The two main newspaper companies in New Zealand – NZME (New Zealand Media and Entertainment) and Fairfax want to merge and become one company. Today, the Commerce Commission said this will probably not be allowed to happen.
Listen to May 22 2016 to find out more about this.
The Commerce Commission is a government organisation. It is concerned about fair trade for consumers. In a small country like New Zealand, we need competition to keep prices as low as possible, to provide quality and diversity. If the two main newspaper companies merge, the price of newspapers could increase, there would be less competition for advertising and it is possible we would have to pay for their websites. There could be less diversity in their choice of news stories and editorials.
If the two companies merged, they would own nearly 90% of New Zealand’s print media market. This would be the second highest level of print media ownership in the world, behind only China. They would also control New Zealand’s two largest news websites – nzherald.co.nz and stuff.co.nz – and major radio stations.
Meanwhile, the Commerce Commission said they would listen to new reasons for the merger and the companies have until November 22nd to provide this.
A final decision will be made early next year.
Vocabulary
• merger (n) – joining of two companies; merge (v) – to join two companies
• consumers (n) – people who use the product; consume (v)- to use products, to eat
• diversity (n) – different opinions for people of different age, backgrounds and ethnicity; diverse (adj) many differences
• editorials (n) – opinion articles, usually written by the editor of the newspaper