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Readers interested in Auckland Council and Rodney Local Board affairs will have to buy a NZ Herald or rely on online notices in future.
This follows a council staff decision to shift advertising from the now-defunct Rodney Times to the Herald.
Council’s head of governance programmes and policies, Oliver Roberts, says the choice to go with the Herald reflects the statutory requirement to notify meetings and the ability to publish a public notice for all 21 local boards and board meetings in one notice.
However, the decision looks more widespread than just meeting dates.
Gulf News, on Waiheke Island, is reporting that council is shifting its public notification of alcohol licences to online only. Council justified this decision by saying that with the closure of Stuff’s Auckland community newspapers, the availability of free newspaper coverage across Auckland had become “inconsistent”. Council says requiring public notices in free newspapers, based on location, “creates confusion for the public and results in inequity and unfairness for alcohol licensees.”
Elected officials appear to have been just as blindsided by the decision as the community papers.
Rodney Local Board chair Brent Bailey says the board was not consulted, and Waitematā and Gulf Ward Councillor Mike Lee says he knew nothing about it either.
Rodney Councillor Greg Sayers says it is disgraceful for Auckland Council to put the financial interests of ‘paid for’ newspapers ahead of popular and free community newspapers.
“Community newspapers have far higher readership numbers than the Herald,” he says. “They are more popular and more heavily read. They are a more effective spend of ratepayers’ money.
“Effectively, residents and ratepayers are paying twice via their rates to pay for council’s advertising, and then having to fork out again to pay to buy a newspaper to find out the important civic issues which affect them. That is outrageous.”
Sayers notes that community newspapers are totally dependent on every advertising dollar they can attract to remain free, so for council to channel advertising revenue away from them is wrong and he opposes it.
Lee adds that Council needs to react by building its relations with local community media, not dumping them.
“Local papers at the heart of our community, our democracy, are being punished economically … just because a big corporate media company made a commercial decision to walk away,” he says.
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