PM 'not approached' on NZME-Stuff merger but broadcasting minister may have been

Wednesday, 21 August 2019

There is speculation media company NZME may have been hoping to revive a merger with Stuff, but Stuff says that is not on its agenda.

Broadcasting minister Kris Faafoi has declined to say whether he has been approached by media company NZME about the idea of reviving a merger of NZME and rival Stuff.

Newsroom reported on Tuesday that Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said she had 'received no approach on the matter', but Faafoi declined to provide the same assurance to Stuff.

A spokesman for Faafoi said he had spoken with senior leaders at nearly every national media organisation, including NZME, over the last six weeks but could not go into details because the conversations were 'commercially sensitive'.

The Commerce Commission declined authorisation for NZME and Stuff to merge in 2017 and the media firms were unsuccessful in getting that decision overturned through the courts.

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Broadcasting Minister Kris Faafoi would not provide the same assurance Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern gave regarding a rumoured approach by NZME, with a spokesman for Faafoi saying any conversations with the publisher were commercially sensitive.

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But The Australian reported this week it was believed that NZME had asked the Government about the possibility that it could intervene.

An NZME spokesman said it was the company's policy 'not to comment on speculation of this nature'.

'NZME remains in compliance with its continuous disclosure obligations,' he added.

Stuff publishes the Stuff website and newspapers including The Sunday-Star Times, The Dominion Post and The Press.

Stuff's Australian owner Nine would not comment but it is understood reviving the merger is not on its agenda.

That was confirmed by Stuff chief executive Sinead Boucher.

'We are not in these talks and it isn't on our agenda,' she said.

The speculation that NZME might see things differently came in the wake of a statement by Nine chief executive Hugh Marks in June that the A$3 billion (NZ$3.2b) ASX-listed company was no longer presuming that it would sell Stuff and instead intended to work with it on a strategy that positioned it for a 'brighter future'.

KPEX – a joint venture between Stuff, NZME, TVNZ and television channel three owner MediaWorks that was set up to make it easier for advertisers to buy digital advertising with the four companies – has meanwhile announced it will disband.

Chairman Dave Hine said KPEX had helped New Zealand publishers maintain their digital advertising revenues in a market increasingly dominated by Google and Facebook.

But the digital advertising market had evolved significantly since KPEX's inception and the circumstances and priorities of its four shareholders had 'also evolved in different ways', he said.