“Cooked” is a term commonly used by Australian journalists when reflecting on the current state of the industry. There is an abiding sense of unease in every major newsroom, not helped by continuing inflation driving down an already soft advertising market. Some companies, like Seven West Media, are more exposed than others to these challenges — but Nine’s recent mass layoffs show no-one is safe.
So how cooked is the media industry? In this instalment of Crikey’s Paint By Numbers, we bring you the key data points so you can figure it out yourself.
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Value of the newspaper market in Australia in 2014: $3.9 billion
Projected value of the newspaper market in Australia in 2025: $2.38 billion
Drop in advertising revenue in 2023: 11% (the biggest single-year drop in history)
Drop in consumption of print news since 2016: 21%
Proportion of people who don’t pay for any news and say they never will: 57%
Proportion of people who say they often, sometimes or occasionally avoid news: 68%
Proportion of people experiencing “news fatigue”: 41% (up 13% since 2019)
Proportion of Gen Zs interested in politics: 28% (down 6% from 2023)
Number of jobs affected by Nine Entertainment’s job cuts announced last month: up to 200
Proportion of company earnings Nine’s publishing division contributed last year: 28%
Amount Nine Entertainment spent on securing the broadcast rights to the next three Olympic Games: $305 million
Drop in Nine’s profits last year: 40%
Drop in Nine’s market cap in the past year: $1.157 billion
Amount of time Peter Costello served as chairman of Nine before resigning after allegedly assaulting a working journalist: 8 years
Number of 2024 Digital News Report respondents who trust The Daily Telegraph: 42% (the lowest of any brand surveyed)
The reported rate of distrust in Australian media outlets: 33%
Reported trust in news in 2018: 50%
Reported trust in news in 2023: 43%
Reported trust in news in 2024: 40%
The total value of the cost cuts at News Corp Australia amid its recent major corporate restructure: $65 million
The number of jobs cut by News Corp in 2023: 1,250
The total value of the attempted cost cuts at Seven West Media: $100 million
The number of jobs under threat at Seven West as part of the cuts: 150
The number of jobs set to be lost from Seven West’s new masthead The Nightly: Zero
The drop in Seven West Media’s profits last year: 53%
The drop in Seven West Media’s share price in the past year: 55.9%
The approximate weekday circulation of The Australian Financial Review in Western Australia — that is, before Seven West jacked the printing price up and forced Nine to withdraw: 2,000
