No More Free News For All. A Study of How the Business Models of Fairfax and APN Have Evolved Towards Paywalls
type: CreativeWork
description: The thesis critically examines how the business models of trans-Tasman media corporations Fairfax and APN evolved towards online news commodification - paywalls - from 2004 to 2013. The research analysis, grounded in the critical political economy of communication tradition, examines how the digitalisation of media, and financialisation of media ownership, contributed to the commodification of online news content. The research is exploratory in nature, and utilises case study, document and content analysis methods. The relevant data were mainly gathered from Fairfax's and APN's 2004-2013 annual reports, and other financial documents. Digitalisation fundamentally changed the patterns of news production, consumption and delivery, and this affected APN's and Fairfax's print reliant business models. In 2012, their revenue structures entered crisis as their ability to commodify news substantially weakened. The companies gained in financial ownership, and this intensified their profit imperatives. As a consequence, both companies launched plans for online news commodification. In 2013, Fairfax introduced paywalls for its Australian general newspapers The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald. This thesis finds that Fairfax and APN failed to transform their revenue models from a print to a digital environment from 2004 to 2013. In 2013, only 14 per cent of Fairfax's, and three per cent of APN's total income came from digital sources. Additionally, in 2014 only two per cent of Fairfax's total income came from paywalls, and therefore the findings confirm that they don't offer a viable business model for the company in the long term. There were, however, differences in APN's and Fairfax's paywall strategies. This suggests that multiple factors, including the size and structure of a media market need to be considered when evaluating news publishers' paywall strategies. The thesis also evaluates how paywalls might affect the realisation of public sphere principles. The introduction…
abstract: The thesis critically examines how the business models of trans-Tasman media corporations Fairfax and APN evolved towards online news commodification - paywalls - from 2004 to 2013. The research analysis, grounded in the critical political economy of communication tradition, examines how the digitalisation of media, and financialisation of media ownership, contributed to the commodification of online news content. The research is exploratory in nature, and utilises case study, document and content analysis methods. The relevant data were mainly gathered from Fairfax's and APN's 2004-2013 annual reports, and other financial documents. Digitalisation fundamentally changed the patterns of news production, consumption and delivery, and this affected APN's and Fairfax's print reliant business models. In 2012, their revenue structures entered crisis as their ability to commodify news substantially weakened. The companies gained in financial ownership, and this intensified their profit imperatives. As a consequence, both companies launched plans for online news commodification. In 2013, Fairfax introduced paywalls for its Australian general newspapers The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald. This thesis finds that Fairfax and APN failed to transform their revenue models from a print to a digital environment from 2004 to 2013. In 2013, only 14 per cent of Fairfax's, and three per cent of APN's total income came from digital sources. Additionally, in 2014 only two per cent of Fairfax's total income came from paywalls, and therefore the findings confirm that they don't offer a viable business model for the company in the long term. There were, however, differences in APN's and Fairfax's paywall strategies. This suggests that multiple factors, including the size and structure of a media market need to be considered when evaluating news publishers' paywall strategies. The thesis also evaluates how paywalls might affect the realisation of public sphere principles. The introduction…
author: Myllylahti, Merja Hannele
keywords: Paywalls, Digital news business models, Digital news commodification, Paid digital content, Financialisation of media, Digital subscriptions
date published: 2015
date modified: 2026-07-27T18:45:59Z
provider: AUT University
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: AUT University