Editorial: Herald on Sunday turns 20

A selection of Herald on Sunday front pages.

Opinion

Seven elections, five Rugby World Cups, shark sightings, car crashes and an eel. The Herald on Sunday was there for it all.

And after 20 years in the business - the paper celebrates its anniversary this week - the HOS continues to grow its audience.

With 313,000 readers, up 8% on the past year, the paper remains the top-read Sunday newspaper in the country.

The tabloid was first published on October 3, 2004, with Suzanne Chetwin as editor. Our other editors have been Shayne Currie, Bryce Johns, Miriyana Alexander, Stuart Dye and Alanah Eriksen.

When we launched George W. Bush was in the White House. In New Zealand, house prices sat at a record $260,000 nationally and $352,000 in Auckland, Helen Clark was two-thirds of her way through her second term as prime minister and Scribe dominated the New Zealand Music Awards.

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The very first front page of the Herald on Sunday, published on October 3, 2004.

Some of the stories we wrote at the time feel like a lifetime ago. Former ACT MP Deborah Coddington was the first person to make the front page lead after business boss Roger Kerr pursued her through the grounds of parliament.

A Herald on Sunday reporter witnessed much of the saga - the tension between the two at Wellington’s Backbencher bar and the MP’s tears as she fled to security.

Other stories back then could have been written today. The lead photo on our first front page was of Peter Jackson’s Wairarapa mansion with an accompanying story about his plans to turn the property into an “out-of-this-world wonderland”.

These days the Hollywood director is making headlines about a $105 million land deal in Wellington’s Lyall Bay.

The Herald on Sunday won Newspaper of the Year in 2007, just three years after inception, and again in 2009. It continues to feature award-winning journalism, thought-provoking columns and the best live sport.

We have covered the important. In September 2019, the HOS featured 937 angry red blotches emblazoned across its front page. Each one represented a New Zealander known to have contracted measles in the biggest outbreak here for more than 20 years.

We have had the gossip. Like the tale of four days with rocker Mick Jagger and $26m Lotto winner Trevor Cooper’s marriage break-up.

And there were the downright bizarre, including Russell Blackstock’s tale of the man who went to hospital with an eel stuck up his bottom.

After its launch, the HOS quickly became known as the paper to get the big exclusive interviews with newsmakers.

The front page of the Herald on Sunday on September 1, 2019.

In 2007, Millie Holmes, the daughter of late broadcaster Paul Holmes, spoke exclusively to the paper about her $1000-a-day P addiction, the horror of being arrested and charged - and the havoc it caused her and her family.

In 2019, we carried the first interview with Kahu Piripi, who in 2002 was snatched at gunpoint as a baby from her mother high-profile Wellington lawyer Donna Hall, by Terence Ward Traynor from a Lower Hutt street. Carolyne Meng-Yee tracked her down 18 years later in rural Rotorua. The teenager spoke of enjoying nothing more than riding her horses and dreams of being an actress one day.

Other scoops include David Fisher’s tale of the fraudster who hid $1m and 20 gold bars in his home and garden.

We want to send a huge thank you to everyone who buys this paper for their support.