Misreported facts on AFR.com
The Australian misreported the facts on AFR.com (The Australian, Media, 4/9/08). "AFR.com was relaunched twice last year and Fairfax chief executive David Kirk said the website was not attracting enough subscribers," the Australian said. "But while other news sites have moved to make more of their content free, AFR.com has stuck with its pay model ..."
Just the facts:
Here is what David Kirk said at the annual results briefing for analysts on August 21: "AFR.com performance was particularly pleasing. The business continues on the journey of becoming a multimedia business and AFR.com is really starting to find its legs. The business grew in all important metrics, retail and corporate subscriptions, unique browsers, PIs, time on site, advertising revenue, and we're very satisfied with that."
And one more fact:
News Corp, when it acquired the Wall Street Journal in 2007, looked at whether wsj.com should be made a free site, but ultimately decided to keep the subscription model -- following the route consistently adhered to by AFR.com.
