13 May, 2016

MEDIA RELEASE

Meetings for E tū media members amid shock over planned media merger

E tū’s National media organiser, Paul Tolich says he’s been meeting and consulting this week with members affected by the planned merger of NZME and Fairfax NZ.

The merger was announced on Wednesday, with the two companies’ Australian owners hoping to conclude the merger by the end of the year, pending regulatory approval.

Paul Tolich says members are “stunned and shell-shocked and they’re wondering where their future in journalism is going to go.”

He says E tū and its members will begin talking about developing a response to the proposal over the coming weeks.

He says, “Our emphasis will be on the future of journalists’ jobs. One question arising out of this is the role of journalists as newsgatherers.”

He says the second issue relates to the role played in plummeting revenues for news media of news aggregators such as Google and Facebook.

“They are getting free content. This can’t continue because no-one gets free content. You can’t have a situation where people are free-loading.

“As we sharpen our response, we will examine all the various options available to ensure these aggregators pay for the news they use. That’s a debate whose time has come.”

ENDS

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