NZX has sold its rural newspaper Farmers Weekly to its former owners Dean and Cushla Williamson for an undisclosed sum, with the new entity taking on all 15 staff.
Feilding-based agri-publisher GlobalHQ has acquired the weekly paper as the stock market operator reshapes its business to focus on developing its core market operations. The Williamsons sold the paper to NZX in 2009, and the deal mirrors a similar transaction in 2016 when NZX sold farm management magazines Country-Wide and New Zealand Dairy Exporter to its former head of agri Tony Leggat, who created Country Wide Publications with Dean Williamson.
"The NZX team have grown the Farmers Weekly brand well, adding more market information, and developing the online offering including electronic newsletters and video," Dean Williamson said in a statement. "There is a good team in place and I look forward to working with them to develop the newspaper, and keep delivering information the rural sector needs, using traditional and new channels - it's an exciting time to be in media."
NZX yesterday signalled the sale was imminent after saying it received a second bid for the publication. Wellington-based NZX signed a non-binding sale agreement in February, which it said would be at no gain or loss to the company, and while it didn't disclose the value of the deal its accounts showed the agri division had $1.98 million of assets held for sale as at Dec. 31.
The stock market operator's latest monthly update showed Farmers Weekly paid ad page equivalents climbed 6.8 percent to 423 in the four months ended April 30 from a year earlier. The paper is delivered to 79,000 households, NZX's website said.
