Northern Advocate
  • Northern Advocate home
  • Latest news
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Sport
  • Property
  • Video
  • Death notices
  • Classifieds

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • On The Up
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology
  • Sport
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Residential property listings

Locations

  • Far North
  • Kaitaia
  • Kaikohe
  • Bay of Islands
  • Whangārei
  • Kaipara
  • Mangawhai
  • Dargaville

Media

  • Video
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-Editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

Weather

  • Kaitaia
  • Whangārei
  • Dargaville

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / Northern Advocate

Editorial: 5 letters (adj.), to apologise

By Craig Cooper
Northern Advocate·
9 Sep, 2016 04:00 AM2 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

Puzzles often form part of our daily routine.

Puzzles often form part of our daily routine.

Apparently sorry can be the hardest word to say.

Not in my recent experience. I have found myself saying "sorry" repeatedly for a blunder I made this week.

A week ago we changed our daily puzzle page, and we now share it with the NZ Herald, as well as several regional papers.

This was a group-wide decision, quite common within companies that own multiple branches, or, in our case, newspapers.

However, after a steady flow of complaints from readers who buy both papers, and want different puzzles, my regional parochialism took over and I decided to publish a new page with different puzzles to the Herald.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Well, if the first change caused a wave of complaints, my blunder caused a tsunami.

Readers were annoyed. Staff were annoyed with me for annoying readers.

An irate Scotsman from Onerahi sounded like he was about to leap in the car and hunt me down.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Puzzles form part of our daily routine. In one reader's case, they were part of his rehabilitation after he had a bad stroke - the brain exercise helped him regain his vocabulary.

Within an hour on Wednesday I knew I had made a mistake and began apologising to the callers and promising that we would not publish the offending page again.

So we are now back to the slightly less unpopular puzzle page that we share with the NZ Herald.

I am sorry this has upset people who read both papers. I understand why.

This change was a commercial decision, and we have provided feedback to the decision makers and will continue to lobby on behalf of our readers for a different page.

However, the financial saving to our business created by sharing a puzzle page is significant.

And when it comes to trimming jobs or changing puzzles, to keep our business and industry viable, then we are going to lean towards changing the puzzles.

Just not too frequently, I hope.

Save

    Share this article

Latest from Northern Advocate

Northern Advocate

'Economic growth is key': Luxon discusses Northland's potential with iwi

Northern Advocate

Northland businesses unite for CCTV initiative to combat crime

Northern Advocate

Two charged with neglect 10 years after 4yo's death in Kaikohe


Sponsored

Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from Northern Advocate

'Economic growth is key': Luxon discusses Northland's potential with iwi
Northern Advocate

'Economic growth is key': Luxon discusses Northland's potential with iwi

The PM praised Māori businesses for investing and creating jobs despite challenges.

17 Jul 06:02 AM
Northland businesses unite for CCTV initiative to combat crime
Northern Advocate

Northland businesses unite for CCTV initiative to combat crime

17 Jul 04:00 AM
Two charged with neglect 10 years after 4yo's death in Kaikohe
Northern Advocate

Two charged with neglect 10 years after 4yo's death in Kaikohe

17 Jul 02:17 AM


Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky
Sponsored

Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky

06 Jul 09:47 PM
NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • The Northern Advocate e-edition
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Subscribe to the Northern Advocate
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • The Northern Advocate
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP