We take the approach that "This is your suburb. You chose to make or buy a home here, you chose to bring up family here, you and they work, go to school, play sport, worship and shop here. You're proud of it and we should be, too."
We tell our stories through the eyes of the local residents who are affected by the events and issues in our suburbs. We take their concerns and complaints and dreams and represent them to the decision-makers - particularly important in a metropolis where everyday folk often don't have a clue who their local representative is.
That doesn't mean printing only the good news: we can rip the scabs off the sores, too. We've done that through the years. We're changing the law about where and how many liquor stores and pokie parlours can be sited in a suburb and reinstating the community's right to object to licences, we've changed the law about disabled parking cheats, we've taken on food hygiene, childcare and racial issues.
And we have fun. We are sassy and irreverent and off-the-wall. Our young staff are deliberately chosen because they look around the city and see it through new eyes; because they haven't got jaded and beaten-down into 'same-old, same-old' writing or photography styles. We encourage them to exercise their own voice and spirit and style in our columns. We believe we are storytellers, and The Aucklander story is a pretty good one.
In six years we have won more than 40 awards for individual journalists and photographers, for our front pages and our community involvement, for our publications as a whole. We were judged the NZ Community Newspapers Association's Best All-Round Newspaper in 2008, Best All-Round Newspaper (20,000+ circulation) in 2009. We won the Qantas Media Award as Best Suburban or Community Newspaper in 2008 and 2009, and were a finalist in the overall Newspaper of the Year Award in both years.
Editorial Contacts
Got a story? Send it to the online editor.
Editor, group customs publications Ewan McDonald
Advertising enquiries to Preetika Lal.
