By Colin Peacock via RNZ

'One GP to 1900 people' was the stark headline on the front page of last week's Taupō & Tūrangi Herald, above a story about the "magnitude of burnout" for doctors there.

But the same day, there was more stark news for the readers of the free community weekly: there could soon be no newspaper at all for them to read.

The paper's publisher NZME had just announced plans to close almost all its free local papers in the North Island, including the Taupō & Tūrangi Herald, citing mounting costs and slumping ad revenue.

The New Herald Zealand Herald Media Insider column said the papers could close as soon as Christmas, with the loss of 30 jobs.

NZME's rival Stuff closed its community paper, Taupō Times, in June.

Similarly, Stuff closed the Levin-based Horowhenua Mail in 2022. If NZME now closes the Horowhenua Chronicle as planned, there will be no newsroom in the region by the end of the year.

"An arid outlook for local media," concluded former New Zealand Herald editor Gavin Ellis, raising the prospect of 'news deserts' overseas appearing here.

It refers to the growing number of towns and regions where local news sources have closed down - along with the scrutiny of public life they provided.

Research has linked closures of newspapers to declines in civic engagement of citizens, increases in government waste, and increases in political polarisation.

"As a metaphor, the desert evokes a sense of arid emptiness and silence. But it also suggests a featureless place where we lose a sense of direction," AUT senior lecturer in journalism, Greg Treadwell, wrote in response to NZME's plan.

Many of these papers were their community's central or only source of verified local news, he pointed out.

"The NZME announcement shouldn't have come as a surprise ... but local news had been a fixture for so long it's clear many community leaders felt blindsided," Sunday Star-Times editor Tracy Watkins wrote last weekend.

Among them was Central Hawke's Bay mayor Alex Walker.

"I am devastated. It is a massive blow. Central Hawke's Bay Mail is our community newspaper. It's where we discuss our district, we tell our stories, and most importantly, we connect."

And with local elections next year, the closures were an urgent and acute problem, he argued.

But Watkins went on to say government and local councils were "probably as much a part of the problem as anyone."

"They've increasingly bypassed local media, spending their advertising and marketing budgets on comms teams and newsletters, or social media - and paying vast sums of money for targeted Facebook advertising instead," she wrote in her editorial.

Local government advertising is also at the heart of the struggle at Westport News.

It is not a community freebie paper from a big chain - but a decades-old independent daily paper that charges readers for news in print and online, and employs 17 people.

Westport News said it was now fighting for survival after the Buller District Council moved almost all its advertising to a free weekly paper at the Greymouth Star, which is majority-owned by Dunedin-based Allied Press.

Queenstown-based Crux - which did not take local government advertising on principle - went into 'hibernation' recently after seven years covering local issues.

As an online-only initiative, Crux did not have the same escalating paper-and print costs as NZME, but editor Peter Newport said: "We are too small to benefit from the necessary scale of national digital advertising - and vulnerable to the substantial and selective financial support of print media by our local councils."

For its part, Local Government NZ has called on central government to help. It has urged an expansion of the Local Democracy Reporting scheme run by RNZ since 2019 and part-funded by NZ On Air.

It was modelled on a UK scheme filling local and rural reporting gaps there, and our version now deploys 18 journalists at local news organisations around the country to cover local authorities, courts, rūnanga and other bodies.

LGNZ president Sam Broughton said in a statement the entire country could be covered this way to help local media report local issues, especially with the prospect of local elections next year in some places with no local journalists.

"This and more should be done. The longer we wait, the closer the news desert creeps every day," AUT's Greg Treadwell concluded.

An idea whose time has come?

The country's biggest paper publisher, Stuff, closed or sold 28 community papers back in 2018. It has shut down other titles too since the local buyout of the company from Australian owners Nine Media in early 2020.

But it still has 19 community titles left, as well as its eight regional dailies.

Joanna Norris. Photo: RNZ / Fairfax NZ

"I certainly think that there are areas of the country, and particularly in regional New Zealand, that are really vulnerable and where it is becoming increasingly difficult to provide news coverage - and in particular by newspapers," Stuff's managing director of masthead publishing Joanna Norris told Mediawatch.

"Following the NZME announcement we did hear from local communities that they are very much still value print newspapers - and particularly in rural areas. So we're still very much committed to regional New Zealand."

So why close the Taupō Times, Horowhenua Mail and others?

"It is getting increasingly harder, and we are all also providing strong digital solutions for local communities and local news coverage. But real constraints are starting to hit many publishers ... ranging from the shift of the advertising dollar to the global tech platforms and to things like NZ Post's decision to pull out of rural delivery on a Saturday.

"There are simply fewer resources to fund news in those communities. They are telling us that they value these publications, and so our very strong message to both mayors and also to local businesses is: if you do value this, support it.

"We cannot afford to be running publications that are non-profitable. So where possible, [they should] ensure that it's a part of their advertising mix.

"We will continue to consolidate portfolios where it makes sense to do so. In Taupō and Horowhenua, we distribute The Post into both of those locations and the Sunday Star-Times as well."

But there isn't a newsroom or reporter in either place.

More than just the ads?

The 14 November edition of NZME's Taupō & Tūrangi Herald had several pages of advertising, including full pages promoting national brands and three pages of local display and classified ads.

Why would publishers turn away from that revenue - especially if the market is clear for them?

"Often these decisions need to be made with a portfolio of publications, because there are economies of scale for producing several publications at once through your print site. It may be that while one publication is washing its face, another is not," Norris told Mediawatch.

"But almost half of New Zealanders over 15 are still reading a printed newspaper as part of their news diet. Alongside digital, there's enormous penetration and appetite for news.

"What we're all working to achieve are sustainable models that ensure that we're able to keep covering the news that New Zealanders want. Working out the appropriate cost base is an ongoing part of that - and we're committed to covering New Zealand regions."

Does she reckon local councils complaining about closures are obliged to spend money on them to keep them going?

"It's not so much 'sending money our way'. It's paying for the things that they value. A mayor at a function in the last few days told me how much he valued the local newsroom we had in his community. I said to him: 'Are you a subscriber?' And he said no.

"I said to him it would be really valuable if he did subscribe, because that's the support that we need to continue operating in communities like yours"

Stuff has Local Democracy Reporting journalists in Marlborough and in Wairarapa. Does Stuff back the expansion LGNZ had called for?

"I don't think the LDR service is the entire answer. It has been really useful for some communities, but ultimately we want to ensure that we are not reliant on government support," Norris said.

"Their content is available for all media to use ... but the LDR scheme is specifically for local democracy coverage. An LDR reporter in a small newsroom can't cover topics beyond their local council.

"Our preference is that we have a regulatory environment that supports a strong and thriving media ecosystem. We are fiercely advocating for the Fair Digital News Bargaining legislation, which would mean that we were able to negotiate with the global tech platforms for fair payment for the content that they use." - RNZ