John Warburton reads the latest edition on the Courier. His grandfather started up the Waipa Post in 1911. Photo: Leonard Powell/RNZ
Fourteen North Island community newspapers will learn their fate this week, they could be closed down by Christmas as NZME look to cut costs in its community paper operation.
Among them are the Hauraki Coromandel Post, Katikati Advertiser, Te Puke Times, Taupō and Tūrangi Herald, Napier Courier, Hastings Leader, CHB Mail, Bush Telegraph, Stratford Press, Whanganui Midweek, Manawatū Guardian, Horowhenua Chronicle, and Kāpiti News.
The Te Awamutu Courier, which has been in print since 1911, was also on the list.
First Up took a trip over the Bombay hills to hear from the Waikato community desperate to keep their local rag.
Te Awamutu Courier desperate to stay open
Dean Taylor has worked at the Te Awamutu Courier for the 37 years, and been its editor for the past 13.
He was blindsided by the news that NZME is proposing to shut down 14 of their North Island newspapers, including the Courier.
"Shock and disbelief that it could be so drastic. Anger, from my point of view, that they had lumped all the newspapers in together," he said.
"I understand they've made us into a group of community newspapers. But the fact is the proposal in fact isn't to close all the newspapers who are part of the community group. There are a couple of exceptions."
We're talking in a large, but mostly empty office. Of the Courier's handful of employees left, there's only two here today.
Taylor recalls the height of the 80s, when things looked much different.
"We had newspaper printing works, we printed our paper and quite a few other papers. We had a commercial printing department, a bindery, setters, graphic designers, comps.
"We had readers to make sure that there were no mistakes. We had a sales team, and then we had a whole front office department who took ads, did reception, did the billing, etc. So yeah, a big team of people."
The big changes came when the courier was sold by Wilson and Horton in 1992, eventually leading to commercial printing being disestablished in Te Awamutu.
Dean Taylor at the mostly empty Te Awamutu Courier office. Photo: Leonard Powell/RNZ
NZME bought the paper in 2011, and Taylor said locals had struggled with people from outside Te Awamutu running the show.
"They want a relationship with people they know. I've tried to say to our company that you can't ring someone up in Te Awamutu from Auckland and try and sell them an ad or talk to them about a story. It just doesn't go down very well."
Taylor said the beauty of community newspapers was reading the hyper local stories you don't see in the mainstream news.
Another person caught off guard by the proposal was John Warburton, who has the paper in his blood.
"My grandfather started the newspaper in 1911, and our family were managing it for 97 years. My father took over after my grandfather, and then I followed my father.
"My first reaction was shock more than anything. The Courier to me is a very viable newspaper. I'd just seen on the previous issue which was 32 pages, had a good advertising content, and there's no reason why that paper is not viable."
The Courier publishes an edition every Thursday with a readership of 27,000.
On the day RNZ visited, the front page story was about the proposed cuts and Taylor's 250th plasma donation.
The edition is 36 pages long, other stories included local parking disruptions, a dog attack, and a local butchery winning national awards.
With a twinkle in his eye, Warburton recalled the rush of the moon landing, and says the Courier would've been one of the first papers in the world to report it.
"On the day the man landed on the moon, I think it was about 9.30am. Our paper was just about set to go to the press, and in those days we were still using linear type.
"The editor came running out and he took two or three paragraphs out of the front page story and we put a little black box in there saying man had landed on the moon, and we printed the paper at about 11am."
The retiree is a big believer that every town needs a local newspaper.
"The internet's fine, everything's changing, but there's a lot of elderly people here who can't handle modern technology, including myself. The newspaper is a real mouthpiece for the community," Warburton said.
On the main street of Te Awamutu, locals were wrestling with the proposal, with many saying they'd miss the Courier dearly if it was taken away.
Inside menswear shop Campbell Lane owner Sharlene Campbell said they'd advertised with the Courier for 18 years and found it to be the best place to advertise.
"They've been very proactive in our town for advertising, and quite competitive. We advertise in other papers and we advertise on the radio, but turning a piece of paper is better than hearing that on the news. Yeah, to promote our business, paper is better, way better. It's local support, and our paper is fantastic."
For Taylor the thought of the Courier shutting down wasn't sitting well.
"It's been a strong paper for a long time, but I'm the last one here, and I felt responsible for how it's perceived. Now it feels to me like the papers died under my watch and I don't like it."
NZME said calls for feedback on the proposal closed last Wednesday, and will provide an update to their team in the coming week.
Footnote: There are other community newspapers in the area, including Te Awamutu News.
Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.