History
The Australian Financial Review newspaper started as a weekly publication in 1951, published by John Fairfax & Sons. The paper's main objective was to inform the Australian public on business life and news.[6]
In 1961, the AFR converted to a bi-weekly, and then established itself as the first daily newspaper by 1963.[7] Despite other newspapers claiming the title of the first daily national paper, Maxwell Newton was the editor in charge of taking the Financial Review from a bi-weekly to the first daily national paper.[8] During 1961–62, the AFR's primary competitor was The Australian Financial Times, which was in operation for less than 12 months. In the 1960s and 1970s, the AFR developed a strong readership amongst a specialist business audience due to its neutral stance on domestic government policies.[6] In the 1970s, despite the AFR's reputation as a national business daily, many saw it as the primary competitor for The Australian given its high proportion of readers in the AB demographic.[8]
In 1995, Fairfax launched the Australian Financial Review Magazine in response to its growing readership across a wide-ranging audience.[9] The magazine was published to cover topics other than business including leisure, politics, travel, sports, fashion, and other peripheral topics.[10] In December 2019, the magazine recorded an average issue readership of 326,000.[11] Since its launch in 1995, the AFR Magazine has won the 'Best Newspaper Inserted Magazine' (2013-2019), 'Newspaper Inserted Brand of the Year' (2019) and Mumbrella's 'Special Issue of the Year' (2019).[9]
The magazine's founding was followed by the launch of the AFR website in the same year, which started as a free online source of financial news.[12]
In 1997, the AFR launched its Weekend Edition which extended the paper's publications into the weekend, with an explicit focus of targeting the growing readership base by providing news articles outside of the traditional finance setting.[9]
In 2016, the AFR launched mobile and iPad compatible applications to provide its digital subscribers more accessibility to its news platform. This was aimed at allowing cross-platform accessibility without having to download two separate applications across different device platforms.[13] The application carries similar features to the website including sections such as: Street Talk and Rear Window. The product management team decided to revamp the app due to the wide uptake of smartphones in the Australian market, and to improve their user-interface experience. The UTS Business School was the launch partner for the app, providing logistical advice on the app's delivery.[14] The app's subscription price is included in the 'all premium digital subscription' bundle.
The Australian Financial Review has grown its product offerings since its beginnings as a finance newsroom. It has consistently been well received by the journalism sector as one of the most high-quality newsrooms across Australia.[15] Since the 2000s, the AFR has launched BOSS (magazine for business leadership and strategy) and the Sophisticated Traveller magazine. In 2019, the Australian Financial Review recorded double-digit subscriber growth, as it continued to market its newspaper as the driver of Australian business-people's success and ambitions.[3] In 2020, due to the newspaper company's expansion efforts across different readership bases, the AFR reached 2.647m Australians a month.[3]
Evolution of paywall system
The AFR first introduced its paywall in 2006, charging online users to view its articles – a payment model that had not yet been utilised by any other Australian newspaper firm.[16] The switch to a paywall was done because the newspaper company thought it could further monetise its niche business audience who could afford it.[17] Following this change, the AFR continued to adjust the pricing of its subscription due to low subscriber growth.[18]
In 2011, it newly introduced a freemium paywall in which only a small portion of articles were free. It has been noted that the AFR's website locks approximately 86% of its online content behind a paywall, higher than its closest competitor the National Business Review.[18] This was aimed at increasing its digital readership which in 2011 amounted to 6,000 subscribers.[19]
