News Corp has collected its $36 million Christmas present, with possession of a package of newspapers, websites and advanced print technology.
At a price which approximates to two years' profits, APN News & Media's 12 Australian daily and 60 community publications were handed over three days after Christmas, following ACCC and foreign investment regulatory approval.
The profitable business - which doesn't fit into APN's aspirations as a radio and outdoor media company - retains its current head, with former chief executive Neil Monaghan elevated to a new role as News' managing director of regional media.
Monaghan came to the newspaper industry in November 2000 from materials control and procurement roles in Papua New Guinea, South Africa, Queensland and Indonesia. He joined APN as procurement general manager and - with the exception of five years with then parent Independent News & Media in Dublin, and a year with SNC-Lavalin in Gladstone - has been there ever since. Rejoining in 2010, he was appointed group operations director in August 2011 and chief executive of Australian Regional Media in April 2013.
In September, News said it expected that about 300 jobs would be lost as a result of "back office synergies" - equivalent to about a quarter of the 1200 APN ARM workforce - but News later said the number might be reduced. Cuts would come in two phases, one following the acquisition, and another when News had more time to assess operations across regional Queensland and northern NSW. No titles would be closed "provided they remain profitable".
That publishing footprint extends from Coffs Harbour in northern NSW - where its Advocate adjoins the regional territory of Fairfax Media's Port Macquarie News - to Airlie Beach in tropical Queensland. Reaching more than 1.5 million consumers, it has been an innovative player in the market, with digitally-printed personalised editions under the Brand Extra label a part of its targeted multi-platform offering.
There are some gems in the portfolio, among them my local, the Sunshine Coast Daily and its biweekly stablemate, the Noosa News, both of which sport regular glossy property supplements each week. I like to see its affluent market as a bellwether: Consolidation brought the loss of a competitor when Fairfax sold APN the Noosa Citizen with its Gympie Times, but with the Citizen's closure, new competitors have appeared with Michael Hannan's Weekender (sold with IPMG's other magazines to News and closed), Noosa Journal (launched by Lindsay Bock and bought and later closed by News), and currently the "independent" Noosa Today (which belongs to Melbourne suburban publisher Star News).
Another strong daily is the Toowoomba Chronicle, which APN had previously owned in partnership with a consortium of local retailers, and there are more to the north in Bundaberg (News-Mail), Gladstone (Observer) and Rockhampton (Morning Bulletin) - the city in which Cameron O'Reilly, son of then APN owner Tony O'Reilly, cut his newspaper teeth - their fortunes rising and falling with the state of mining and rural sectors.
History has seen Brisbane and the Gold Coast become progressively News territory with metro daily the Courier-Mail - which knocked out a daily competitor in the early 1990s - and its Gold Coast Bulletin and Quest suburbans. The former APN regional group publishes the daily Queensland Times in the increasingly satellite city of Ipswich - and overlaps News in Caboolture/Bribie, northern bayside, Logan and south west Brisbane - areas in which some "consolidation" is to be expected - while the titles Fairfax recently acquired in Beaudesert and fast-growing Jimboomba fall inconveniently between the city and News' Bulletin territory.
One undesirable result of the merger is that it pitches News - where competition is cultural, almost pathological - against Fairfax in more areas, while APN and Fairfax had been able to quietly coexist.
Newspapers, websites and talent apart, News Corp is getting a lot of kit for its cash, with a sophisticated print centre in Yandina on the Sunshine Coast, and now just two others in Warwick and Rockhampton.
At Yandina, a heatset manroland Uniset tower is linked to a coldset Regioman 4-1, capable of running a hybrid product or with multiple folders, in separate production. Single-width Manugraph presses are in use at Rockhampton and Warwick, the latter - where APN had retained a sheetfed facility after closing an old Harris V15 web press - relocated last year from Ballina to permit the closure of the Toowoomba print site. Between them, the three sites - the last remaining of a network which quite recently also included Ipswich, Bundaberg and Mackay - cope with the group's production, with the help of impressive timing, logistics... and a lot of trucking.
The APN logo is still appearing in newspaper imprints, signage has yet to come down, and websites remain to be updated, but the holiday period has seen a historic transition, the consequences of which remain to be seen.
Peter Coleman
Pictured: The Warwick offices, the edge-of-town print site where a relocated press was installed last year, and (inset) a 1980 plaque echoes the newspaper's past
On our homepage: A promotional picture for the Mackay Daily Mercury is still on the APN website - "we're all connected" it boasts