NZME to build news paywall
Publisher NZME has signalled it will put up a paywall around some of its ‘‘premium’’ online content as the media industry continues to battle a decline in traditional advertising.
Chief executive Michael Boggs told analysts on a conference call that NZME aspired to be a ‘‘growth business’’ in the medium term and wanted to ‘‘monetise and produce much more premium content’’.
Last year NZME licensed a digital publishing platform called Arc from the Washington Post, which it said would give it new capabilities.
Boggs confirmed NZME would have a ‘‘premium subscription’’ offering in the market this year, but said investors could not expect a ‘‘whole lot of revenues from it’’ this year.
NZME would be ‘‘nurturing’’ its audience over the coming months to make sure it was ‘‘loving that content … and then obviously the monetisation of them will be the last thing in that process’’, he said.
‘‘Our focus right now is continuing to improve the level of the content so people are prepared to pay for it and we absolutely see that happening this year.’’
Boggs also raised the prospect of a possible appeal to the Supreme Court, if it lost its forthcoming Court of Appeal case against the Commerce Commission’s block on its merger with Stuff.
NZME, which is listed on the New Zealand stock exchange and owns The New Zealand Herald plus about half the country’s commercial radio stations, reported a profit of $21 million for the year to December, down from a profit of $74.5m in 2016.
Revenues fell 4.2 per cent to $390m, due to a 7 per cent fall in print revenues to $221m.
The result appeared to satisfy investors, with NZME shares opening 2 cents higher at $0.78.
The company’s figures for 2016 had been skewed by NZME’s demerger from its former parent, Australia company APN News & Media, and a $36m settlement of a tax dispute with Inland Revenue.
NZME said its trading profit for the year was down 4 per cent to just under $27m while it cut its operating costs by 5 per cent.
Boggs said 2017 included ‘‘a difficult third quarter’’, but was pleased its decline in print advertising revenues slowed ‘‘a little’’.
Merging with rival publisher Stuff to ‘‘underwrite the competitiveness of New Zealand content generation and delivery’’ remained a priority, he said.
He reiterated that NZME expected a hearing at the Court of Appeal before July and a ruling from it before the end of the year.
Boggs expected the cost of further appealing the ruling would be about $500,000 and said the bill would be split with Stuff’s Australian owner, Fairfax Media.