Australian Financial Review

The Australian Financial Review (AFR) is an Australian compact daily newspaper with a focus on business, politics and economic affairs. The newspaper is based in Sydney, New South Wales, and has been published continuously since its founding in 1951. It is currently owned by Nine Entertainment. The AFR is published in tabloid format six times a week, and provides 24/7 coverage through its website and mobile app. In November 2019, the AFR reached 2.647 million Australians through both print and digital mediums according to Mumbrella.

The Australian Financial Review started as a print-only weekly newspaper in 1951, before changing to a bi-weekly in 1961, and a daily newspaper in 1963. The paper now publishes multiple magazines and a supplementary weekend paper, which was launched in 1995. In that same year, the AFR website was also released, which helped to expand its readership base across all media. The AFR, along with most of Fairfax Media, was purchased by Nine Entertainment in 2018.

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.

In 1961, the AFR converted to a bi-weekly, and then established itself as the first daily newspaper by 1963. 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. 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. The magazine was published to cover topics other than business including leisure, politics, travel, sports, fashion, and other peripheral topics. In December 2019, the magazine recorded an average issue readership of 326,000. 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).

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. 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. 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. 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. The switch to a paywall was done because the newspaper company thought it could further monetise its niche business audience who could afford it. Following this change, the AFR continued to adjust the pricing of its subscription due to low subscriber growth.

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. In addition, it was later determined that the AFR's failures in attracting online subscribers was due to its paywall being too expensive. Its 2012 price of $59 was notably higher than other international mastheads, including the New York Times which was priced at $37.84. The decision was subsequently reversed.

In May 2024, printed editions of the AFR were discontinued in Western Australia, which Nine attributed to an increase in printing costs by its competitor Seven West Media, the owner of the only suitable printing press in Western Australia. In May 2025, Nine Entertainment considered reintroducing printed editions into Western Australia after Post Newspapers opened a printing plant in Perth.

Features and operations

Newspaper sections

Within the AFR's daily newspaper, regularly scheduled sections include:

World – news and analysis on global companies and the international business environment.
Chanticleer – the long-running business opinion column (begun July 1974) that looks into individual companies in-depth, analysing their operations, management and board of directors.
Accounting & Consulting – Targeted at senior executives and management, this section lays out lateral personnel movements within the finance sector, recent company news, and key participants in the industry
Education – provides information regarding professional development, the education sector, and news regarding company training
Companies & Markets – this section features in-depth analysis of the Australian business environment including equity markets, debt markets and the M&A industry
Legal Affairs – targeted at lawyers, this section provides coverage of the legal industry: its trends and news about the top law firms in Australia
Property – this section provides analysis of the Australian property market: house prices, commercial properties, developers, REITS, and others. Each major capital city has its own journalism team covering the respective property markets.
Life & Leisure – this two-day weekly insert focuses on more leisurely topics including fashion, travel, social media, jewellery, etc.

Products and operations

Across the AFR group, the team does not only publish newspapers. Its range of operations is listed below:

The Australian Financial Review daily newspaper, founded in 1951, the paper aims to provide information regarding the Australian business landscape.
The Weekend Edition, delivered on Saturday, covers important business topics as well as general news and leisure-focused topics.
Afr.com, the AFR news website, provides online access to a news database with topics including markets, politics, policy, property, and others.
Sophisticated Traveller – Since 2004, this quarterly magazine has been targeting high net worth individuals, covering content regarding luxury travel.
Australian Financial Review Magazine – Monthly inserted magazine providing content on high-profile business news, politics, fashion and luxury. The magazine was launched in 1995. Since its beginnings, the compilation of the list and its publishing have been taken over by the AFR, now being published annually in the Australian Financial Review Magazine and on the afr.com. Along with the names of the richest people, the list explicates the person or family's net worth and provides a short summary on the business activities and sector they are engaged in. The valuations are conducted by utilising a mix of publicly available information and private consultations. In 2019, the cut-off for making the Rich List was $472m AUD. In 2020, the cut-off was raised to $540m AUD.

Reporting

Reporting stance

During 1975 to 1983, when The Australian widely articulated its political stance on conservative liberalism, it had been noted that the AFR also promoted neo-liberalism through its news coverage and editorials, exerting influence on the business sphere of Australia and its elitist readership base. The newspaper has also been labelled as one of the propagators of radical liberalism during the 1970s–80s, shaping the policy debate surrounding market deregulation at that time.

In the wake of the 1987 stock market crash, the Australian news media sector was blamed for overlooking corporate corruption and wrongdoings, while publishing mainly favourable news articles handed to them from corporate PR teams.

Endorsements

{| class="wikitable"

! Election

! colspan="2" | Endorsement

| 2010

| 2013

| 2016

| 2019

| 2022

| 2025

Notable reporting

In November 2023, the AFR joined with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, and 69 media partners including Distributed Denial of Secrets and the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) and more than 270 journalists in 55 countries and territories to produce the 'Cyprus Confidential' report on the financial network which supports the regime of Vladimir Putin, mostly with connections to Cyprus, and showed Cyprus to have strong links with high-up figures in the Kremlin, some of whom have been sanctioned. Government officials including Cyprus president Nikos Christodoulides and European lawmakers began responding to the investigation's findings in less than 24 hours,