the death of fairfax, page-24

Polpak you are correct that niche publications have a much better chance of survival than broad-interest newspapers that try to be all things to all people.

The internet fragments readership. Nobody goes to one site for all their news, as they did with a newspaper.

But worse, what actually made the papers profitable was the ad revenue. In Fairfax's case, chiefly it was the classifieds. Which have evaporated. Gone to Seek and Carsales.com.au and realestate.com.au. Domain is hanging on to some of the real estate, but that's about it.

They still have display advertising revenue in the papers, which isn't nearly enough but is something, but even that doesn't work well once it all moves online. How often do you click on an ad on the internet?

And while looking at today's results, consider it at least includes about $60m in revenue from what was left of Trade Me before they flogged it off. They won't have that revenue stream next financial year at all. What will replace it?