Graeme Samuel, Chairman of the ACCC, delivered an interesting speech at the Broadcasting and Media Congress this morning looking at the flurry of changes in media ownership. Much of what he discussed was about distribution. He started talking about how it was (is?) with the newspaper landing on the doorstep but quickly moved to the smorgasbord of options we have today. He is right to observe that the “Internet has turned distribution on its ear”. He said Australia will get a faster broadband service. This will increase the pace of change. Toward the end of the speech, Graeme Samuel asked a question which goes to the heart of newsagent concerns – “How relevant will it be to have two major newspaper publishers?” While he was talking in the context of media regulation and ownership changes, my interest was more one of how much the question sounds like game over for newspapers – certainly in terms of diversity and relevance.
It’s another reason newsagents need to plan today for this world where newspapers are not the habit they are today. Newsagents need to sit at the table with newspaper publishers with this perspective of a dramatically changed world and to have business plans which pursue traffic and margin outside the sale of newspapers (and magazines).
As Samuel told the audience this morning, the ACCC has published a discussion paper which provides guidance as to how future cross-media merger proposals might be assessed.