Nic Cola, the Director of News, Information and Entertainment from Fairfax Digital is the keynote speaker for today (I’m the one for tomorrow, gulp!)

The Scoop on Digital News
Fairfax is the largest producer of digital news in the Australia and New Zealand region. News on the Internet isn’t any different; you still have to aggregate people around news and interests. Fairfax runs quite a portfolio of brands across diverse interests.

Second time lucky … the show reel / movie worked (it’s probably somewhere online, but I don’t know where).

Services include:

• domain.com.au, for property.
• drive.com.au, an automotive brand. Moved during 2006 from classified into an online magazine.
• rsvp.com.au, an online dating site. Over 800,000 users.
• mycareer.com.au, an online employment site. Includes a strong recommendation engine.
• stayz.com.au, for holiday property owners enabling them to rent their holiday homes.
• Others include The Age

Major changes in recent years:

• Media habits are changing. Rapid evolution of devices.
• Media consumption has increased, but the daily news cycle has fragmented. There are different patterns in media usage Monday-Friday from Saturday and Sunday.
• Online advertising revenues experience outstanding growth.
• Expect that online advertising revenues will exceed magazines in 2006, and newspapers in 2016.
• A big driver for change has been increased broadband penetration in the home. This has brought about a new user habit … such as video views at home.
• These changes are forcing Fairfax to think differently. 10-15 years ago they were a “newspaper company”, but now it’s a “media company”. How do we get our content in any format to any device?
• Part of thinking differently is extending brands from “quality newspaper journalism” to “quality journalism per se” to any devices.
• All of these changes has resulted in increased and incremental revenue. They have a much stronger business, and a set of much stronger brands.

Examples of Thinking and Working Differently

• The Tsunami … Took a multi-media approach to the Tsunami. Would have traditionally just used text, but instead filed reportage via audio, pictures, movies, blog posts and more.
• Iraq … Able to use video clips and voice-overs to portray the story from Iraq.
• Beaconsfield (miners caught underground) … new text stories every day, audio, blog from the site, video from the site, and more. Again, very differently from the old way of telling the story.
• British Airways flight that was forced down. Asked readers if they had any insights, videos or photos about the flight. Were able to report on details that otherwise wouldn’t have been reported.
• NewsBreak is a news aggregator with an Australia point of view and using only the best sources.
• Mobile … an attractive channel for reaching the 16-24 year old demographic. Provides a new revenue stream. Currently offers free and for-fee mobile news services (eg, $4/month for subscription to The Age)
• Using content to connect audiences and advertisers. Eg, Alan Kohler podcast on economics and market moves; have 10,000+ subscribers. Eg2, Jack Marx blog which provides an irreverant take on the news; one of the most read blogs on the site.
• Getting a cut of online transactions is proving to be lucrative. Eg, high yield and displays ads on the front page; purchasing archived articles; make a transaction through a managed fund discount broker.
• Thinking through whether Fairfax can charge for content. Eg, the NYTimes Select subscription service is very interesting (180,000 new paying subscribers in 5 months.

What’s Happened to Readership?
Online readership now outpaces most of the print publications. Have found new customers. Has increased revenues.

Questions from the Audience
Q1. Any cannabilisation of print readership vs. online? (Liz)
Don’t see a lot of this. Have introduced new people to the print, but overall there’s been a huge gain to the business.

Q2. Is Fairfax going to put more money into New Zealand brands?
Fairfax Media puts the Internet at the heart of its strategy (eg, TradeMe investment); you should see more investment in the local NZ market. Will leverage the Australian learnings and work.

Q3. How do we prove an ROI for online advertising? How differentiated should online advertising be?
Differentiation requires that you are clear about your goals for the product. Expects to see more unique opportunities, such as content integration.

Q4. Have you embraced Web accessibility guidelines, eg, for speech readers? (Jo)
Yes, it is important in our thinking. We “want to make” all of our content accessible to all readers. Try not to make all pages too heavy. Also have to balance this with the tradeoff that 80-90% ofpeople come over broadband.

Q5. When will web sites compete for the 6pm news scoop? (Julian)
It’s already happened. People have been informed online mainly during the last year. Fewer and fewer people are setting an appointment for the 6pm news.

Q6. How do you decide where to put perishable scoops? (Sarah)
If it’s perishable and will get online ASAP, we’ll race to get it online first. If it’s a big unique, we’ll probably go for print first.

Q7. Are people more willing to pay for online content? (Ernie)
Paid access to online content in the US is higher than advertising revenues. People are willing to pay for things that will entertain them or save them time.

Q8. How does TradeMe/Fairfax NZ fit into the structure? (Mark)
Today, TradeMe is a different business. In the future, Nic can’t say.

Q9. Where are people physically located in the office?
In the near-term, will have a 24×7 online news desk. The news editor will ensure the right content goes online. Then have an editor for each product who can choose what news they chase for each medium.

Q10. What are the major barriers to entry to consumers transacting online? (Alan)
Don’t believe there are differences between Australia and New Zealand. Australia is ahead of the curve, however. Barriers are fairly simple: (a) perceptions of security online, (b) speed of access (but probably more always-on vs. always-fast), (c) usability (90% of web sites have really, really bad usability).