Australia Roundup: Fairfax And Telstra’s Digital Media Focus; MySpace AU; Seven’s Earnings; Govt. Fu

Some more news out of Australia:
Fairfax Holdings Changes Name To Fairfax Media: Australian media group John Fairfax Holdings, owner of The Age and publisher of The Sydney Morning Herald, will now call itself Fairfax Media as it seeks to rebrand itself as an integrated online and publishing company. Fairfax CEO David Kirk defended the loss of audience from its print publications to online, saying more people were reading Fairfax’s content than ever before. Merrill Lynch expects the online operation, Fairfax Digital, to contribute 20 per cent of the group’s earnings before interest and tax by 2008, which “would improve its earnings profile significantly”.
Telestra’s Media Makeover: This should be among the most interesting development in Australia media-telecom sphere: what kind of media company would Telstra make, and if Parliament passes the Federal Government’s proposed changes to the media laws, would Telstra seek to merge or take over other media companies?
Localisation boosts users of MySpace: MySpace, which just launched a site in Autralia, has more than doubled the local sign-up rate to its social networking website following its recent localization: jumped from 3,000 users a day to 7,000 since the launch two weeks ago, MySpace Australia director of marketing and content Rebekah Horne said. There were now 1.2 million Australian MySpace users, she said. MySpace was working on a mobile application due for release before the end of the year, she said.
Seven Network’s JV With Yahoo In Profits: So says Seven’s latest earnings report: In January, Seven and Yahoo formed the Yahoo!7 joint venture…the new company, into which it has contributed AU$16 million to match existing development capital, is profitable and cashflow positive and delivers to Seven a key platform for the company’s further development beyond broadcast TV and magazines publishing.
Government cuts funding for digital media: Australian government is going to axe half of its export funding for the industry through the Austrade TradeStart program…this comes only five months after the government announced its vision to double local digital content production over the next decade. This will result in the closure of Australian Interactive Media Industry Association’s Queensland office, currently servicing export clients in South Australia, Western Australia, the Northern Territory, and Queensland. Delivery of export services nationally will now be consolidated to a single Sydney office with half the number of staff and funding.

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