News Ltd dominance laid bare at Senate

The Australian newspaper landscape was laid bare at the Senate hearing that may pave the way for a potential Royal Commission into the lack of diversity in the market.

According to figures provided by Ibis World, News Corp Australia has a 53.4 per cent share of the nation’s newspaper market, dwarfing rival publishers.

Nine has 15.7 per cent, Australian Community Media 10.8 per cent, Seven West 6.1 per cent, and the rest taking up 14.1 per cent.

However, senior News Corp and Nine execs were not convinced by the figures, and asked the committee if market share was measured in circulation, revenue or audience.

Both Nine and News argued that diversity could not be measured by ownership, with Nine CEO Hugh Marks saying journalistic independence was the key measure.

The Ibis World report forecasts that the newspaper publishing industry will contract by 2.8 per cent a year over the next five years, with employment set to contract further, by three per cent a year until 2025, leaving the industry with 9400 employees.

The Australian regional and community publishing sector was savaged last year, with in excess of 100 newspapers closing permanently, and dozens more moving to online-only platforms. Printing plants were closed or sold. Nine has no print facility of its own, and ACM only has four of the nine sites it inherited when it bought the business, and is looking to offload them all. News Ltd is currently building a new greenfiled print site on the outskirts of Melbourne, which will print virtually all newspapers published in Victoria when it is completed.