Salient. Victoria University Student Newspaper. Vol 35 no. 4. 22 March 1972

Labour Opposition

Labour Opposition

The proposed merger between the Dominion and Evening Post means that Salient will be one of only two papers in the Wellington area not controlled by the new combined company, points out. The monthly Western Suburbs News would be the only other independent paper.

At Last the News!

At Last the News!

Notwithstanding the assurance of containing editorial independence of both the Dominion and the Evening Post, the public must be very concerned that news and opinion outlets are being concentrated in fewer and fewer hands. Not only must editorial independence be retained; it must be seen to be retained, if the public are to have any faith in the newspapers as a source of news and comment. The public will obviously realise that in the ultimate, editorial policy is controlled by the Board of Directors and not the editorial staff.

In stating that the Government does not intend tend to interfere, as the Companies are under no obligation to inform the Government of their intentions, Mr Marshall has shown the Government at its laissez faire best.

There is clearly no intention on the part of the Government to ensure that newspapers operate in the public interest. Public interest requires that the public should receive a variety of views on issues, and control should be appointed by the Government, which would have powers to forbid any takeovers or combinations of newspapers it considers to be against the public interest. This would be a necessary and desirable interference with "their freedom to conduct their own business... and dispose of their property as they see fit" which Mr Marshall has elevated to a holy principle. The Government is also being inconsistent here since in 1965 it passed legislation to prevent control of the Dominion passing into overseas hands, even though it was quite likely based on the experience of other newspapers taken over by that overseas interest, that editorial independence would have been maintained.

There are two other significant points concerning the merger. Firstly both companies say that the merger has been decided on because of the financial advantages of combining their printing operations. However if this really is the main reason the purposes of both companies would have been just as well served by some other approach. They could simply have agreed to combine their printing plants and established a holding company to run the printing plant, keeping editorial control completely separate.

Secondly, only the shareholders in the Evening Post, nearly all of whom are members of the Blundell family have any say in the merger. This is because in fact the Dominion is taking over the Evening Post and not vice verca and offering shares in its expanded company to shareholders of the Evening Post. Undoubtedly [ unclear: v s] is because the shareholders of the Dominion (which is a public company whose shares are traded on the Stock Exchange) would be more difficult to persuade than the fifty odd family shareholders in the Post, each of whom will receive a very handsome cash payment in addition to shares in the new combined company. The Dominion shareholders have no say in this matter since their directors have made the offer to the Post shareholders. This therefore prevents any worthwhile debate amongst the Dominion shareholders as to the questions of public interest involved.

David Shand