The media company NZME has posted a jump in profit as advertising recovered despite the challenges posed by Covid-19.
NZME says its audiences now number 3.5 million across all its platforms. Photo: RNZ / Brad White
The New Zealand Herald and Newstalk ZB owner said advertising revenue was up 13 percent on the previous year, and overall digital revenue grew by 37 percent.
Audio advertising revenue increased 11 percent year-on-year and total radio audience market share increased 1.8 percentage points to 37.4 percent.
The company said it had more than 191,000 subscribers across print and digital for the NZ Herald, up from 169,000 in 2020.
The NZ Herald Premium news subscription service grew to 140,000 subscribers, including digital-only subscribers increasing to 83,000, up 54 percent year-on-year.
Key numbers (for the 12 months to 31 December 2021 vs a year ago):
- Net profit $34.4 million vs $14.5m
- Total revenue $365.6m $335.2m
- Underlying profit $66m vs 66m
- Dividend 5 cents per share vs nil
Chief executive Michael Boggs said he was proud of the performance, despite a difficult trading environment.
"We grew our audience reach to 3.5 million across our platforms and achieved strong financial results, growing revenue across NZME's three strategic pillars: audio, publishing and OneRoof," he said.
The lockdown in Auckland during the second half of the year created challenges, but advertising remained resilient, Boggs said.
"Our commitment to putting customers first, especially through these challenging times, resulted in a strong finish to the year with November and December 2021 advertising revenue exceeding 2019 levels as customers utilised NZME's platforms to build their own brands."
The company's underlying profit remained in line with 2020.
Looking ahead for 2022, NZME said the impact of the the Omicron outbreak continued to develop and given the cooling housing market and growing inflationary pressures, businesses were cautious in their marketing approach.
But despite the uncertainty, advertising revenue was tracking above 2021, with the first quarter of this year tracking 4 percent above the last year.
The company also continued talks with Facebook and Google over supporting its editorial content.
It said to date, neither tech giant had provided offers in line with those achieved by media businesses in Australia, once adjusted for New Zealand's smaller market and audience size.
NZME anticipated a decision from the Commerce Commission regarding provisional authorisation to begin collective bargaining in the first week of March 2022.