'The Independent' weekly business newspaper to cease

Fairfax Media will cease publishing its weekly business newspaper The Independent from July 1 and its eight journalists will write business news for the company's daily newspapers and websites.

The newspaper was established by investigative journalists Warren Berryman and Jenni McManus. Berryman died in 2004. McManus still writes for The Independent.

Cavalier Carpets founder Tony Timpson, who was made an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit in the Queen's Birthday Honours, spoke this week of his involvement with The Independent, which he bankrolled for many years.

Mr Timpson said The Independent was very successful at what it did, but it was never going to break the hold the "glossy" National Business Review had on advertisers.

"We thought we were doing something worthwhile," he said.

Fairfax Media said today that while The Independent would no longer be published in a weekly print format, all the best bits in the paper would remain, including the well respected Chalkie column and in-depth weekly feature.

Fairfax Media's Auckland multi-media business newsroom would be boosted by eight journalists who currently work for The Independent.

Group executive editor Paul Thompson said the excellent work by The Independent journalists would now be widely available.

"Those journalists will form a crucial part of Fairfax Media's multi-media Auckland newsroom, which provides high-quality journalism to all our brands in print and online.

"We believe it is particularly important to provide stronger business coverage online as that is where most readers of business news go first for reliable and agenda-setting stories."

Thompson told NZPA that the company did not have any plans for new publications and it had not been in talks with rival National Business Review.

"We have got two Sunday papers in this market, we have a stable of community newspapers and we have a strong online presence.

"The opportunity is in digital and this initiative gives our Businessday site a huge boost," he said.

The Independent reporters would continue to work as specialist business reporters. Another team of reporters covered general news in Auckland.

Fairfax Media had more than 30 business reporters nationally, he said.

Thompson saw the Australian and New Zealand markets for business news as being different. The move today was focused on the New Zealand market.