as well as print.
In two centres, tweed Heads
and Coffs Harbour, Arm has
adopted a ‘digital first’ approach
with an emphasis on reporting
breaking news via web and
mobile sites, supported by
print publications twice a week.
Since the conversion at the
start of 2012, website traffic has
increased by more than 29% for
each title and both business units
are recording substantially better
earnings compared to those for
the prior year.
Arm’s products and teams have
received a number of awards
throughout the year.
the Observer in gladstone and
the Sunshine Coast Daily were
named
Newspaper of the Year
in
their respective categories at the
annual Pacific Area newspaper
Publishers Association (PAnPA)
Awards. toowoomba Chronicle
photographer neville madsen
won the
News Photography
award at the 2011 Walkley
Awards, placing him among
the best news photographers
in Australia.
Arm also had strong readership
results. Arm’s portfolio of
publications reaches 69% of
regional consumers within its
markets and Arm has eight of
the 10 fastest growing, year-
on-year regional readership
performances in northern nSW
and Queensland. Our daily titles
in toowoomba, Fraser Coast and
gympie have strong double digit
readership growth.*
* roy morgan Survey, September 2011
Walkley Award
Winner 2011
News Photography
Toowoomba Flood Rescue
taken by Neville Madsen,
the Toowoomba Chronicle.
australian
regional media