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APN and INM

Overview

This profile considers Australian Provincial Newspapers (APN), Australian Radio Network (ARN) and Independent News & Media (INM), controlled by the O'Reilly family.

It covers -

  • introduction
  • INM in the UK, Eire and South Africa
  • New Zealand and Wilson & Horton
  • APN newspaper, radio and other operations
  • studies

There is a supplementary profile for its Wilson & Horton (W&H) subsidiary, with publishing, radio, printing and outdoor advertising interests in New Zealand.

Introduction

APN is Australasia's largest operator in regional newspapers, radio broadcasting and outdoor advertising, with interests in pay television and digital media.

APN's largest shareholder (with a stake of around 40.7%) is Dublin-based Independent News & Media PLC (INM), the international media group controlled by the O'Reilly family.

APN and INM embrace over 200 newspaper and magazine titles, radio and outdoor advertising in Australia and New Zealand, and outdoor advertising operations in South Africa, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore, with turnover of €1.5 billion, gross assets of €3.4 billion and employment of 11,700 people worldwide.

Turnover €m 2001 2002
Ireland 370 365
UK 248 231
South Africa 161 136
Australasia 560 577

Op Profit €m 2001 2002
Ireland 73 75
UK 17 20
South Africa 22 19
Australasia 116 118

Tony O'Reilly ran the Heinz food giant while building personal holdings that embraced investments, property, the media and companies such as Waterford crystal. He is reported to be the largest individual shareholder in Heinz, with a 2% stake.

The O'Reilly family is believed to have around 28% of INM, 27% of Waterford Wedgwood, 44% of Arcon mining, 6% of Eire phone company Eircom and other investments. A stake in funds management company Lockwood Financial was for example sold to the Bank of New York in 2002 for an estimated US$60m.

A chronology of INM and APN is here.

INM

Independent Newspapers publishes the Irish Independent (the daily broadsheet with the highest sales figures in Eire), two of the six national Sunday newspapers (Sunday Independent and Sunday World), Eire's only national evening newspaper, around 15% of provincial papers in Eire and Northern Ireland and the Irish edition of the Daily Star.

In all, around 78% of Irish newspapers sold in Ireland in 1998 came from companies that are fully/partly owned by INM. It is a 50% shareholder in Chorus (formerly Princes Holdings), Eire's second largest cable/MDS television company.

The group owns the loss-making Independent and Independent on Sunday and several provincial papers in the UK, along with a 48% stake in mobile phone operator iTouch.

Prior to 2003, when it sold the titles to Gannett subsidiary Newsquest, it was the largest publisher of weekly paid-for regional newspapers in the Greater London area, with 23 paid-for and 21 free weekly papers and the largest recruitment magazine business in London, along with significant exhibition and recruitment fair operations.

In October 2003 it disposed of a 19.1% stake in Lusomundo Media, Portugal's largest newspaper publisher with Jornal de Noticias, the leading Portugese daily newspaper, and Diario de Noticias, the third largest newspaper.

Holdings in South Africa include the largest newspaper group (with a 60% share of English language newspaper readership and 64% of metropolitan newspaper readership). The holdings were formerly part of Argus group. Publications include The Star in Johannesburg, the Cape Times, Cape Argus and Weekend Argus in Cape Town, the Natal Mercury, Daily News and Sunday Tribune in Durban, The Friend in Bloemfontein, the Diamond Fields Advertiser in Kimberley, Business Report and Personal Finance.

It has a joint venture with Advance subsidiary Conde Nast to publish South African editions of magazines such as Vogue, a 50% stake in financial publisher Worth and a 17.8% stake in Johannesburg-based Kaya FM.

New Zealand

Other INM operations in the Australian region included Wilson & Horton (W&H), a New Zealand newspaper and magazine publisher with commercial printing and radio broadcasting interests, notably 33% of The Radio Network (TRN), NZ's largest commercial operator with 53 stations and more than 50% of advertising revenue. W&H was sold by INM to APN in 2001. Its history is described in a separate profile

W&H's The New Zealand Herald is the country's leading newspaper (with a daily circulation of approximately 215,000 and a 57% share of the metropolitan daily morning newspaper market).

W&H is New Zealand's largest regional publisher with a 58% market share, publishing eight paid-for regional daily newspapers and over thirty community newspapers. Its magazine publishing division includes two of New Zealand's leading magazines, the New Zealand Woman's Weekly and the New Zealand Listener.

APN holdings

APN claims to be Australia's largest publisher of regional newspapers, with 14 daily and more than 50 non-daily publications and a presence in specialist and educational publishing. It competes with Rural Press, carved out of the Fairfax empire, and Murdoch-controlled Queensland Press.

It is a major commercial radio broadcaster, with investments in 11 metropolitan radio stations in Australia and 55 radio stations in New Zealand. In Australia, APN and Clear Channel Communications of the US jointly operate the Australian Radio Network (ARN), which broadcasts to more than 3.5 million listeners each week.

ARN stations include -

  • WS FM - Sydney
  • MIX 106.5 - Sydney
  • Gold FM - Melbourne
  • MIX 101.1 - Melbourne
  • 4KQ - Brisbane
  • 5DN - Adelaide
  • MIX 102.3 - Adelaide

In New Zealand, ARN has a one third interest in The Radio Network (TRN), the leading commercial broadcaster with 55 stations.

APN's Pan TV is a joint venture between ARN, public sector broadcaster SBS and Australian Capital Equity. Its World Movies pay tv channel is distributed by the three pay tv carriers - Foxtel, Optus and Austar - and accessed by about 15% of pay tv homes.

APN's outdoor advertising holdings include Adshel Street Furniture (partnership with Clear Channel), Cody Outdoor and Australian Posters, the major billboard operator that's extended into advertising on the back of taxis. Its Buspak unit offers bus advertising in all Australian metropolitan markets and in Hong Kong.

Online businesses include the classifieds site checkout and the real estate site homehunter, with investments in B2B peakhour, mobile data service bureau itouch and WAP site builder Soprano Design.

Studies

The Player: The Life of Tony O'Reilly (London: Hodder & Stoughton 1994) by O'Reilly executive Ivan Fallon has not been superseded.

For The Independent see Paper Dreams: the Story of The Independent (London: Penguin 1993) by Stephen Glover and My Trade: a short history of British journalism (London: Macmillan 2004) by Andrew Marr.

Activity in Eire is explored in Irish Media: A Critical History since 1922 (London: Routledge 2001) by John Horgan, Media control in Ireland, 1923-1983 (Carbondale: Southern Illinois Uni Press 1985) by Kieran Woodman