This was published 1 year ago
News Corp formalises Google and Facebook deals, announces hiring spree
By Zoe Samios
The executive chairman of Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp Australia has confirmed the company has formalised payments from tech giants Google and Facebook as he announced plans to hire a further 100 editorial staff.
Michael Miller declined to comment on any future strategic plans for the local owner of The Australian, The Daily Telegraph and The Herald Sun or whether the company would use money from the $US1 billion ($1.3 billion) in debt raised by the global parent company last month for local acquisitions. He said any assets acquired locally would be determined by what audiences were willing to pay for.
News Corp Australasia chairman Michael Miller said the new roles were born from readers’ appetite for more local news.Credit:Jessica Hromas
“We’ve always evolved with a variety of assets and without wanting to flag any of our future plans ... a greater proportion of revenues for our businesses are consumer-led, rather than client-led,” Mr Miller said.
“That is consistent with consumers’ preparedness to pay for a variety of services and it’s not just news media but entertainment media. There’s digital delivery, consumer revenues becoming a greater portion of our portfolio, but you do have to have a number of varying revenue streams so you are able to move as different audience movements and client movements occur.”
Mr Miller announced on Friday News Corp Australia would create 100 new editorial roles, including 30 cadet positions and 20 positions across digital local and regional mastheads.
The roles are predominantly digital-focused in areas such as audio and video journalism. However, all journalists who are hired will focus on topics that News Corp believes are most interesting to readers, such as sport and regional news. At the same time, News Corp will also trial weekly print editions of the Sunshine Coast Daily and Mackay’s Daily Mercury.
Many local newspapers ceased publication last year following a strategic review by News Corp.
Mr Miller said the roles were being created because of readers’ appetite to pay for local news. He would not say how the new roles would be funded, but indicated Google and Facebook had provided some assistance.
Google and Facebook struck non-binding agreements for use of news articles with several media companies including News Corp, Nine Entertainment Co (owner of this masthead) and Seven West Media earlier this year. The deals were made after the federal government introduced new laws that attempted to force tech giants into commercial negotiations with media companies. The amount News Corp is receiving from Google and Facebook is not public, but Mr Miller confirmed the deals were now complete. Seven West Media confirmed their contracts were signed last week.
“We have moved beyond the signing phase with Google and Facebook,” he said when asked whether the deals had progressed beyond a non-binding letter of understanding. “We will transition to the Google platforms in the coming three months - it started a week ago with some initial publishing onto Showcase and then June...on the Facebook News tab.
“[The hires] are really a response to people’s preparedness to subscribe to local, state, national journalism and the brands which they know well. Google and Facebook give us a foundation but they don’t form our strategy,” he added. “Audiences and their response to journalism informed the strategy.”
“It was a definitely a period of uncertainty... but also it was a period of time where if were to make a change, that was the time to make it.”
Michael Miller, News Corp Australasia executive chairman
The investment in local journalism is in stark contrast to News Corp’s position this time last year when it shut more than 100 print publications as the coronavirus pandemic put financial pressure on the company. The decision, which was made in an attempt to shift the company to reading and subscribing to news online, affected up to 1000 jobs.
“It was a definitely a period of uncertainty... but also it was a period of time where if we were to make a change, that was the time to make it,” Mr Miller said.
”What we’ve learned over the past 12 months is [there is] a strong appetite amongst Australians for local news. Bringing that demand for hyper-local news together with Australian’s ability to pay for good journalism...we’ve seen a bigger than expected response to our delivery.“
Mr Miller’s comments came as he tried to squash rumours of a tie-up between News Corp or its pay TV company Foxtel with Seven West Media. There is widespread industry speculation about future ways to grow media companies in Australia in the absence of large amounts of advertising dollars.
News Corp announced last month it would raise more $US1 billion in debt from the private market for corporate purposes including mergers and acquisitions. Mr Miller said any use of that money for local acquisitions was a question for the financial investment team in New York.
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