John Fairfax Holdings Limited
ACN 008 663 161

SYDNEY, August 21, 2000 -- In a major Australian publishing first, Fairfax today announced that Global Editions of The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald, and The Australian Financial Review would be available to readers worldwide.

Following an agreement with PressPoint, the first company to produce a global, on-demand newspaper distribution service, readers from around the world will be able to access, in a high-quality, all digital page format, Australia’s best newspapers.

Beginning today with The Age, a 32-page global edition of the paper will be available at hotels, retail outlets, bookstores, international airlines, universities, major international events and other distribution points throughout North and South America, Europe, and some parts of Asia.

Global editions of The Sydney Morning Herald and The Australian Financial Review will also be available through the PressPoint network in time for the Olympic Games in Sydney next month.

Chief Executive Officer of John Fairfax Holdings Limited, Fred Hilmer, said Fairfax was delighted to enter into a partnership with PressPoint which would see Fairfax’s quality mastheads expand into new markets.

"In an increasingly globalised world of shrinking boundaries with rapid changes in media and information industries, this is an exciting opportunity to give Australians abroad access to their favourite newspaper, and to elevate Australia’s quality mastheads on to the world stage," Mr Hilmer said.

Global Editions of The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald – which will be published in A3 size – will include the latest news, world, opinion and features, sport, business, and arts. The Australian Financial Review Global Edition will also be in an A3 tabloid format. Each masthead will decide which pages should be included in the Global Edition. The price of Fairfax’s Global Editions will be $US2.50 and £1.50.

The Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of The Age, Steve Harris, said that a global edition was a major development in the paper’s 145 year history.

"To be the first Australian paper to go global in this format and join many of the world’s leading newspapers is very exciting. Whether it be news-starved Australian executives, sports fans, travelers, expatriate Australians, or people generally interested in Australia, The Age will be increasingly available from a wide range of distribution outlets," Mr Harris said.

Mr Harris said that the global edition of The Age via PressPoint would complement The Age’s online site – www.theage.com.au – which now has around 350,000 visitors per week, many of whom are expatriate Australians or Australians travelling overseas.

"Readers now have the option of either logging into one of the leading online news and information sites in Australia, or enjoying the luxury of being able to read their favourite paper in print on the day of publication even though they are thousands of kilometres away from home," Mr Harris said.

Mr Harris said the move fitted nicely into The Age’s strategy of expanding into new markets which in recent times had seen the introduction of national and regional editions and a multi-dimensional publishing presence in print and online.

PressPoint Retail Locations and PressPoint Hotel Partners.

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For further information contact: Bruce Wolpe, Fairfax, (612) 9282 3640

Note to editors

PressPoint, which is headquartered in New York and led by Lance R. Primis, former President and Chief Operating Officer of the New York Times Company, began operating in April 1998. Publishing partners send daily PDF files of its edition to PressPoint’s New York office where it is checked for correct formatting and sent to one of a number of print production centres around the world. Other mastheads among the over 40 newspapers currently published by PressPoint include the Financial Times (UK), Guardian (UK), Washington Post National Weekly (US), Bloomberg News (US), Les Echos and Liberation (France), and Handelsblatt (Germany). For further information on PressPoint please contact Brendan Gullifer on (03) 9815 0998 or visit www.presspoint.com.

John Fairfax Holdings [ASX:FXJ] is Australia’s leading publishing group. Its mastheads include The Sydney Morning Herald, The Australian Financial Review, The Age, The Sun-Herald, and BRW. In addition, the company publishes financial and consumer magazines, and provides online and interactive services. In 1999, the company had revenues of over $1.1 billion. Fairfax, through f2, its wholly owned subsidiary for its online and interactive businesses, is building a strong position in e-commerce and is Australia’s leading content provider on the Internet, with over 2.3 million page views per day (2.4 million site visits per week) across a network of sites including news, business, investing, personal finance, motoring, sports, auctions, property, employment, freemail, search/homepage, shopping, travel, technology, city guides, and directories.

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