This week, the Australian media broke the story that APN News and Media and Fairfax are considering merging their businesses.
While details are still unclear, it seems the two respective businesses are in talks about the decision to work alongside each other. “A merger between NZME and Fairfax is still very much in the realm of speculation,” according to an official statement from Fairfax.
Stoppress.co.nz noted - Bringing together Fairfax and NZME could allow the two companies to share expenses and cut costs. It will also mean there will be less duplication, as journalists no longer have to create a slight variation on a story published on another channel (when viewed in the global context we’re seeing massive wastage in this regard with one story being duplicated, with subtle changes, as many as 70 times, leading some to believe newsbots and AI will wade through the duplication to give you the best options will be the future of media).
If the merger does proceed, something that would need to be approved by the Commerce Commission first, would eliminate many jobs, a prospect that has unions concerned. “I think it will lead to a decline in the available jobs for journalists. They have already cut the numbers of subeditors to a very small number, and you can see that they are now going to cut reporters and front line journalists,” a union representative said.
