Details

The John Fairfax group began publishing The Sydney Herald (now The Sydney Morning Herald) in 1831. The Age was first published in 1854. John Fairfax Ltd (JFL) was formed as the holding company in 1956, with 50% of its shares issued to the public.
JFL was privatised in 1987, following its acquisition by John Fairfax Group Pty Ltd (JFG), a corporation controlled by Mr Warwick Fairfax. In 1990, the directors of JFG applied to the Supreme Court to place John Fairfax Group Finance Pty Ltd in provisional liquidation, which led to receivers and managers being appointed to all companies in the JFG group.
Tourang Limited - a shelf company controlled by The Telegraph PLC, Hellman Friedman and Consolidated Press Holdings - acquired JFG in 1991 and adopted the name John Fairfax Holdings Limited. The Telegraph is 83% owned by Canadian based Hollinger Inc. The federal government approved the Tourang bid on the basis that The Telegraph held a voting interest of up to 15% and Hellman & Friedman held a non-voting interest of up to 5% of the total voting and non-voting capital.
At completion of the acquisition, $550 million of the $1.3 billion the group owed to its bankers was repaid through the issue of shares and debentures at $1 each to The Telegraph, Hellman & Friedman and institutional investors. Institutional investors made 158.3 million shares available as a public offering and the group was listed on the ASX in 1992. A further 15 million new shares were offered in the float.
In 1992/93, the federal government permitted The Telegraph to increase its shareholding in the company from 15% to 25%.
The company made a cash payment of $60 million to Consolidated Press Holdings Limited (CPH) in 1993 in settlement of an agreement made in 1991, whereby CPH would be compensated for withdrawing from the Tourang syndicate, which was bidding to acquire the John Fairfax group. The settlement was funded by the issue of 20 million shares to Nine Television Pty Ltd at $3 per share.
In late 1993, the company finalised its refinancing. This consisted of an unsecured five year amortising facility of $800 million, provided by a syndicate led by National Australia Bank (and including Toronto Dominion Australia Limited and Societe Generale Australia Limited), and a five year working capital facility of $50 million, also provided by National Australia Bank. Later that year, Nine Network Australia Limited (now Publishing and Broadcasting Limited) increased its interest in Fairfax to 14.97%. In early 1994, it further increased its interest to 16.4%.
During 1993/94, the company's electronic communication service subsidiary, AAV Australia Pty Limited, acquired the assets of the Apocalypse group of film and television post-production businesses in Melbourne and Sydney.
In 1996, The Telegraph sold its 25% interest in Fairfax to three subsidiaries of Brierley Investments Ltd of New Zealand.
Hills News, acquired in 1998, was subsequently merged with Fairfax Community Newspapers in NSW.
In 1998, the Victorian division established Creative Media Solutions, an advertising agency. The strategy behind CMS was to create stronger links with newspaper advertisers by delivering a marketing package that included fliers, brochures, business cards and promotional material, as well as newspaper advertisements.
Fairfax Community Newspapers' Victorian division acquired The Post group of newspapers in March 1999.
Strategic Publishing Group was acquired in December 1999.
During 2000, acquisitions included the remaining interest in CitySearch and Big Colour Pages, and Western Independent.

Archival resources

Current location of archives is unknown

• The John Fairfax Group Pty Ltd records, 1920? - ; Current location of archives is unknown. Details

Published resources

Books

• A record of the years from 1831, Sydney, 16 pp. Details
• Century of journalism: the Sydney Morning Herald and its record of Australian life, 1831-1931, Fairfax, Sydney, 1931, 805 pp. Details
• Fairfax, J., The story of John Fairfax: commemorating the centenary of the Fairfax proprietary of the Sydney Morning Herald, 1841-1941, John Fairfax & Sons, Sydney, 1941. Details
• Ryan, Colleen; Burge, Glenn, Corporate cannibals. The taking of Fairfax, William Heinemann Australia, Port Melbourne, Victoria, 1992, 457 pp. Details
• Sykes, T., Operation Dynasty: how Warwick took John Fairfax Ltd, Greenhouse Publications, Elwood, Victoria, 1989. Details