Until January 2006, member newspapers were obliged by contract to supply their home town news copy to NZPA.
This resulted in NZPA owning outright the intellectual property to the national news wire which it was then free to sell to all other media on a commercial basis.
The NZPA newsroom (based in Wellington) sent out approximately 1000 different pieces of information every 24 hours, compiled from the resources of its employees, overseas wire services and other sources such as the NZ Stock Exchange.
NZPA operated business, national and a sports desk which also covered racing and employed a rural reporter.
Australian Associated Press (AAP) started NZ Newswire (NZN) on 5 September 2011,[3] but closed it on 27 April 2018.