Our mission

Our mission is to enable New Zealand publishers and authors to access a world class digital asset management and distribution system. Our vision is that in 2013 New Zealand digital books are being read throughout the world. The storage and distribution systems will be available to traditional publishers as well as self-publishing authors of New Zealand content.

Owned by the industry

Digital Publishing New Zealand has been established with the NZ Society of Authors and the Publishers Association of NZ as 50/50 shareholders. Digital Publishing NZ operates on a cost-recovery basis and any surplus will be distributed to the shareholders.

Board of Directors

The Digital Publishing New Zealand Board of Directors consists of two directors nominated by the NZ Society of Authors, two directors nominated by the Publishers Association of NZ, and one independent director elected to the board.

The current Directors are:

Tony Simpson (NZSA)

President – NZ Society of Authors

Tony Simpson has published widely on aspects of New Zealand history. His books, pamphlets and articles range in focus from the New Zealand depression in The Sugarbag Years (1974), to the origins of New Zealand cuisine in A Distant Feast (1999). He has written extensively on the lives of working class New Zealanders and his other notable titles include, State House Furnishings and Working Class Culture and the idiosyncratic The Scone in New Zealand literature: A Post Modernist Approach.

Gordon McLauchlan (NZSA)

Gordon McLauchlan is a well-known media personality who, in addition to his writing, has fronted television programmes, worked in radio and has edited the New Zealand Herald’s books pages. McLauchlan is best known as a cultural critic and a social historian. He has written a number of best-sellers, including The Passionless People, which launched two one-hour television programmes. McLauchlan spent 10 years as the editor-in-chief of The New Zealand Encyclopedia, and he published A Short History of New Zealand (Penguin) in 2004 (reissued in 2009).

Karen Ferns (PANZ)

Managing Director, Random House NZ Ltd

Robyn Bargh (PANZ)

Managing Director, Huia Publishers

The independent director is yet to be appointed.