Major changes to Gisborne Herald to secure sustainable future

IMPRESSING THE PM: Former Prime Minister John Key and East Coast MP Anne Tolley visit the Gisborne Herald printing press on September 1, 2016. File Picture by Paul Rickard

The Gisborne Herald will become a five-day-a-week publication from next week, with no Monday edition, and will no longer be printed locally.

These and other changes are being made to reduce costs and secure a sustainable future for The Gisborne Herald in the face of a challenging media and business environment.

“From next week the newspaper will be printed in Auckland by NZME and transported here together with NZME’s own publications,” managing director Michael Muir said.

“We are sad to be taking this step after 149 years of printing a newspaper in Gisborne.

“While this is a momentous change for us, we anticipate that the most noticeable change for our readers will be the addition of colour on every page.”

Also from next week, The Gisborne Herald will receive national and world news pages from NZME, a longstanding partner and publisher of the New Zealand Herald.

“This will assist us in focusing on the heart of our business — connecting our community and being a high-quality source of local news and information,” said editor Jeremy Muir. “We are committed to maintaining the publication of a trusted local newspaper in Tairāwhiti — both a print publication and a strong digital presence.”

Alongside full colour, another new feature of each edition of the paper will be two puzzle pages.

The cover price of the newspaper will rise to $3 for weekday editions and $3.50 on Saturday, effective from next Tuesday, May 9.

For subscribers, the price of a home-delivered paper rises from $2 per edition to $2.40, so the weekly price remains at $12. This price change is effective from the end of current subscription periods.

“Changes to the media landscape such as social media providing an alternative source of information and an alternative marketing platform, and consumers spending less time engaged with news services, have led to declining circulation and advertising revenue for newspapers worldwide,” Michael Muir said.

“The changes we are announcing today are in response to these challenges affecting our business — exacerbated by lockdowns and closed borders due to the pandemic, the cost-of-living crisis, and more recently the impact of Cyclone Gabrielle on the economy in our region.

“More than 2000 American newspapers went out of business between 2004 and 2020, and the trend hasn’t stopped.

“We know The Gisborne Herald has a good future, but we need to change our business model to ensure that.”

The Ellerslie site where The Gisborne Herald will be printed also prints six other regional daily newspapers as well as major metropolitan papers.

In recent years The Gisborne Herald has been one of just two regional daily papers nationwide printing on-site, Mr Muir said.

“Our isolation and roading fragility have been an important factor in continuing to print in Gisborne, but this was no longer sustainable.

There are three road options into Gisborne and also an airport, so we are confident the papers will get through in almost all scenarios. If a natural disaster or extreme weather event makes that impossible, there will be free access to all the important news coverage and information the people of Tairāwhiti will need to know on our website.”

The Tuesday edition of The Gisborne Herald will include extra pages to cover news from the weekend. More local news coverage and sport reports will also be published online first.

Newspaper subscribers who have not yet registered for their free digital access can do so by emailing digital@gisborneherald.co.nz

From next week The Gisborne Herald will be available in retail outlets from late morning and rural deliveries will also begin at this time. Deliveries to subscribers in the city will be at the same time as now.

Michael Muir said there was also sadness at The Gisborne Herald over the impacts of these changes on a number of colleagues.

“We appreciate the understanding and professional attitude of those affected as well as all staff during an unsettling time.”