APN News & Media, publisher of the New Zealand Herald, is to sell its South Island newspaper interests, along with its Wellington-based community papers.
In a memo to staff, APN describes the decision to quit the twice-weekly giveaway Christchurch paper, The Star, the Oamaru Mail and a clutch of other small, community titles in the South Island and Wellington as a "strategic decision to consolidate its publishing business in the North Island.''
The Star, published Wednesdays and Fridays, has an audited circulation of 71,644, while the Oamaru Mail is one of the country's smallest, with a circulation of just 2,883.
APN has a strategic relationship with the privately held Allied Press, publishers of the Otago Daily Times in Dunedin. Almost all other South Island newspapers are owned by APN's chief competitor, Fairfax Media.
The Star unit also publishes several Canterbury community papers: the North Canterbury News, Pegasus Post, News Advertiser, Selwyn Times, The Observer, and Western News. Its Wellington community newspaper stable, the Capital Community Newspaper Group, is published under the "City Life'' brand in several localised editions and competes with Fairfax weekly giveaway papers.