New Zealand Press Association to shut down

Its been providing content to New Zealand newspapers for almost as long as New Zealand has had newspapers, but now the New Zealand Press Association (NZPA) is closing its doors. The organisation was set up in 1879 and today is owned by the country's two main news publishers, APM Media and Fairfax.

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Paul Thompson of Fairfax told 3News that NZPA was not providing the kind of journalism they want. "It is a general news service that's available to a lot of outlets, including our competitors, and what we think we need to do is to drive our own content through our own journalists," but journalism lecturer and commentator Jim Tully said that the kind of "non-exclusive" content NZPA produced isn't necessarily a bad thing. "NZPA maintains a presence in Parliament, so that routine coverage of parliamentary debates for example, is something other media have left to NZPA as part of its role. Now, if NZPA doesn't have a presence who is going to maintain that more mundane coverage,"

The closure of the news agency will mean the loss of about 40 jobs, according to the EPMU, the union that represents journalists. “The dedicated staff at NZPA have done this for decades, some of them investing their working life in the agency.” said EPMU national industrial officer Paul Tolich.

This leaves New Zealand with two large newspaper proprietors, Fairfax and APN. Independent and smaller community newspapers will now no longer be able to access NZPA's news service. This represents a decline in diversity in New Zealand's news media.

Matthew Dentith a Public intellectual who has twice appeared on the media commentary show 'Media 7' commented on Twitter “I think the closing of the NZPA is a bad thing precisely because the rest of the world will know less about us as a result.” In related news, TVNZ7, the publicly owned news and information channel which airs Media 7 will also be closing down. 2011 is not turning out to be good year for the New Zealand media.