(Photo: LinkedIn)
Australian Regional Media (ARM) – owners of the South Burnett Times and Central & North Burnett Times – is up for sale after parent company APN News & Media announced on Thursday it wants to offload its regional publishing business.
ARM posted a revenue decline of 7 per cent over the last 12 months, down from $202.1m to $188.5m.
ARM consists of 12 daily newspapers, more than 60 community and non-weekly publications and 30 regional news websites.
Chief executive Ciaran Davis told media there was already interest in the sale, which would allow APN to free up funds to focus on its growing outdoor advertising and radio businesses.
Mr Davis said it was early on in the sale process but there were a couple of “interested parties”.
He said there was no set timeframe for the sale.
“With opportunities to grow its revenues in radio and the out-of-home advertising market, APN cannot justify diverting money away from those areas into Australian Regional Media,” he said.
In the meantime, APN is continuing to invest in ARM to set it up for potential buyers.
Overall, APN posted a $10.2 million loss for the year, almost completely reversing the previous year’s $11.5 million profit.
Last year Roy Morgan Research reported that the total readership of APN’s weekday and Saturday issues fell by 11.9 per cent, with only the Gympie Times and Queensland Times making gains, between March 2014 and March 2015.
