The last word in...

As you read this, the editor of The Aucklander will be packing up his desk.

Mind you, there's not enough to fill even a small box - a picture frame of my partner and of the five kids; a ceramic replica of a takeaway coffee cup, a $10 Secret Santa office present the year before last; an ancient and worn dictionary, not so wittily renamed my 'dick shone eerie' on the replacement cover I made with cardboard and Sellotape; and a couple other reference books, such as the origins of Auckland street names.

What isn't going in the box, however, is the stock of memories from working for almost four years at the greatest community newspaper in the world.

That's how I've always thought of The Aucklander, though I've never said it out loud, let alone committed it to written form. Judges of media awards have occasionally backed my silent assertion but every week I've set out with the ambition to prove it. I've worked at newspapers before which I secretly named "the little paper that could" or "the big and bland" (no, I'm not naming them). But The Aucklander, I've come to believe, is great.

It has certainly given me great memories. Such as staring into the uneasy faces of a Parliamentary Select Committee as the then-editor declared the newspaper opposes what the Government is doing to Auckland. Or conducting an interview on a vertical bungy catapult. Or the satisfaction of exposing things that somebody didn't want exposed.

Mostly, my memories are of people. Naturally enough, the people I worked with to produce this GCNITW are frequent callers in my recollections. So too, however, are the incredibly diverse array of Aucklanders encountered over this time. You'll find a sample of them in today's paper, and every edition to come.

In walking away from the newsroom today with my little box of possessions, I would ask only a couple of small things - if you would forgive the indulgence: Read and contemplate the brilliant articles from the reporters; glance over and appreciate the images by the classy photographers; consider the efforts of the founding editor who really gives a damn about journalism; allow us to introduce you to these amazing Aucklanders; and spare a moment of your week to browse the greatest community newspaper in the world.

Edward Rooney,

Editor

August 25, 2011