NZ newswire shuts after 131 years

WELLINGTON, New Zealand - After a moment's hesitation, New Zealand Press Association (NZPA) editor Kevin Norquay hit the send button on Wednesday on a story that consigned the news agency to history after 131 years.

The agency, a victim of media consolidation in the digital age, sent its final dispatch to clients from its Wellington headquarters as past and present staff, some in tears, looked on clutching glasses of champagne and beer.

"This is the final message from the New Zealand Press Association," said the brief transmission to New Zealand newspapers, sent at 6:24 pm.

"Since 1880, there have been hundreds of thousands of stories and hundreds of millions of words recording our country's development and daily doings.

"We now sign off. It has been a pleasure and a privilege."

Once regarded as the heart of New Zealand journalism, the agency's role in providing domestic and world news to the country's newspapers waned in the digital era, culminating in a decision last April to close it down.

At its peak, more than 70 New Zealand newspapers subscribed to NZPA and it had offices in London, Sydney, New York, Washington and Singapore.

In recent years, however, New Zealand newspaper ownership has largely become concentrated in the hands of two Australian-owned companies, Fairfax and APN News and Media, which have both invested heavily in digital media.

After it survived a series of cutbacks stretching back more than 15 years, the axe fell when Fairfax decided it no longer needed the service as its own reporters were already covering most of the major stories the agency offered.

The loss of one of its two major clients meant the agency's business was no longer viable.

Chief Executive Tim Pankhurst said that NZPA helped establish New Zealand's national identity when it was established in 1880 - a time when people rarely heard news from other regions because of the country's rugged terrain.

He said that instant communication spelled the end of NZPA, as New Zealand's two main newspaper groups established their own national networks.

Agence France-Presse