NZME buys Gisborne Herald, staff waiting to hear if they'll keep their jobs
Tuesday, 12 March 2024
NZME has bought a family-owned newspaper, the Gisborne Herald, but it’s unclear if it will retain the 54 staff at the company.
Gisborne Herald staff were told about the sale on Tuesday.
Staff are shocked and unsure of their future.
More than 50 staff at The Gisborne Herald are waiting to learn their fate, after NZME bought the newspaper.
The Gisborne Herald is one of New Zealand’s oldest newspapers, and was one of the last-family owned newspapers in the country.
On Tuesday, staff were told that NZME - an NZX listed company that owned the NZ Herald, Newstalk ZB and a range of other print, digital and radio brands - had bought the newspaper and its website.
NZME chief executive Michael Boggs said the company had purchased the “publishing assets” of The Gisborne Herald Company. That meant NZME would have the right to publish the newspaper and control the website, but was not taking on the full liability of the company.
It also meant, as Boggs confirmed, that NZME would need to make employment offers to the Gisborne Herald staff it intended to employ.
Those in the meeting, who didn’t want to be named to protect their roles, said the sale of their newspaper came as a shock.
They said it would be a nervous few weeks, waiting to find out if NZME would offer them a job.
Boggs said there would be a “transition period” over the next few weeks. During the transition, he said staff who NZME wanted to keep would be made formal employment offers.
Asked if there was any guarantee of how many staff would continue working for the Gisborne Herald, its editor and director Jeremy Muir told Stuff those were questions for NZME.
Since 1987, NZME has owned a minority stake in The Gisborne Herald Company.
Boggs said he thought the sale of the 150-year-old newspaper was the best option for it to continue publishing.
Its purchase of The Gisborne Herald came a week after NZME bought Bay of Plenty media company Sun Media, which owned the Sun Live website and three community newspapers.
NZME has not revealed what it paid for either Sun Media or for The Gisborne Herald.
The sale of the newspaper, and uncertainty about what would happen to those who worked at it, came on the back a terrible month for the local news media.
Major restructures were announced at TVNZ and Discovery, owner of Newshub and TV3, with hundreds of jobs set to go across the two television broadcasters.
After announcing news of the purchase, NZME’s stock price fell one cent from the start of trading at 90 cents on Tuesday.