APN buys Stratford Press in Taranaki

APN News & Media unit APN New Zealand said today it had bought Stratford Press, a weekly community newspaper operating in Taranaki, for an undisclosed sum.

Stratford Press, in its 47th year of publication, started life as The Mountain Town News, and covers Central Taranaki.

Stephen Coleman of Stratford Press said that while the company was one of the last independent community newspapers still printing its own newspaper, "the reality of the situation is that our printing equipment is past its use-by date and we could not afford to spend the capital necessary to upgrade. This has stunted the growth of Stratford Press."

The commercial printing arm of Stratford Press will close, with three redundancies. All publishing staff will be offered a transfer to APN on current terms and conditions.


The Press is a free weekly tabloid in Taranaki, with a circulation of 8755. 

* APN owns nzherald.co.nz and the New Zealand Herald, having bought New Zealand's biggest newspaper publisher, Wilson & Horton, more than three years ago. It is also joint owner of The Radio Network.

- NZPA