American newspaper editor turned academic Kenton Bird traveled this country in 2010 to see if the ‘news deserts’ caused by newspaper closures in the US could happen here. 12 years on, he’s back - and happy to find our papers still in print even though the ‘rivers of gold’ dried up long ago and our biggest publisher was sold for a single gold coin in 2020.
Prof. Kenton Bird from the University of Idaho, a former newspaper editor back in New Zealand to check up on our newspapers 12 years after his first trip around the country. Photo: RNZ Stewart Robinson