Nine’s AFR print edition to cease in WA after Seven’s press doubles production price

Financial Review editor-in-chief Michael Stutchbury: ‘We regret the uncompetitive abuse of market power that has forced the end of printing and distributing the much-loved Financial Review paper in Australia’s powerhouse export state.’ Photograph: Dan Himbrechts/AAP

The print edition of Nine’s Australian Financial Review will no longer be available in Western Australia after the Seven-owned printing facility doubled the price of producing the newspaper.

Billionaire media mogul Kerry Stokes owns the only major newspaper printing press in the state and has contracts to print competitors’ products, including the financial daily for Nine as well as The Australian for News Corp.

However, the managing director of Nine Publishing, Tory Maguire, said the relationship is now over after Seven suddenly increased the price of printing for West Australian customers by 100% without explanation.

The Australian Financial Review, which has been sold in WA since 1951, will be available as a digital only product, afr.com, after the last edition comes out on 22 May.

“This decision is specific to Western Australia and has no impact on our papers and magazines in the rest of the country,” Maguire said.

The AFR claimed in a news report that Seven’s decision to increase the price was motivated by Nine’s coverage of Seven and its chairman Stokes as well as increased competition from Nine’s local digital news offering.

Maguire said notice of the price increase came on the same day Nine held an event to promote its free news site in the state, WA Today.

Seven declined to answer specific question but a Seven spokesman said: “It is a commercial decision. To suggest anything else would be inaccurate and disingenuous.”

Stokes owns the West Australian, the Sunday Times, 19 regional publications, 11 suburban newspapers, the free news website perthnow.com.au and the new digital product The Nightly.

Financial Review editor-in-chief Michael Stutchbury accused Seven of an “uncompetitive abuse of market power”.

“We regret the uncompetitive abuse of market power that has forced the end of printing and distributing the much-loved Financial Review paper in Australia’s powerhouse export state,” Stutchbury said.

Prime minister Anthony Albanese batted away questions from journalists in Melbourne about the spat, saying it was a matter for Nine and Seven. “With due respect I’m not about to put the commonwealth government in the middle of that,” he said. “That’s two private sector companies engaging with each other.”

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission said it is not illegal for a business to have market power and businesses can charge different prices to different buyers.

“However, under the Competition and Consumer Act, it is unlawful for businesses to use their market power to substantially lessen competition in a market,” a spokesperson for the ACCC said.

“The ACCC is open to considering evidence direct from parties, including independent press, that are being foreclosed from accessing printing services.”

The AFR used to be printed by Australian Community Media in south Perth but after the merger between Nine Entertainment and Fairfax Media in 2018, Nine sold ACM to Antony Catalano for $115m. Seven later bought the printing presses and struck a deal with Nine to print the AFR in May 2023.

In 2022 the publisher said rising paper costs was behind the decision to stop printing The Age and Financial Review in Tasmania, at a plant operated by Australian Community Media, but the decision was reversed.

The relationship between Seven and Nine has been tense for some time with the Australian Financial Review all but accusing the West Australian of pinching a scoop about the separation of billionaire mining couple Andrew and Nicola Forrest last year.

“The Financial Review sent the electronic layout of last Wednesday’s paper – including news of the separation, confirmed with a joint statement – to the presses at 7:30pm Sydney time,” the AFR said in July. “By 8:03pm, the story was published on the website. Just one minute later, The West published an ‘exclusive’ about the separation, with the publication’s editor-in-chief Anthony De Ceglie tweeting: ‘Big story from The West Australian’.”

De Ceglie has recently been appointed to the new role of director of news and current affairs and editor-in-chief of Seven West Media, and has been replaced, at least temporarily, by the former editor-in-chief of the Australian Christopher Dore.