New era coming for Hawke's Bay Today

Hawke's Bay Today staff met with advertisers and community leaders last night to talk about new beginnings. The paper will become a morning newspaper from March 19.

Hawke's Bay Today general manager Russell Broughton said the change was "a big moment in our history" but the decision was made easy by "overwhelmingly positive feedback from readers, staff and advertisers".



The trend internationally was for afternoon papers to change to morning.

"In the last six months the Waikato Times, the Wairarapa Times Age, the Oamaru Mail and the Christchurch Star have all moved to morning delivery," Mr Broughton said.

Urban subscribers will have their newspaper delivered by 7am Monday to Saturday. Some retail outlets will have the newspaper on sale even earlier, with Dannevirke readers being able to buy the paper from 6am.

Mr Broughton said he was pleased 70 per cent of the 300 schoolchildren who delivered the paper were switching to the morning delivery.

The function at TenTwentyFour restaurant was also a chance for departing editor Antony Phillips to say farewell.

Mr Phillips said the new-look morning edition would be improved with new columnists, features and a smarter but familiar appearance.

"We are the newspaper of the Hawke's Bay community and any opportunity to be read for longer is of value to all," he said.

Mr Phillips, who is moving to a new role in Australia after two years as editor, introduced his successor, Andrew Austin. Mr Austin was chief reporter for the New Zealand Herald: "I am inheriting APN's best performing regional paper and there is not too much to change, just a bit of tweaking further down the track."