AUCKLAND, Today: NZ Media & Entertainment (NZME) has advised the NZX that NZ Herald Premium has hit a new milestone, with more than 15,000 paid digital subscribers.
Making the announcement as part of NZME’s 2019 half-year financial results, ceo Michael Boggs said the digital subscription service has been “a huge success”.
Subscriptions and revenue have exceeded expectations.
NZME reported statutory net profit after tax of $1million, total revenue of $181.1 million and operating ebitda of $19.4 million for the six months ended 30 June 2019.
“Given the well reported market headwinds, this is a solid result supported by strong growth in our digital initiatives,” said Boggs.
“Given the well reported market headwinds, this is a solid result supported by strong growth in our digital initiatives.”
“That’s great news for the journalists in our newsrooms and our advertisers. On top of our 15,000 new digital subscribers, thousands of NZ Herald newspaper subscribers have also activated their digital subscriptions. This means NZ Herald Premium has been activated by close to 40,000 subscribers.
Radio revenue ‘back to growth’
“The successful launch of NZ Herald Premium is a key strategic milestone achieved in the first half of 2019. Returning radio revenue to growth is another strategic milestone achieved in the first six months of 2019.
“For the first time in several years radio revenue is in growth. Even more pleasing is that this part of our business is showing continued momentum going into the second half of the year.
“This is a great turnaround for NZME Radio. It is the result of our focus on ensuring we have the best talent on air to drive the resurgence of this channel. We’ve also been enhancing our sales teams with some of the best radio specialists in the market, to make sure we convert our increased share of the radio audience to deliver great results for our advertisers.
“On a typical day 477,000 New Zealanders read the NZ Herald newspaper, an increase of 18,000 readers compared to the same period last year. That’s the highest readership level in four years. Combined with online and mobile readers, more than one million New Zealanders read NZ Herald content each day.”
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