With just five weeks until New Zealand's Commerce Commission decides whether publishers NZME and Fairfax NZ can merge, the battle for hearts clearly isn't being won on the video front.

Industry group NewsMediaWorks - which is owned by parent companies Fairfax Media and APN, plus News Corp Australia and Seven West Media - posted interviews with representatives of the two companies in December, but has so far scored only 61 views on YouTube (at the time of writing).

In it NZME chief executive Michael Boggs and managing editor Shayne Currie, Fairfax NZ managing editor Simon Tong and group executive editor Sinead Boucher argue that public interest would be best served by a strong local media company at a time when digital publishing is dominated by multinational platforms.

Sinead Boucher says the merger would support the continuation of local journalism by creating synergies through the consolidation of back office functions: "Diversity is protected by stabilising the business to ensure we can have a lot of journalists around New Zealand," she says.

The view is echoed by Shayne Currie, who describes the merger as "one of the few opportunities left in the current environment".

Matthew Horton, whose family used to own the New Zealand Herald and most of the print assets in what is now NZME, takes the opposite view. These days the proprietor of a print-focussed business which includes web-offset printing operations in Auckland and Brisbane, he says revenue from digital advertising is only a tiny proportion of that of the two publishers.

It's "laughable" that the businesses would disappear if the merger was not allowed, he says - adding that the merger ideas have come from Australia - in an RNZ interview broadcast last July. It has recorded 212 views on YouTube in six months.

Another video from that period has fared only slightly better: Martyn 'Bomber' Bradbury's opinionated lead of a 30-minute so-called panel discussion posted just after merger plans were announced last May has scored 235 views. "Is this the last stand of a doomed dinosaur industry," he asks, inviting views a Labor representative and couple of academics.

A final decision from the NZCC is expected on or before March 15.

Pictured: Shayne Currie (left) and executives from NZME and Fairfax NZ catch up in the ground of the V&A museum in London in May during the INMA World Congress (GXpress photo)