Bay of Plenty Times growth since Mt Maunganui became an export port. However, from the early 2000s it began to face challenges of declining circulation and advertising. On 5 February 2011, the Saturday edition was re-branded as the "Bay Of Plenty Times Weekend". On 4 March 2013, the weekday "Bay Of Plenty Times" changed from broadsheet to tabloid format and from afternoon to morning delivery. The "Bay of Plenty Times" has the ninth-largest circulation of New Zealand's 19 daily newspapers, at just over 11,500. The "Bay of Plenty Times" also publishes the following newspapers: The "Coastal News" is delivered free every Thursday to Whangamata,
Countries dependent on the Bay of Bengal platform, which opened in 1994, was shut down in 2013. India's Reliance Industries began production in an offshore block near India's coast in 2009. The BIMSTEC countries view the Bay of Bengal as a common security space. The first conference of national security chiefs in the region was held in 2017. The Bay of Bengal has non-traditional security challenges of piracy, human trafficking, terrorist networks and drug smuggling, which has led to greater cooperation between the navies of Bangladesh, India, the United States and Thailand. The Bay of Bengal is a prime zone of strategic competition between two of Asia's