KEY POINTS:
If Fairfax Media bought a stake in APN News & Media, it would give Fairfax ownership of the country's four main newspapers, but commentators say that still may not be seen as a monopoly.
Sir Anthony O'Reilly's Independent News & Media (INM) has announced it wants to sell
its 39.1 per cent stake in APN, publisher of the New Zealand Herald.
It says it is considering approaches from unnamed parties.
Those tipped to be in the market range from Fairfax to Australia's Seven and Ten Networks, and Lachlan Murdoch's Illyria.
Joan Withers, chief executive of Fairfax New Zealand which publishes the Dominion Post, the Press and the Waikato Times, did not rule out interest from the company.
"You never say never to any of these opportunities, but it's not something that's being pursued at all."
Withers said she rang Commerce Commission chair Paula Rebstock on Monday to check that her understanding of how the commission has viewed the media market was correct.
So far it had looked at New Zealand media markets discretely and geographically, she said.
APN also owns The Radio Network, broadcaster of Newstalk ZB. Fairfax has no radio interests in New Zealand.
Peter Myles, executive director of media buyer Omnicom Media Group, said advertisers bought space on a local basis and the major newspapers only competed nationally for advertising at an "extremely marginal level".
"It's less about who's got what and more about which market do we want to advertise in. It would be different if there were an APN and Fairfax daily competing in a market, but there isn't."
He said the market for online news was different, with APN and Fairfax websites competing head on.
Withers said in 2005 Fairfax was cleared by the Commerce Commission to buy the Rodney Times and other local publications, but even three years ago the internet wasn't as pervasive as it is now. That sector may be viewed differently now, she said.
Martin Gillman, director of media buyer Total Media, said Fairfax could argue that it didn't compete with APN in any way except on Sundays.
He said the only area of newspapers that had seen growth recently was in the competitive Sunday market. APN publishes the Herald on Sunday and Fairfax owns the Sunday Star-Times and Sunday News.
Competition lawyers said the challenge with a potential Fairfax purchase would be to define the multiple media markets. "That would be the task, to determine whether they are competing with each other in reality," said Buddle Findlay partner Tony Dellow.
