Fairfax slashes newspapers values by 80%

The NZ Herald reports:

Fairfax Media, which publishes the Dominion Post, Press and Sunday Star Times newspapers, slashed the value of its New Zealand mastheads by more than 80 percent in a group-wide writedown of its traditional publishing assets.

The New Zealand holding company, Fairfax New Zealand Holdings, valued its local newspaper titles at $175.2 million as at June 30, down from $950.1 million a year earlier, according to financial statements lodged with Companies Office. Value is allocated to the mastheads based on how much a company expects to recover from the asset, and is reviewed annually.

Ouch. That is a huge devaluation. Realistic, but painful.

The bulk of the remaining value in its titles is in the North Island publications such as the DomPost and Waikato Times, valued at $112.5 million, compared to $564.1 million in 2011. The South Island publications, including the Press and the Nelson Mail, were written down to $54.9 million as at June 30 from $343.2 million, while national publications such as the Sunday Star Times and Cuisine magazine, were valued at $7.7 million from $42.8 million.

Some might say $7.7 million for the SST is still too generous!