Publisher starts capital tabloid

By KEVIN TAYLOR

Publisher, past bankrupt and former Act candidate Ian Macfarlane is launching a weekday afternoon newspaper in the Wellington region.

Macfarlane, 68, said the Weekday News will be launched on Tuesday, January 21, and cost 50c.

Aimed at commuters, the tabloid-sized paper would be printed at the W&H Newspapers-owned Wairarapa Times-Age in Masterton for afternoon distribution on weekdays.

It will be printed after the Times-Age, itself an afternoon daily, and by late afternoon will be on sale in supermarkets and railway and bus stations throughout Wellington, the Wairarapa and the Kapiti Coast.

Macfarlane, who is managing editor, said he had hired an editor, an ex-Dominion and Dominion Post staff member who resigned from the Wellington paper last year.

But Macfarlane said the man did not want his name released although he confirmed it was not former Dominion editor Richard Long.

Macfarlane said the initial print run would be 10,000 copies.

The newspaper was aimed at filling the void left by the demise of the Evening Post, which merged with the Dominion last July to form the Dominion Post.

He did not know what the cost of establishing the newspaper was, but said it would not be a multi-million-dollar operation.

"I'm in it for the duration," he said. "This is not a game and the investors have written cheques to make it happen and the money's in the bank."

Asked about his bankruptcy after his previous publishing business went under, he said he did not think it was relevant.

He was adjudicated bankrupt in the High Court at Wellington in August 1998 and discharged three years later on August 31, 2001.

The Business Herald understands his company was Baranduin Publishers.

Writing in the Times-Age in August 2001 under the heading "Bankruptcy changes life forever", Macfarlane said being bankrupt was not a criminal offence but it did have a huge impact on what a person could and could not do.

In his case, he said, the financial situation of his company was such that as the sole shareholder director the only proper course of action was to petition for bankruptcy.

But he believed that just as Alcoholics Anonymous and the Cancer Society were organisations set up to help and support, there should be a support group for bankrupts.

"A Bankruptcy Co-operative would benefit the nation, the community, the individual and, in the long term, the creditors."

Macfarlane said the Weekday News would use international stories and photographs from the global Agence France Presse (AFP) news agency.

Independent Radio News (IRN) and Fotopress would supply national news and photographs, and 10-12 freelance writers would supply local stories and pictures.

Initial full-time staff would number about 16, with several part-timers.

He was committed to having no more than 40 per cent advertising content in the newspaper.

Macfarlane stood for Act in the Wairarapa electorate at the 2002 general election, netting 625 votes.

He has freelanced as a journalist and used to be president of the Hutt Valley Chamber of Commerce.

He was also a candidate for the National Party in the 1987 general election, unsuccessfully contesting the Miramar seat.

* W&H Newspapers, which also owns the New Zealand Herald, has no connection with the new newspaper other than printing it.