WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) - Newspaper publisher APN News & Media began outsourcing editorial production work on Sunday, a plan which will be extended to five daily and three weekly newspapers by year-end.
The changes mean news editing and layout operations at The New Zealand Herald, the country's biggest daily, and a string of regional dailies will be done by an outside contractor, said APN deputy chief executive Rick Neville.
"I'm confident readers won't notice the difference" in the papers' editing and design, said Neville, who has led the editorial production re-engineering project for APN.
Neville said there was a lot of international interest in the project, but "people will be sitting and making sure we can make it work first. I've got no doubt about it being a success."
Half-owned by Irish businessman Tony O'Reilly's Dublin-based Independent News & Media PLC that publishes 175 newspapers and magazines worldwide, APN publishes newspapers, operates radio stations and outdoor advertising sites in Australia and New Zealand.
The same editorial outsourcing strategy recently was announced at newspapers owned by O'Reilly in Ireland.
Neville said that from Sunday, 20 sub-editors will work full time at contractor Pagemasters New Zealand "operating on an extension of APN's Cyber computer editorial production system" at a site 20 minutes from the paper's editorial offices.
A subsidiary of news agency Australian Associated Press, Pagemasters had already done outsourced editing and production work on "non-time critical content" for the New Zealand Herald during the past week, including racing, television, motoring and op-ed pages, he said.
"On Aug. 20, we start going live with hard news pages . . . a critical phase, but we will have at least 30 sub-editorial staff at Pagemasters by then," he added.
After six weeks all Herald editing and makeup will be transferred to Pagemasters, "then we move to the Aucklander weekly, the Herald on Sunday and on October we will start transferring to regional papers," said Neville.
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