News Corp will buy a suite of regional newspapers from APN News & Media for $36.6m, giving Rupert Murdoch’s empire a stronger foothold in Queensland and northern New South Wales and a bigger slice of the nation’s media.
Under the deal yet to be approved by regulatory authorities, News Corp will take over 12 daily newspapers, including the 130-year-old Northern Star in Lismore and the Sunshine Coast Daily, as well as 60 community publications and 30 regional websites owned by APN’s Australian Regional Media.
APN is divesting its newspaper assets because it wants to concentrate on the radio and outdoor advertising side of the business.
The News Corp executive chairman, Michael Miller, a former CEO of APN News & Media, said the Australian Regional Media purchase gives the company access to another 1.6m people across print, online and mobile.
“We look forward to working with [the] ARM team to secure the purchase of these strong newspaper brands in the growing regional centres in Queensland where we currently don’t have a presence,” Miller said on Tuesday.
ARM’s printing facilities are also included in the deal, and should lead to “significant cost and efficiency synergies”, Miller said.
The chairman of APN, Peter Cosgrove, said it was a historic day for the company as some of the newspapers have been published for 150 years and have strong community roots.
“We are now passing that ownership on to another media group with deep publishing experience across regional Australia,” Cosgrove said.
The announcement follows a vote last week by APN News & Media shareholders to approve a demerger of its New Zealand assets, under which NZME (New Zealand Media and Entertainment) will be spun off as a separate business.
Last month NZME, which owns the New Zealand Herald, announced it was in merger talks with Fairfax Media, which owns the Dominion Post.
NZME also owns several North Island daily papers and several radio networks including Radio Sport, ZM and Newstalk ZB, while Fairfax owns the Press, the Sunday Star Times, several magazines including Cuisine, TV Guide and NZ House & Garden, and the popular website stuff.co.nz.
If the merger goes ahead New Zealand could be left with just one newspaper group.
Cosgrove said: “The future of APN looks bright. On the back of the NZME demerger that was overwhelmingly supported by our shareholders last week, we will be a more nimble media company purely focused on growing our media assets of radio and outdoor [advertising].”
ARM generated revenues of $188.5m in 2015.
The purchase comes weeks after News Corp announced it would close seven of its local Victorian newspapers at the end of the month, including the Melbourne Leader, the Berwick Leader, the Brimbank Leader, the Free Press Leader, the Hobsons Bay Leader, the Melton Leader and the Wyndham Leader.
While News is buying newspaper assets in the eastern states, it is also negotiating to sell its Perth Now website and the Sunday Times newspaper to the owner of the West Australian newspaper and Channel Seven, Kerry Stokes.
