Horowhenua mayor Bernie Wanden. Photo: RNZ / Angus Dreaver
Christmas has come early for Horowhenua's mayor, with the demise of a 134-year-old community paper giving birth to a new Star.
The Horowhenua Chronicle, which has been in print since the 19th Century, published its final edition on Friday after its owner, NZME, announced the closure of 14 community papers.
However, the district's mayor Bernie Wanden said his devastation turned to delight at the announcement of the Horowhenua Star, set to rise like a phoenix from the ashes of the region's wasted media landscape.
"This is the best Christmas present Horowhenua could have," he said.
He said a local paper was a cornerstone of a community - especially one that skewed older - and reading it was not only an important weekly ritual that kept his finger on the pulse, it was vital for getting council information into the public domain.
"A lot of us are over-65 ... the print edition of a newspaper still plays a very important part in our lives.
"Without it, there would have been a heck of a lot less people knowing what is going on."
The successful eleventh-hour bid by local publisher and owner of Otaki Today, ID Media, will see a new paper, the Horowhenua Star, launch in the New Year, with former Chronicle and Manawatū Guardian staff at the helm.
Owner Ian Carson - who recalls the Chronicle landing in the letter box as a child - said his new employees learned of their fate mere hours after the final edition was put to bed.
He said despite talks beginning in the immediate aftermath of NZME's announcement, everything had to line up very quickly.
"We didn't offer anything to anybody until last Friday, their last day of work. We had a few drinks up at a bar in Levin and I offered them a job - they were super keen."
The plan, he said, was to give everyone a break over Christmas, and hit the ground running in mid-January, with the aim to have the first edition at the printers by February.
Carson was adamant local journalism still had a future, and feared so-called 'news deserts' where community papers had folded.
"Certainly journalism has changed, but I think the concept of good local journalism, with good people on the ground, doing the stuff, chasing the fire engines every now and again, going to council meetings and just talking to people ... I think there's a great future for it.
He said a small, family-run publication such as ID Media had the advantage of being nimble.
"You can react to things pretty quickly, you don't have a corporate model dictating who is doing what.
"There are certain stories that you want to cover because they're just damn good local stories."
He said the Star's resources would have to be lean with, with no official premises and staff working from home, but hoped to expand soon and continue a long tradition in journalism of hiring new graduates to cut their teeth in the regions.
