Peter Tonagh Emerges As Potential AAP Saviour

Peter Tonagh Emerges As Potential AAP Saviour

Soon-to-be defunct newswire AAP might have found its saviour in the form of former News Corp and Foxtel CEO Peter Tonagh.

Tonagh has revealed he is leading a consortium to buy AAP before its scheduled closure next month.

The closure of AAP was announced earlier this year, with the business’s owners Nine, News Corp, The West Australian and Australian Community Media blaming the rise of digital platforms.

The service had been considered a loss-maker.

Tonagh said he hopes to help the service become profitable.

“Although a number of the consortium members are philanthropists our common goal is to evolve and create an entity that will be self-sustainable as that is critical to ensuring the long term protection of the jobs, journalism and media diversity that is so important to all of us,” Tonagh told the Herald.

“Great journalism has clear value but while media is in this transition phase it has proven hard to realise that value. We believe that a reconfigured AAP, owned by an independent entity, can be sustainable in the longer term. It will require changes to commercial models just as News and Nine are adapting their own models.”

Tonagh is not the first potential buyer to emerge in recent months.

Last month AAP put redundancies on hold after potential buyers came to the table.

Since then, it has been revealed talent manager Glenn Wheatley has expressed interest in purchasing AAP.

 




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