Word War demutualising the New Zealand Press Association

Abstract

In 2006, New Zealand’s daily newspapers ceased the cooperative exchange of news stories through the country’s principal domestic wire service, the New Zealand Press Association. Thereafter, the agency became responsible for producing all of the material it transmitted but was free to offer its services to clients outside the daily press. The thesis asks why a 125-year tradition was abandoned and explores the consequences of that decision. Domestic news agencies have attracted relatively little academic attention beyond their early development, with the result that the thesis relies heavily on primary sources for much of its historiographic content, in particular the news media executives who were involved in the events leading up to demutualising of the service. Two field studies assess the early effects of the restructuring: firstly, an analysis of the non-local domestic content of six daily newspapers to measure changes in the use of NZPA material over time; and, secondly, a survey of daily newspaper editors to determine satisfaction levels before and after demutualisation of the news service. The restructuring of NZPA was a manifestation of fundamental changes to New Zealand news media companies that can be traced directly to market liberalisation and the transition from local to transnational ownership. New levels of competition directly challenged the cooperative basis of NZPA and change became inevitable. The agency adopted a commercial model based on that of Australian Associated Press. The loss of content from contributing newspapers had measurable effects on geographic coverage by NZPA and on the range and quality of stories written by its own editorial staff, which had not increased beyond pre-demutualisation levels due to financial constraints placed on the agency. These effects contributed to a drop in satisfaction levels among daily newspaper editors. A positive outcome was the creation of a national news agency that was available to all media where, in the past, it had been limited to newspapers. NZPA began to attract non-newspaper customers, which reduced its financial dependence on traditional subscribers. Research was undertaken during the first year of commercial operation. Therefore, findings on the agency’s post-demutualisation performance should be regarded as interim and a basis for future monitoring.