No newspapers in Koru lounge
 

Well one is kind of necessary for operations, one is not...

I guess getting rid of newspapers isn't super necessary but tbh I had no idea anyone ever actually read them. All of their magazines and newspapers sit unused everytime I have been in a lounge.

It's the same whenever flight attendants in business on other airlines go around handing out newspapers and magazines. "Hi would you like..." "No." "Sir would you like..." "No." No one ever takes them. I always thought of them as a relic of the past that Airlines are still stuck in from the days before personal devices.

Many many people read them. Hundreds are appreciatively taken by clients everyday.
I for one value them as a distraction on the two hour prop flights around New Zealand.
Removing these is the removal of another service customers appreciated. And seems likes 'enhancing' another valued customer service away under the guise of sustainability.

Also with the crowding in the lounges is there actually enough space to open a newspaper?

Perhaps the airports may introduce free newspapers like in the brisbane domestic airport (near the gates )

An interesting way of doing it could have been teaming up with some "news sites" and done a paywall bypass when accessing from lounge Wi-Fi.

Sustainability....yet they send tens of thousands of those coffee cups to landfill each day which can't be recycled.

Newsprint, from a sustainable renewable resource, which is recyclable. It's greenwash nonsense from an industry that has a significant environmental impact.

After a long flight I LIKE to read a newspaper and not stare at a screen to read news, especially with more and more papers being behind paywalls. Virtually all serious Australian newspapers are behind paywalls, and Qantas offers both electronic and paper copy access. In BP before takeoff the IFE is not exactly convenient to watch, so reading a paper can be a great way to pass the time before reaching altitude, and I prefer "slow" consumption of news which isn't about flicking to articles of obvious interest, but scanning across them all. Many times I've flown from LHR and been in the AKL domestic Koru Club and picked up a newspaper to find out what was going on in NZ, rather than flick through my phone or fire up my laptop to do so.

Is it enough to reconsider NZ over alternatives when I'm flying Oz-US twice in the next couple of months? Probably not, there are many factors between schedule, seating, fares, lounges, on-board service, but this is just another small negative. NZ is still good enough that when it is price competitive with QF, I tend to pick it (although the incentive to use it beyond renewing Elite status is poor), but nickel and diming like this just shows what NZ can do when it knows it has a dominant market position domestically in NZ and on many routes (especially for business travel).

The Strata lounge provides newspapers iirc :D

Yes...it's like those hotel chains that say why don't you reuse your towels every day, and we won't change the sheets either. It's all about sustainability, although me thinks it is their bank accounts that they relly wish to "sustain". Is ANZ going to make a charitable donation to an environmental cause with the savings from getting rid of the newspaper? ......pause...pause...nope, did not think so.

At least in some parts of the world they toss you a freebie or discount if you elect to reuse your towels and similar as an eco statement.

The BS 'spin' is as annoying as the issue itself.

I would definitely like to see more environmentally friendly cups in the future if possible.

Elite gift of an AirNZ keep cup this year?

I'd be happy if they cut those too - not drinking that crap

I was going to suggest that, until I thought about the morning coffee rush. The speed in which they make coffees is truly impressive, but there is no way right now they could do that with keep cups! Maybe later in the day when it's less busy.

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/...ectid=12246093

A publishing industry veteran and managing director of Lassoo Media, John Baker, said he was puzzled by Air NZ's use of sustainability to can newspapers.
"They have their own magazine. If they are going to apply to newspapers it should apply to their own magazine."

Baker said while newspapers were made of recycled paper, glossy paper for magazines such as Kia Ora was imported.
"It seems like a convenient way to justify reducing costs."

Yeah the sustainability angle is just ridiculous tbh. No one is going to buy that.

I do think other airlines that buy stacks of newspapers to give out on planes that almost no one takes might want to reassess that, but a newspaper in the lounge is nothing.

Those magazines, why on earth do they still exist. Do they really bring that much revenue for Air NZ? They must, otherwise they wouldn't still have them. But I see almost no one reading them so I am surprised businesses are willing to pay for advertising space.

With the cup printed with the words "I am a Airnz Elite Flyer" and a free subscription to the newspaper :-)

How do they say this stuff with a straight face? The change coinciding with all the other lounge changes on July 1st does nothing for the cynicism either

Easy, they used the same straight face that said "It's a Kiwi Safety" video that racked up 20 million online views, was popular.

IMO it is a cost cut but not just to the bottom line that many people see here. NZ acknowledges that airlines are seen a large contributors to carbon emissions and have been trying to do what it can to reduce them, but obviously as your core business emits the vast majority of your emissions then there is not much you can do. The proposed Carbon Zero amendments that is currently in Parliament will put even more pressure on it to cut everything it can.
Just because the newsprint is made from recycled paper, it does not mean there is no carbon cost associated with it. It is just lower, for some recycled materials I saw the figures of 1-2% reduction over virgin stock. Recycling is not going save the planet, it helps but is not the single cure, reducing what we use will be the largest contributor to sustainability.
In light of the above,I for one did read the papers when I had access to the lounges, but I finished them on the ground at the end of the trip, mostly in hotels. When traveling on non-Aust/NZ airlines I did take the offer of papers to see other points of view of what was going around the world.