Independent business weekly closing

Fairfax Media will cease publishing its weekly business newspaper The Independent from July 1 and its eight journalists will write 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.

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's Auckland multi-media business newsroom would be boosted by eight journalists who currently work for The Independent. They would write for the company's newspapers and websites.

- NZPA