A new website and newsletter service

A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.

Opinion

The Gisborne Herald’s digital format takes on a fresh look and some new features from Monday afternoon, as we switch over to a new site at the same web address.

Also on Monday we will start an emailed newsletter service for subscribers who want a quick guide to the Tairawhiti news of the day, a weekly news review and/or a weekly email outlining what’s happening on the arts and entertainment scene.

The “Publish” digital platform that we are moving to has been created by Australian company Pagemasters, which spun out of the Australian Associated Press and is led by a former editor of Hawke’s Bay Today. It proudly describes its product as a CMS (content management system) “built by publishers for publishers”.

We hope you like the new look, which includes an old look with the return of our traditional masthead at the top of the site. It also has an events calendar where organisers can submit details and an image.

Digital subscribers and newspaper subscribers registered for their free digital access will receive an email on Monday morning with information about how to activate their existing subscription on the new site.

Others who are regular visitors to the site will find that the paywall is more effective than what they have been used to, but that a lot of content is free to access. Our new system is like how the NZ Herald site operates, except we are marking “Free to read” articles rather than the paywalled “Premium” articles.

Our NZ on Air-funded content of course remains free to access, as are contributor letters and columns, family notices, the Property Guide and the events calendar. Some interactions with this content, such as wanting to post a comment or receive newsletters, will require the reader to subscribe — which can be our free “basic member” option.

Regarding online comments, they unfortunately get left behind when content is exported from one website to another. We have, however, done a separate export of comment trails and anyone wanting to have particular trails reinstated can contact me with article headlines and dates (search the existing site for them this weekend).

Our website is visited by about 10,000 people each day and we hope that over time many more will take up paid subscriptions to access all our content online, and help to fund the dedicated work of our journalists — as well as supporting our community, the good running of its institutions and the many good sorts doing great things, by keeping up to date with what is happening in our awesome region.