The West & Sunday Times/PerthNow Are Getting Together
The West Australian is going to takeover PerthNow and The Sunday Times, leaving Perth’s online newsrooms consolidated into just a handful of players.
Today Kerry Stokes’ Seven West Media (owners of ‘The West Australian’ and Channel 7) announced they are in advanced negotiations to buy ‘The Sunday Times’ and PerthNow.com.au from Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp.
“We see the potential for a positive and growing future for The Sunday Times brand, which has been and will continue to be part of the fabric of this great State,” Tim Worner, CEO of Seven West Media said.
There was no indication what would happen to PerthNow.com.au – which directly competes with TheWest.com.au.
Will PerthNow be shut down or will it be integrated into the West?
The deal leaves Perth’s media landscape more concentrated and far less diverse.
Now one major publisher will own the diminishing print news landscape. News Corp will presumably hold onto ownership of Community Newspaper Group. These consolidation moves for print media seem to be inevitable, given the declining circulation of print. But for online news, it might be a blow.
Fairfax will still own WAToday, while the only other major newsroom in Perth servicing the local online community will be the ABC in East Perth.
The business deal will be reviewed by the ACCC.
Other players like 6PR and FM radio stations run small newsroom operations. Nine News and Ten News offer content from their broadcasts on social media, plus occasional online video to tease their bulletins. Independent players like this network (SoPerth/TweetPerth) will continue to grow in the meantime and service Perth with news and information.
More information as we get it.
Perth leading the way on media diversity pic.twitter.com/jNqsMjqDP7
— Josh Jerga (@josh_jerga) May 27, 2016
