Qantas pulls Fairfax adverts because of perceived bias

QANTAS chief executive Alan Joyce has declared war against Fairfax Media, pulling millions of dollars in advertising revenue.

Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce at the airline’s offices in Mascot, Sydney. Picture: Tim Hunter

QANTAS chief executive Alan Joyce has declared war against Fairfax Media, pulling millions of dollars in advertising revenue from The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.

The Australian understands Mr Joyce is also planning to dump the Herald and The Age newspapers from distribution at the aircraft, gate and lounge of the entire Qantas Group, including Jetstar.

The boycott follows concerns by Qantas executives that these newspapers had failed to show impartiality when covering the airline’s industrial dispute over the past year.

There has also been the perception that The Herald and The Age were favouring Qantas’s direct competitor, Virgin.

When Qantas launched its new Feels Like Home advertising campaign in early November, it did not spend a dollar in The Sydney Morning Herald, Age or Fairfax regional newspapers, either in print or online.

The campaign spend was multi-million-dollar, with ads up to two minutes long running in prime-time television along with print, online, outdoor and cinema spend.

The only Fairfax paper to receive advertising dollar was The Australian Financial Review.

From next year, both Qantas and Jetstar will also pull The Herald and The Age from on board its aircraft and at the gate, leaving passengers to read The Australian, The Daily Telegraph, The Herald Sun or the AFR.

The removal of the newspapers will undoubtedly affect circulation results posted by Fairfax. Qantas last year bought 800,000 copies of The Herald and 500,000 copies of The Age.

Qantas executives questioned why they would continue to spend money with a media company that constantly criticised the airline and published reports it saw as inaccurate.

The Sydney Morning Herald’s business and aviation writer Matt O’Sullivan has written a book titled May Day that examines how Qantas became a ­“national liability”.

The book’s release early next year comes as Qantas is recovering after a hellish three years when it cut 5000 jobs and posted a bottom-line loss of $2.8 billion.

Sources said the tipping point for Mr Joyce came at Qantas’ full-year results in August, when journalist Adele Ferguson wrote a front-page story calling for the airline chief’s resignation.

Since that time, Qantas’ share price has risen by almost 30 per cent and Mr Joyce has indicated the worst for the airline is over. He said Qantas had been profitable on a pre-tax underlying basis in the first quarter.

When asked about the ad spend, Qantas’ head of brand, marketing and corporate affairs Olivia Wirth said: “We determine which media outlets are best to work with on the basis of who can most effectively reach our existing and potential customer base.”

Qantas may not be the only companies to stop advertising with Fairfax newspapers. The subject was discussed at the Business Council of Australia dinner in late October.