Pressing On: The Story of New Zealand's Newspapers, 1921-2000

In 1920, when Lasting Impressions, the first volume in this history of New Zealand newspapers ended, the large number of newspapers in the country were the profitable, well-respected vehicles of nearly all the news from around the world and around the corner welcomed into households in the largest cities and smallest hamlets. Newspapers were also the principal means by which manufacturers and merchants sold their products and services to people. This strange amalgam – provision of a public service in an essentially commercial operation – worked, for the most part, very successfully. All that changed over the next 80 years. There were ownership changes to what had been, both large and small, mainly family businesses. Radio, television and the Internet severely disrupted the press’s virtual monopoly of the news. The commercial model that allowed newspapers to function successfully was severely disrupted. Foreign owners, without the same commitment to New Zealand society, entered and began to dominate the local market. By 2000, the New Zealand newspaper market had changed forever – and in ways that put its very survival at risk. Pressing On is the story of how and why this happened.