News Corp invests $billions in UK print – news commentary by Andy McCourt

Delaware is the state that attracts global headquarters due to its liberal corporate governance laws and beneficial tax opportunities. Over 50 per cent of companies listed on the New York Stock Exchange are headquartered in Delaware; the so-called ‘First State’ nestled between NYC and Washington.

Whilst News Corp’s exit from the local share market strips about seven per cent from the index it is likely that very little difference will be seen in the company’s local newspaper operations. News Corp is by far the major newspaper publisher in the country with such titles as The Australian, The Telegraph and a phalanx of newspapers around Australasia, plus book publisher Harper Collins. News is also deeply involved in non-print media via its Fox cable asset.

Internationally, News owns prime media such as the UK’s The Times and Sun. The Times has just announced it is going tabloid after nearly two centuries as a broadsheet. Still in the UK, News has announced its planned exit from the infamous Wapping site to a greenfield site outside of London. The one-billion-pound plus move includes over 20 MAN Roland Colorman XXL triple-width presses. These highly automated presses will run in a JDF environment that reduces staffing considerably.

Murdoch bullish on print

In Australia recently at the Caxton Awards held in Broome, Lachlan Murdoch delivered a resounding endorsement for the power of print in his address to the assembled advertising executives. “Print today is the most powerful and the most undervalued media for advertising,” he said. “Newspapers have an audience that even big, wild TV events can not match… whilst 71 per cent of people report being annoyed by TV commercials, only four per cent find newspaper ads annoying.” He concluded, “Sixty-six per cent of TV viewers aren’t even watching TV ads, they are doing something else at the time.”


My call

When the world’s largest diversified media concern puts its money where its mouth is and invests billions in the latest print technologies, you know you’re onto a good thing. Printing has survived a buffeting wrought by a new media – the internet – just as it survived radio, television, video and transcendental meditation.

People who leapt out of print’s bed and into the internet’s without rationalizing the whole thing have found infidelity has a big price. Those who have stuck with print, absorbed the internet, invested in technology and sharpened their business practices are again prospering. Advertisers are returning to print media, catalogues, flyers, glossy magazines.

News Corp’s position on printing exemplifies the essential nature of paper-based media in our universal consciousness. Its latest corporate moves will more than likely free up more capital for investment in print media.

Print will never disappear. It is changing, and rightly so. All humanity wants and needs printed products and values printed information above all else in terms of integrity and dependability.

A confirmation of the printing industry’s adaptability and versatility is staring you in the face with this very online bulletin. The internet meets print in a nexus of media power that is producing more opportunities for aware operators.

The Medium is the Message.

News Corp knows this well.