NZME focuses on increasing audience
NZME’s priority this year will be continuing to grow its audience reach, says chief executive Michael Boggs.
The media company, which owns the New Zealand Herald, Newstalk ZB and a suite of entertainment radio brands including ZM and The Hits, made a pro forma net profit after tax of $ 27.8 million for the year to December 31, up 1 per cent on the year before.
The pro forma profit reflects the company’s new structure after its demerger from APN and excludes tax and the sale of its interests in Australian radio assets.
The company’s share price closed up 5c yesterday at 69c, a 7.8 per cent jump which has pushed the value of the company above $ 135m.
NZME’s trading ebitda ( earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation) was stable at $ 71.9m, up slightly from $ 71.8m in the previous year, while revenue fell 6 per cent to $ 407.4m.
Boggs said being able to report a stable result was a real positive for the company in what was a tough environment for the media.
“Our ebitda was stable, in fact we were up $ 100,000 on a normalised basis over the last year. If we think how tough the media industry is and advertising, I think everyone in the business should be really proud.”
The continued focus on improving performance, investment in people and talent, and delivering on improvement initiatives, had enabled the company to outperform the mar- ket in print and digital advertising revenue growth, Boggs said.
“We continue to transform NZME to lift performance, grow audience and optimise our products.”
The company increased its audience reach by 5 per cent in 2016 across its news, sport and entertainment brands to 3.2m. Its digital audience grew 19 per cent.
NZME had maintained circulation and had increased readership with strategies such as the relaunch of the Herald on Sunday lifestyle magazine to focus on Travel, Boggs said.
The company lifted its native video stream by 65 per cent over the year, which had been helped by NZ Herald Focus, its video content service. “This has contributed to really pleasing digital revenue growth of 24 per cent in FY 2016, largely driven by mobile and video growth across nzherald. co. nz, supported by exciting new platforms such as watchme. co. nz.” Boggs said the merger proposal between NZME and Fairfax remained subject to regulatory and shareholder approval. A final decision by the Commerce Commission i s expected on March 15. If the merger is approved, a shareholder meeting will be held in early June to vote on the merger with a view to completing it by June 30.
If it is rejected, the company said the parties would consider their next steps.
Boggs said the focus for this year would be on improving shareholder value through further growing audience reach, retaining revenue in print and ensuring radio returned to growth.
“Our focus is very similar to what we have done over the last year. Firstly continuing to grow our audience reach — so that just means we have got to be producing great content every day.
“We want to grow new revenue streams across the company while managing our costs and capital really well.”
NZME will pay a final dividend of 6c a share.