Fairfax knocks but NBR door closed

Media giant Fairfax is knocking on the door of New Zealand's long-standing independent business paper the National Business Review (NBR).

Nevil Gibson, NBR's editor-in-chief, confirmed yesterday that Fairfax had expressed an interest in buying the weekly paper, but its owner, Barry Colman had so far resisted offers.

"Our definitive position on this from our owner is that it is not for sale, but he doesn't deny that Fairfax are very interested in talking to him about selling," Gibson said.

"He has no intention of doing so at the moment."

Fairfax New Zealand's chief operating officer, Peter O'Hara, did not return calls yesterday.

The Australian media group purchased INL's print assets - including the Dominion Post and Sunday Star Times - in 2003 and has been shopping for a New Zealand business newspaper to match its Australian Financial Review ever since.

Speculation had centred around a takeover of perennial battler the Independent, or the launch of its own paper.

The NBR has suffered from falling readership and the departure of senior staff. It has also failed to capture as large a slice of the advertising market as it ought to in a boom.

"I don't think it's been much fun in the last two or three years," an industry source said, on condition of anonymity.

"It's been competitive and for independents like NBR, the market is relatively limited."

The paper's charismatic publisher was unavailable for comment yesterday.

Sources suggest the NBR masthead could be worth around $20 million - small in terms of Colman's estimated $160 million fortune.

"It's a bit of a state secret as to what (profit) it actually makes. But in terms of being a flagship for influence it has been much stronger," the source said.

NBR, founded in 1970, was part-owned by Fairfax for a period in the 1980s. Colman's Liberty Press has owned it since 1991.

- NZPA