Read the Pacific's press
Pacific Newspapers Online
Newspapers, news sites and broadcasters from across Oceania — Australia and New Zealand to the smallest atoll states
16 countries · 249 newspapers · 11 Pacific-wide outlets
Oceania spans a third of the planet's surface and fewer people than greater Tokyo. Its press runs from Australia's national dailies down to island papers of a few thousand copies, several of them the only newsroom in the country — and for many atoll states, regional broadcasters carry more of the news than any local title.
Pick a country to read its own papers, or start with the Pacific-wide outlets further down. Those matter more here than in any other region: RNZ Pacific, ABC Pacific and the Pacific Islands News Association are the working newswire for much of the island Pacific.
Browse by country
Grouped by sub-region, then alphabetically. The number on each card is how many newspapers, news sites and TV channels that page lists.
Australia & New Zealand
2 countriesThe region's two large markets — metropolitan dailies, national broadsheets and public broadcasters.
Melanesia
4 countriesThe most populous island group, with real daily competition in Fiji and Papua New Guinea and press in Tok Pisin, Bislama, Hindi and English.
Polynesia
4 countriesSmall, long-established presses publishing in English and in Samoan, Tongan and Cook Islands Māori.
Micronesia
6 countriesAtoll states and territories where a single paper or government bulletin is often the whole domestic press.
Pacific-wide news & broadcasters
Business, analysis & sport
Frequently asked questions
- Which Pacific island countries have their own newspapers?
- Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Tonga, Vanuatu, the Solomon Islands, the Cook Islands, Guam, Palau, the Marshall Islands and the Federated States of Micronesia all publish their own papers or news sites — Fiji and PNG with genuine daily competition. In Nauru, Kiribati and Tuvalu the domestic press is thin enough that the regional broadcasters listed above do much of the reporting.
- What languages is the Pacific press published in?
- English is the shared language of the regional press, but national papers also publish in Tok Pisin (Papua New Guinea), Bislama (Vanuatu), Fijian and Fiji Hindi, Samoan, Tongan, Cook Islands Māori and te reo Māori in New Zealand. Each country page lists its own-language titles alongside the English ones.
- Where can I follow news across the whole Pacific?
- RNZ Pacific and ABC Pacific are the two indispensable sources — both are public broadcasters with dedicated island desks and free websites. PINA's PACNEWS wire carries what the national papers file, Islands Business covers regional business monthly, and Pacific Islands Report digests the island press.
- Are Australia and New Zealand included?
- Yes. Both are Pacific countries and both dominate the region's media — their broadcasters supply much of the island Pacific's news, and their metropolitan dailies are listed in full on their own pages. Readers looking only for the island states should start with the Melanesia, Polynesia and Micronesia groups.
No region depends more on outside newsrooms. Distance and tiny domestic markets mean several Pacific states have never sustained a daily paper, and when a cyclone or an election makes international news it is often RNZ Pacific or ABC Pacific reporting it first. That dependence is also fragile: both services have faced repeated funding cuts, and shortwave to the islands has already been switched off once.
The national papers remain the record of their own countries, though. Fiji's and Papua New Guinea's dailies have covered coups and independence at first hand, and the island weeklies carry court lists, church notices and provincial news that no regional service would ever run. Both layers are listed here — the region-wide outlets above, and every country's own press through the cards.