Word War

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. Why was a 125-year
tradition abandoned and what were the consequences of
that decision? The author finds that 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 and offered its services to all
media where, in the past, it had been limited to
newspapers. However, the absence of content from
contributing newspapers had measurable effects on
geographic coverage by NZPA and on the range and
quality of stories. It was an irretrievable loss.

Autorentext
Gavin Ellis, MA (Hons), is former editor-in-chief of the New Zealand Herald newspaper and a doctoral candidate in political studies at the University of Auckland where he lectures on media and democracy.

Klappentext
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. Why was a 125-year tradition abandoned and what were the consequences of that decision? The author finds that 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 and offered its services to all media where, in the past, it had been limited to newspapers. However, the absence of content from contributing newspapers had measurable effects on geographic coverage by NZPA and on the range and quality of stories. It was an irretrievable loss.