IT WAS with a great sense of pride that I, along with my general manager and designer, represented Wairarapa at the "Oscar night" of newspaper and digital media, the Canon Media Awards, on Friday.
People might see this editorial as a case of "we didn't win, but ... " becauseit is true the Taranaki Daily News, a broadsheet paper, took out the Best Newspaper of the Year category (under 30,000 circulation) ahead of us, The Daily Post (Rotorua) and The Manawatu Standard (Palmerston North).
Yet it is undeniable we were picked as one of the four best "small" newspapers in New Zealand, for one of the prestige awards of the night.
We have been to the Canon Media Awards before - two years ago, thanks to the Times-Age coverage of the Carterton balloon tragedy. I have seen other papers get there on the strength of one major event, such as the Rena grounding, and that is worthy, because such calamitous events need intensive coverage. But this time we arrived at Auckland's Sky City convention centre on the basis of our paper being an outstanding product, in terms of design, stories and advocacy. We made it there through the support of Times-Age readers who are growing in number, as is the case with most of our sister papers, including The Daily Post, which is second only to the Times-Age for highest circulation growth in New Zealand.
When it comes to dailies, we're the smallest team in New Zealand. But we are right here. We have reporters living across Wairarapa, from Featherston to Eketahuna. We are people who pay mortgages, rent, stop off at the dairy for milk and moan with our neighbours about the boy racers in the streets. Most of us aren't exactly native, but we've committed to living here, and reporting on where we are. In doing so, we get to see what matters - and just as importantly, what doesn't matter, while Auckland ties itself in knots over issues.
True, our name wasn't called out on the night. But our paper is called out many times a day, by the public who tell us their stories and share the pride of Wairarapa. For us, showcasing this community, and defending it, is winning every day of the year.
