Farewell NZPA

Today NZPA sadly goes out of existence. This will make New Zealand one of the few countries without a national news agency. It also means that fewer worthy but unsensational parliamentary stories will get written and covered. NZPA provided excellent coverage of Parliament.

On Stuff there is a farewell article from former NZPA Editor Max Lambert.

Stuff also has an article focusing on the future:

The NZPA national news service officially ceases today and the void is being filled by news services set up by both companies, named FNZN and APNZ respectively, and joined by a third from the Australian Associated Press.

It will be interesting to see how the three services go. I’m not that hopeful:

APNZ would be “less institutional” in its focus, putting its resources to provide news that readers wanted rather than sticking rigidly to emergency services and political argument, Simons said.

I read this as being more stories about Britney Spears and fewer stories about boring stuff such as the electoral system referendum.