1 week Ago
The print edition of Nine's Australian Financial Review will no longer be available in Western Australia after the Seven-owned printing facility doubled the price of producing the newspaper. Billionaire media mogul Kerry Stokes owns the only major newspaper printing press in the state and has contracts to print competitors' products, including the financial daily for Nine as well as The Australian for News Corp. However, the managing director of Nine Publishing, Tory Maguire, said the relationship is now over after Seven suddenly increased the price of printing for West Australian customers by 100% without explanation.
The Australian Financial Review, which has been sold in WA since 1951, will be available as a digital only product, afr.com, after the last edition comes out on 22 May. "This decision is specific to Western Australia and has no impact on our papers and magazines in the rest of the country," Maguire said.
The AFR claimed in a news report that Seven's decision to increase the price was motivated by Nine's coverage of Seven and its chairman Stokes as well as increased competition from Nine's local digital news offering. Maguire said notice of the price increase came on the same day Nine held an event to promote its free news site in the state, WA Today. Seven declined to answer specific question but a Seven spokesman said: "It is a commercial decision.
To suggest anything else would be inaccurate and disingenuous." Stokes owns the West Australian, the Sunday Times.
