Survival of the fittest: Media s toughest year in decades
Survival of the fittest: Media s toughest year in decades
Normal text size
Advertisement
The Australian media sector entered 2020 already in a mild state of crisis. With traditional advertising models already smashed by the growth of the digital giants, only the most strategic and well-run players were looking forward to a prosperous year when the smoke of the summer fires started clearing in late January.
Then the COVID-19 pandemic ripped away huge swathes of revenue, forced overnight changes to the way newsrooms and production houses operated, and as the nation plunged into recession every media company made drastic changes to their cost bases and broader business structures. Plans for takeovers and mergers were quickly replaced by capital raisings and restructures for survival.