written like an advertisement . please help improve it by removing promotional content and inappropriate external links and by adding encyclopedic content written from a neutral point of view . march 2016 learn how and when to remove this template message fairfax media limited type public company asx fxj industry media founded 1841 headquarters one darling island road pyrmont sydney area served australia new zealand key people greg hywood ceo nick falloon chairman products newspapers radio magazines internet revenue a 1.85 billion 13 august 2015 1 net income a 143.4 million 13 august 2015 1 number of employees 6 410 full time employees 1 211 part time and casual employees 24 june 2012 2 website www.fxj.com.au fairfax media limited asx fxj is one of the largest media companies in australia and new zealand with investment in newspaper magazines radio and internet . john fairfax purchased the sydney morning herald in 1841 and the family retained control of the business until late in the twentieth century . contents 1 products and divisions 2 history 2.1 1950s to 1999 2.2 2000 to 2009 2.3 2010 to present 3 properties 3.1 australia 3.1.1 newspapers 3.1.2 magazines 3.1.3 digital 3.1.4 syndication 3.2 new zealand 3.2.1 magazines 4 references 5 external links products and divisions edit fairfax has a portfolio of leading online products including the digital news brands smh.com.au an australian news site and afr.com a financial news site . the group also has leading online marketplaces including domain.com.au for real estate and drive.com.au for motors . the fairfax divisions cover australia media includes national brands the sydney morning herald 3 and the australian financial review 4 and metro titles the age in melbourne and the canberra times . life media and events a major events business and owner of australian lifestyle brands including goodfood ; 5 essential kids ; 6 essential baby 7 and traveller . 8 this also includes fairfax s joint venture drive 9 an online motors portal . domain group a digital real estate business containing domain.com.au online property portal apm pricefinder a property data business and mydesktop a saas platform for the real estate sector . digital ventures encompasses digital publisher allure media and partnerships with huffington post for huffpost australia and nine entertainment co. for stan the video streaming service . new zealand media including national brand stuff.co.nz and metro titles the dominion post in wellington and the press in christchurch . in 2014 fairfax entered into a joint venture partnership with nine entertainment co called streamco the creators behind australia s newest subscription video on demand service stan.com.au . fairfax has a 54.5 % interest in macquarie radio network asx mrn following the merger of fairfax s radio business with macquarie s in 2015 with the leading news talk and sport stations in sydney and melbourne . in 2015 fairfax media and the huffington post media group launched huffpost.com.au an australian edition of the huffington post . huffpost australia is the huffington post s 15th site in the brand s expanding global presence . in december 2015 automotive digital business 112 and fairfax s drive.com.au announced the formation of a 50 50 joint venture in the online motor sector . fairfax will license the drive brand and drive.com.au url to 112 which currently owns and operates themotorreport.com.au a unique independent online car buyer resource . the group s chairman is nick falloon 10 and the chief executive officer is greg hywood . 11 history edit fairfax media building at pyrmont nsw john fairfax purchased the sydney morning herald in 1841 . 12 several generations of the fairfax family continued to control the company . fairfax media was founded by the fairfax family as john fairfax and sons later to become john fairfax holdings . the fairfax family lost control of the company in december 1990 . it was renamed from john fairfax holdings to fairfax media in 2007 . 1950s to 1999 edit the australian financial review was founded in 1951 . in that decade fairfax started two television stations atn and qtq . fairfax began expanding in the 1960s acquiring among others the age the newcastle herald and the illawarra mercury . in 1979 rupert murdoch attempted to take over rival the herald and weekly times . due to the costs of defending the takeover fairfax sold its television properties including the seven network . in 1988 fairfax sold its magazines including woman s day people dolly and good housekeeping to australian consolidated press and discontinued its sydney afternoon tabloid the sun transferring some of its content and the sponsorship of the city to surf to its new sunday tabloid the sun herald which also replaced the broadsheet sunday herald . in 1987 warwick fairfax then aged 26 controversially bought out his family s holdings in the company by borrowing heavily . he successfully took it over ; but on 10 december 1990 the company collapsed and a receiver was appointed 13 with company debts of a 1.7 billion . 12 by 1993 the company was re listed on the australian stock exchange and the two biggest shareholders of john fairfax holdings were the canadian newspaper magnate conrad black and his hollinger group with 25 % and the australian media mogul kerry packer and his publicly listed company publishing and broadcasting limited with 15 % . due to australian government concerns over media consolidation that limited any single foreign shareholder holding more than 25 % interest in national and metropolitan newspapers 14 after intense lobbying for the right to increase his stake black conceded defeat in 1996 15 16 17 selling his holding to the new zealand corporate raider brierley investments that was ultimately subject to the same restrictions . 13 2000 to 2009 edit in april 2003 fairfax acquired the publishing assets of new zealand s independent newspapers limited news corp australia including many of new zealand s highest profile newspapers . in july 2005 fairfax acquired the rsvp dating site for a 38 million . 18 in august 2005 fairfax s general classifieds site created in march 2004 cracker.com.au consistently exceeded 500 000 unique visitors a month . citation needed in december 2005 fairfax acquired stayz pty ltd 19 for a 12.7 million . 20 this investment proved to be very successful as stayz was sold on 27 november 2013 for 220 million far exceeding its estimated net debt of 154 million . 20 in august 2005 fairfax ended its 16 month search for a new chief executive officer with david kirk a former rugby union world cup winning captain of the new zealand all blacks being appointed to replace departing ceo fred hilmer . david kirk got the job ahead of fairfax coo brian evans former head of fairfax new zealand and doug flynn who took the top job at uk pest control company rentokil after negotiations with fairfax broke off . in march 2006 fairfax acquired new zealand auction website trademe.co.nz for nz 700 million . citation needed on 4 march 2006 it was announced that fairfax would purchase the border mail newspaper in albury wodonga for a 162 million . in october 2006 speculation began to grow that the company would be bought out and split up after the passage of changes to australian media laws . rival media company news corp australia purchased a 7.5 per cent stake in the company at this time with the stated aim of keeping fairfax in one piece . citation needed on 7 december 2006 john fairfax holdings and rural press announced the beginning of their merger proceedings . once merged the new entity formed a publishing company worth a 9 billion and resulted in regaining control of the canberra times which it owned in the 1980s and through john b. fairfax of rural press saw the return of the fairfax family to the company board . the company also gained a number of other regional newspapers radio stations and websites ; plus agricultural publications in various countries . citation needed on 12 january 2007 john fairfax holdings changed its name to fairfax media . 21 on 7 march 2007 fairfax media announced a new website for brisbane called the brisbane times . the website initially employed 14 journalists and was an attempt by fairfax to break into the south east queensland market . citation needed on 20 march 2007 fairfax media launched a new business website businessday.com.au that aggregated feeds from the other news vehicles in the fairfax stable as well as from the world s most respected news sources . it featured breaking news updated every 15 minutes . citation needed also in 2007 fairfax media bought the radio assets of southern cross broadcasting . macquarie media group purchased southern cross for a 1.35 billion and onsold these assets to the fairfax group . 22 on 26 august 2007 kirk and deputy ceo brian mccarthy announced that 550 staff would be cut as part of a business improvement programme . the staff reductions would take place in both australia and new zealand with the latter country bearing the brunt of the cuts with 160 full time employees losing their jobs . 23 on 5 december david kirk tendered his resignation and on 10 december brian mccarthy former rural press ceo was appointed as ceo . a new campaign fair go fairfax don t discount journalism 24 was launched by the meaa citation needed in protest to the cuts arguing that the jobs losses will affect quality journalism . as of may 2008 fairfax media had a market capitalisation of over a 5 billion . 5 the number of printed edition readers has fallen since at least 2006 and the group s stock price has declined by more than 60 percent since 2007 to less than a 2 billion by september 2011 and by 85 percent at june 2012 . 6 on 11 july 2007 fairfax media acquired the former radio assets of southern cross broadcasting on sold from macquarie media group s purchase of scb 2ue sydney 3aw and magic 1278 melbourne 4bc and 4bh brisbane and 6pr and 96fm perth . graham mott will continue in his role as general manager of the broadcast radio group under fairfax . mott indicated at the time of the acquisition that national syndication of programming such as that of the since retired john laws would largely be replaced on the network with more localised syndication at a state level . 25 fairfax also acquired satellite music australia sma as part of the scb deal who provide music channels to retailers as well as foxtel and austar 26 where it is branded air . mytalk datacasting channel was officially purchased from southern cross broadcasting on 5 november 2007 27 and ceased broadcasting on 25 february 2008 . 2010 to present edit in late 2011 john b. fairfax and his family investment company marinya media sold their remaining 9.7 percent stake in fairfax media for a 189 million . the sale came after an earlier dispute between john b. fairfax and ron walker chairman of the board of fairfax media which led to the very public departure of walker . continued poor performance of fairfax media in light of changing news services was cited as one of the reasons for the sale of marinya media s interests in fairfax . john b. fairfax had earlier stood down from the fairfax board and his son nick fairfax was reported to be discussing his future with the rest of the company board . 28 29 30 31 in 2012 mining billionaire gina rinehart the wealthiest person in australia became fairfax s biggest shareholder purchasing a 14 percent stake in the company . rinehart also sought a position on the fairfax board . 32 by june 2012 rinehart had increased her stake in fairfax media to 18.67 percent and was believed to seek three board seats and involvement in editorial decisions . 33 there were reports that rinehart sought