Nine’s mastheads chopped off by digital editions.

 

Tasmanian newsagents have expressed disappointment at the Nine media group’s decision to cease local print editions of The Age and Australian Financial Review.

 

The company cited rising production costs and a growing digital audience as the key factors behind its decision to wind up printing and distribution of the mastheads in Tasmania at the end of next month.

 

"With more than 90 per cent of our subscribers in Tasmania now accessing our news digitally, the shift in reader behaviour, combined with rising costs of production and distribution, means continuing to print a low volume of paper editions is no longer sustainable," a Nine spokesperson told the ABC.

 

Launceston newsagency owner Daniel Marshall said he was "a little bit shocked" by Nine's decision.

 

"When they don't come in anymore to get that paper, it not only stops the foot traffic coming through, but it also forces them to go online and search for the things they need there," he told the ABC.

 

Ben Kearney from the Australian Lotteries and Newsagents Association said it was a "difficult situation" that would impact newsagents across Tasmania.

 

Nine said it would continue to source the entirety of its national newsprint from the Boyer Paper Mill in Tasmania's south.