NZME and Fairfax New Zealand have got another month to convince the Commerce Commission allowing a merger of the country’s two dominant news publishers is in the public interest. The regulator said yesterday it had agreed with the companies to extend the deadline on making a final decision on their merger application, which was to have been announced next Wednesday. In the interim, chief operating officer Andrew Boyle is filling in, as he did in 2013 before Mr Tong’s appointment. The regulator’s draft decision was that authorising the deal’s impact on the diversity of media coverage outweighed the size of expected financial gains. More recently, they talked up the benefits of allowing a merger as creating a sustainable business that supports local journalism and contributes to New Zealand’s tax base.

Source: Otago Daily Times March 10, 2017 17:06 UTC