Wairoa Star’s revival: Hawke’s Bay trust aids local community newspapers post-NZME decision

• Tātau Tātau o Te Wairoa Trust is offering support to local newspapers facing closure after NZME’s shutdown.
• Aayden Clark, the trust’s commercial chief executive, emphasises the importance of community and innovative solutions.
• The Wairoa Star, bought by the trust, aims to continue sharing local stories and culture.

Since NZME announced it would close 14 local community newspaper outlets such as the Te Awamutu Courier and Hauraki-Coromandel Post, the Tātau Tātau o Te Wairoa Trust in Hawke’s Bay has been offering its expertise.

The settlement trust bought its local newspaper, the Wairoa Star, in September after NZME shut it in May, and is now lending support and advice to other regions seeing their papers close.

Tātau Tātau o Te Wairoa commercial chief executive Aayden Clark says he is offering support and advice to local community newspapers on the brink of demise.

“We’ve taken on this challenge, which has taken a considerable amount of courage. But, for a number of reasons, strategically it works for us to be able to reach our people, it’s really important for our town and we just want to be able to share the good stories. So, I’ve passed those on to those who have picked up the phone and asked for our helpful hints and also suggested maybe they talk to their own iwi or post-settlement groups and look if there’s interest.”

Samantha Hayes and Mike McRoberts fronting the final Newshub 6pm bulletin. Photo / Three

This year alone has seen hundreds of jobs and providers of news disestablished at TV3, TVNZ, Newshub and Whakaata Māori.

Newspapers under NZME ownership are now facing similar fates.

“Upon the closing of this 103-year-old taonga we knew that the community needed a communications channel. The history of this paper is huge for this town and all of our people. So, our job was to go to action and look at what we could do,” he says.

Although the news is moving to digital platforms and that being the future focus for many news platforms, Clark stresses, when morning comes, there is nothing that compares to reading stories about “your region by your people”.

“Have the courage to take it on but you’ve got to be innovative, I think, to survive. We’re fully aware that the future is probably in a digital space but there’s actually something magical about picking up a newspaper and reading it with your morning cup of tea. We see it as a trusted source of truth and it actually tells stories from our people for our people.

“What you get with a newspaper like the Wairoa Star is the true feelings and the happenings of the week, the happenings of the weekend, and photos that show the smiling faces of our rangatahi around town. It’s very different from trawling through social media. So, I think that’s really important being engaging and making sure that it’s content that everybody can be interested in.”

The Wairoa Star began over a century ago but was shut down when its ownership moved to NZME. However, the iwi came to the rescue and it is being supported by the community hopeful for another 100 years of operation.

“We have to be able to adapt, we have to be agile enough to work with our communities in the future. So, I think my main message would be around making sure you’re aware of what you’re walking into, which we have been. We’re learning on the way, we don’t pretend to know a lot about this industry but we know what our customers want and what our people want.”

Community newspapers in Taupō, Tūrangi, Whanganui, Manawatū, Horowhenua and more are to close. However, Clark is hopeful these news services will remain alive with support of their communities.