Old media foes need to work together in fragmented market, says APN chief

APN chief executive Michael Miller.

APN News and Media chief executive Michael Miller says traditional enemies in the newspaper business will have to work together to maintain growth as the media market fragments.

Miller was in Auckland this week and promoting a positive financial result for the year to December 31.

Net profit was up 27 per cent on the same period a year earlier. The share price on Friday closed at 88c cents on the NZX against a 52-week low of 45 cents.

Miller talked about closer collaboration, including with traditional rivals like Fairfax Media and even with global social media organisations like Google, Facebook and Twitter.

APN and Fairfax now share printing facilities. APN bought Perth radio station 96FM from Fairfax and it is in talks with Fairfax around other initiatives.

Miller says with limited newspaper competition in individual markets - APN is focused on Auckland and the north while Fairfax on the southern part of the country - Fairfax is more often a partner than a rival.

Likewise Miller said he viewed social media firms like Facebook and Twitter as offering opportunities. In commercial radio however, there is a sharper edge to competition. APN New Zealand's arm NZME. and rival MediaWorks are both considering stock market floats.

APN last year picked up the 50 per cent of its radio assets that had been owned by the US firm Clear Channel, leading to closer ties through NZME. with its newspaper operations led by the NZ Herald.

As the New Zealand division integrates radio with newspapers MediaWorks is integrating radio with its TV operations, such as TV3.

An industry-backed radio survey has been cancelled, the cross industry advertising clearing house The Radio Bureau is under threat and relations between the two media firms are strained.

Miller insists APN does not want to undermine the co-operative institutions of the industry.

The prospect of the two media firms going head-to-head with floats this year has now gone. Miller this week announced APN had delayed consideration of a float of NZME. for 12 months.

The announcement confirmed what the market had deduced - that the company was going through a period of change and it was too soon to judge the results.

"We received good feedback," Miller said. "But they needed to see results rather than strategy."

New initiatives launched last year would start to have a material financial impact this year, he said.

Miller still believes there are challenges ahead and evidence of that was a report that agency spending in New Zealand was down significantly last year.

He said there was a growing trend for advertising to be delivered across a range of media channels.