Newspaper partnership benefits New Zealand's Chinese communities

Thousands of Chinese living in New Zealand have better access to mainstream media thanks to a new collaboration between The New Zealand Herald and the Chinese Herald.

The New Zealand Herald is now sharing its content with the Chinese Herald, sending its front page story through to its Chinese counterpart each night. Chinese Herald staff then translate the story into Chinese in time for the next day's edition.

The Chinese Herald, which started in 1994, is published four days a week and is widely recognised as the leading newspaper for New Zealand's Chinese communities. Under a new contract with APN Print, the paper is now printed alongside the New Zealand Herald at APN Print’s Ellerslie plant.

Siblings Maggie and Raymond Chen, originally from the city of Shantou in the Chinese province of Guangdong, took over the newspaper in 2002.

Chinese Herald CEO Ms Chen said the collaboration meant that tens of thousands in New Zealand's Chinese community would now have access to mainstream media stories from New Zealand.

"This deal is unprecedented in the ethnic media sector and we are continuing to discuss opportunities in other areas, including distribution, marketing, circulation and advertising."

She added that the Chinese community represents a lucrative market for mainstream advertisers, but is under-served at the moment.

The Chinese Herald usually receives the topic of The New Zealand Herald's top story around 5pm. Even though they don't yet have the article itself, staff begin searching for information about the topic in preparation for translating it later that night. "We need to do some good homework. This is very important for completing the translation in time and with good quality," said Ms Chen.

More than 300 guests celebrated the new partnership at a banquet at the SkyCity Auckland Convention Centre, including Auckland mayor Len Brown, the consul-general of the People's Republic of China in Auckland, Liao Juhua, prominent members of Auckland's Chinese community, and senior managers from both newspapers.

Prime Minister John Key was among those who sent a congratulatory message, saying New Zealand's Chinese communities will play an important role in shaping the country's future. "The media has an important role to play in helping new Chinese migrants to settle into New Zealand society and get involved in our communities."

Images:
Auckland mayor Len Brown speaking at the banquet celebrating the collaboration between the two papers.