UPDATED 11.33am: APN News and Media and Fairfax Media are in exclusive talks to merge their New Zealand operations and create a new publishing empire in this country.

NZME will de-merge from its Australian parent APN and will be listed on the Australian and New Zealand stock exchanges.

If the merger's approved by the Commerce Commission , Fairfax NZ assets will be folded into the listed New Zealand company NZME later this year.

As well, Fairfax will take a shareholding in the listed NZME.

The new company will bring two New Zealand major publishing empires together.

It straddles nationwide titles like the NZ Herald and the DomPost, a slew of regional newspapers, two major websites - nzherald.co.nz and stuff.co.nz plus the Radio Network, which includes Newstalk ZB.

APN chief executive Ciaran Davis said the combination of these two businesses would provide the necessary capability to continue investing in high-quality local news, sport and entertainment at a time when advertiser commercial investment continues to fragment across international media platforms that do not invest in local content.

Labour Party commerce spokesman David Shearer said a merger would negatively affect media freedom in New Zealand.

“We have two major print media networks who are competing against each other, which is always good, and two massively popular websites, of the Herald and Stuff, competing against each other.

“I can’t see any good coming out of merging this so that we have effectively one newspaper network for the entire country.

“It puts an enormous amount of power in the Fourth Estate into the hands of very few people and I hope the Commerce Commission sees it that way. Going on past records, I’m not that confident.”

Broadcasting Minister Amy Adams said it was not for her to comment on the merits of mergers between private companies.

But she suggested that the Government would not stand in the way of a merger between NZME and Fairfax.

“Ultimately it’s for the Commerce Commission to decide on competition issues.”

Ms Adams said “convergence” was having a “dramatic impact” on the telecommunications, media and entertainment sectors.

“New Zealanders want to access their content in different ways and on multiple platforms, and businesses across these sectors face a number of challenges as they adapt,” she said.

“The distinctions between print, radio, television and online news are fading. Generally, digital convergence is giving New Zealanders greater access to content than ever before.

“Through platform convergence, previously distinct media platforms compete with each other at a level much greater than ever before- with television companies publishing editorials, for example, or newspaper websites running video clips. “