APN News and Media, NZME’s parent company. reported a $256.9 million half year loss, thanks almost entirely to its print business. The company’s demerged New Zealand unit its regional Australian business caused $249.3 million of the losses
With national print advertising revenues down 14 per cent to $66m, and print subscription revenues falling as well, NZME will no doubt hope the Commerce Commission approves its application to merge business with Fairfax. Michael Boggs, chief executive at NZME, says, the future with NZME ‘looks exciting, combined with the potential merger with Fairfax New Zealand.’
Meanwhile, NZME will launch a Chinese news site in partnership with the Chinese Herald, a privately-owned Auckland publisher. The site, which will launch in October, will provide local news from The New Zealand Herald translated into Chinese, along with articles from the print version of the Chinese Herald and other Chinese sources.
Just over 118,000 people living in the Auckland region identified themselves as Chinese in the 2013 census. Nationwide, just under three-quarters of the 171,000 residents who identified themselves as Chinese were born overseas.
NZME announced the joint venture as it reported a near tripling of its interim profit to $61m, a one-off gain thanks to its demerger from APN News & Media.
