My Account
Towards the end of last year, a survey by telco 2degrees found that community newspapers and magazines remain the leading source of local news for New Zealanders.
A total of 29 percent of the 2000 people surveyed chose local papers, with the next most popular source (23 percent) being social media.
It was heartening to hear this, despite the relatively small sample, and it definitely reflects the feedback this paper receives on a daily basis.
Commenting on the survey, Sir Bob Harvey, who has had almost 30 years in local government, said he could not overstate the importance of community journalism in ensuring the health and wellbeing of communities.
“Community papers provide channelled advocacy of important local issues in a way that isn’t mirrored simply by residents chatting on a community Facebook page,” he said.
“They also champion issues and stories that would escape the attention of the mainstream media.”
Further, we believe that knowing a community, and being based within it, is how the best stories are found. Increasingly those stories are picked up by the wider media – most recently the Silverdale School prizegiving story that gained huge national and international traction after we published it last November.
As more and more information becomes available at the touch of a button, people are finding value in stories, and advertising, that relates to them, their community and their local concerns.
