End to Saturday rural paper delivery a ‘blow to media’
New Zealand Post’s decision to stop newspaper and parcel deliveries to rural addresses on Saturdays is another blow to media in challenging conditions, the News Publishers’ Association says.
From June 29, there will no longer be newspaper and parcel deliveries to most rural addresses on Saturdays due to commercial viability, NZ Post announced yesterday.
The exception was 17 rural delivery runs which would be phased out by June 2025, but there would be no changes to rural mail delivery as it was not currently delivered on Saturday.
The association’s (NPA) public affairs director Andrew Holden said NZ Post's decision would severely affect rural communities as most regional paid newspapers relied heavily on NZ Post for key Saturday deliveries.
He said the Saturday paper was traditionally the biggest and the most important for advertisers.
Up to 25% of six-day subscribers in some regional markets received their paper via NZ Post's rural delivery, and subscribers would now face delays in receiving their bumper weekend read, he said.
“That certainly puts those readers at a disadvantage from responding to advertising from their local businesses.
“But the loss of the Saturday edition makes it more likely that six-day subscribers will cancel their whole subscription.
“This will result in an overall decline in the readership of news from quality sources, and be yet another financial hit to our media companies.”
While print subscribers would be offered digital subscriptions, these generally provided less revenue than print subscriptions, and the value of digital advertising was substantially less than print, he said.
“Because of the significant reduction in revenue, it is likely that this decision will result in a number of the smaller regional newspapers ceasing print production altogether in the near future, becoming online titles only.
“This will affect all print subscribers and casual buyers of those titles, with the likely consequence being a further reduction of quality news readership.”
The NPA and media companies had shared a range of ideas with the Government on how it could support local media, he said.
“One of those steps is to confirm that the Fair Digital News Bargaining Bill, in amended form, will go back to Parliament.
“Once the minister for communications receives a select committee report on the bill in May, we certainly hope to hear positive news about its progress."
NZ Post chief operating officer Brendon Main said the decision had been made because Saturday services of newspapers and parcels to rural areas were not commercially viable.
“We deliver very low volumes of items on these days, and it costs us more to deliver on Saturdays than we earn from the products we deliver.”
He acknowledged the effect that ceasing Saturday deliveries might have on people who lived in rural areas, and said it was not a decision that had been made lightly.
“We need to make some hard decisions about our future and the services we offer as we evolve to meet the needs of New Zealanders.”