NZME proposes to close 14 community papers, 30 jobs to be cut

Thursday, 14 November 2024

Fourteen community papers in the North Island could soon be closed.

NZME is proposing to close 14 community papers, with about 30 jobs set to be cut if the proposal goes ahead.

All of the community papers are North Island titles, and they are expected to be closed before Christmas this year. This would leave some regions without a source of local news.

The papers facing closure include the century-old Te Awamutu Courier, as well as the Hauraki-Coromandel Post, Katikati Advertiser, Te Puke Times, Taupō & Tūrangi Herald, Napier Courier, Hastings Leader, Hawke’s Bay’s CHB Mail, Stratford Press, Tararua’s Bush Telegraph, Whanganui Midweek, Manawatū Guardian, Horowhenua Chronicle and Kāpiti News.

Read this story in te reo Māori and English here. / Pānuitia tēnei i te reo Māori me te reo Pākehā ki konei.

NZME said in an announcement on Thursday that it had presented a proposal to staff to close the papers on the basis they were no longer profitable.

Michael Boggs, NZME’s chief executive, told staff in an email the announcement was “tough news for our team and local communities”.

“This is not the kind of news I want to share with everyone today,” Boggs said.

“We highly value our awesome teams across our community publications – each of them plays an important role in their communities, whether it’s in providing local news to audiences or supporting local advertisers, and our focus is on supporting them.”

Boggs blamed the proposal on a decline in advertising revenue and increasing costs, causing NZME’s community publication network to suffer.

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“On top of this, we have seen a 45-55% cost increase in distribution of our print products driven by factors out of our control,” he said.

“As we know, our community publications do not have a subscriber base. They are provided free of charge and funded purely through local print advertising, which is in decline overall. With our communities having no sustainable digital pathway we have had to make the tough decision to propose to close most of our communities’ network.”

Only two of the company’s free titles will remain if the proposal goes ahead: The Waikato Herald, which is inserted within the NZ Herald, and the Weekend Sun.

News Publishers’ Association public affairs director Andrew Holden said this move was a “sad indication of how difficult trading conditions are, for even our largest media companies, and how the dominance of the advertising market by overseas tech companies is having a profoundly negative impact on the industry in New Zealand”.

NZME’s proposal is the latest blow to the media industry, with Newshub shutting down earlier this year and TVNZ carrying out multiple rounds of cuts.