Christchurch Citizen folds, Wilson & Horton extends its southern grip

By Duncan Bridgeman

Friday 12th July 2002

While most attention has focused on INL's new Dominion Post, a flurry of other activity has occurred in the media sector this week.

After only one year in circulation the Christchurch Citizen newspaper came to a grinding halt at midnight last Friday, leaving 30 staff without jobs.

The closure, although widely expected due to low advertising revenue and low circulation, stunned its staff, who had received no warning from its US-based owner. Jim McCotter.

The newspaper was first published under the title the Citizen Today by Media Publications chief executive Geoffrey Botkin. It was restructured in November 2001 and became part of New Zealand Media Group.

The New Zealand Media Group announced the day before the Citizen closed that its television station, CTV, would merge with Canterbury's other local television channel, Now TV, which was owned by the New Zealand arm of UK company West 175 Media.

It was understood West 175 Media, which operated local TV channels in Christchurch, Dunedin and Invercargill had opted to move out of broadcasting. But the company's shares in the UK had recently plummeted and there were fears of a collapse that would have flow-on effects for other South Island media organisations that share the West 175 Media resources.

New Zealand Media Group business manager Louis de Beer was unavailable for comment and Mr McCotter had not responded to calls by press time.

Meanwhile, one of the few remaining independent regional newspapers, the Wairarapa Times-Age, has been sold to Wilson & Horton for $6 million.

Wilson & Horton chief financial officer Phil Eustace said the Times-Age fitted with Wilson & Horton's core business and was also a good geographical fit.

One theory, already flagged a fortnight ago in The National Business Review, is that Wilson & Horton had been planning a renewed assault on the Wellington region, which had prompted INL to create the Dominion Post. Any new edition of the Wilson & Horton-owned New Zealand Herald could be printed out of a yet-to-be-built plant rumoured to be under consideration for the Manawatu region.

In this scenario, the Herald would presumably also look to draw on the existing resources of the Wairarapa Times-Age, if only to save money on the necessary back-office functions.

Mr Eustace said the idea that Wilson & Horton planned to install a big, modern press at a central location such as Bulls has been chewed over "but at this stage no decision has been made to proceed."

Wilson & Horton prints its central North Island dailies in Rotorua and Tauranga. Its community papers are also printed in Tauranga.

Wairarapa Times-Age Co managing director and principal shareholder Gordon Kinvig said while it was sad that another daily newspaper was being incorporated into a larger group, it was part of the rationalisation of the industry, not only in New Zealand but internationally.

The newspaper can trace its origins back to 1874. The Wairarapa Times-Age masthead was created with a merger of the Wairarapa Times and the Wairarapa Age in 1938. Today the Wairarapa Times-Age has a circulation of just over 7700 and is read by about three-quarters of Wairarapa people aged 15 and over.

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