New Zealand newspaper publisher APN News & Media began outsourcing editorial production work on Sunday, a strategy being watched by media outlets in other countries, a senior executive said.

An outside contractor will now do the editing and layout work for The New Zealand Herald — the nation’s biggest daily — along with several regional papers and weeklies, said APN deputy chief executive Rick Neville.

Starting today, 20 full-time sub-editors at contractor Pagemasters New Zealand will be “operating on an extension of APN's 'Cyber' computer editorial production system" at a site 20 minutes from the paper's editorial offices, Neville said.

He said that by the end of 2007, Pagemasters will have about 45 editing staff - nearly 30 fewer than the newspapers employed for the job - at their site to edit the seven newspapers.

"I'm confident readers won't notice the difference," said Neville, who has led the project.

He said there was a lot of international interest in the project, meant to cut costs and raise efficiency, but that "people will be sitting and making sure we can make it work first."

The programme will be extended to five daily and three weekly papers by the year's end, Neville said.

The Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union, whose members include New Zealand journalists, said the move will erode the quality of news coverage because stories will be handled by editors unfamiliar with local issues.