Stratford Press closes: A look back at newspaper's community legacy

Over the years, the Stratford Press has reported on a wide range of issues, events and people.

The end of an era.

A phrase that has been said a lot in recent weeks in the Stratford Press office, as we have been working on what is set to be the final edition of the Stratford Press.

So what, exactly, has that era looked like? Here we take a fond and final look back at the history of this paper – your community paper.

The first edition of the paper, originally known as Mountain Town News, was printed on November 7, 1958.

An esteemed Stratford historian, the late David Walter, QSO, JP, and the first Mayor of the Stratford District Council, notes in his book Stratford: Shakespearean Town Under the Mountain, that the paper’s establishment ended a 20-year-long paper drought in the town. The town’s previous paper, the Central Taranaki Press, had closed on July 3, 1937.

The inaugural editor of the Mountain Town News was Keith Anderson, but the idea of a paper for the town came some years previously.

Back when Anderson was a printing trade apprentice at the Broadway Printing Office, his boss received a visit from the local Rotary Club. Anderson overheard some of the delegates discussing the possibility of starting up a local paper and Anderson filed it away.

While that particular scheme did not eventuate, with the many technical difficulties appearing too great at the time, Anderson himself didn’t forget the idea.

After finishing his apprenticeship, Anderson moved to New Plymouth where he worked as a printing machinist for the Taranaki Daily News.

Eventually, he moved back to Stratford, becoming a business partner with his former Broadway Printing boss, Fred Kilburn. At the back of his mind was the nagging idea of starting up a newspaper.

The scheme was revived following a chance meeting in the street between Anderson, Hoddie Hodgson and Mac McCutcheon, which got around to the topic of a newspaper for Stratford.

Some things never change in Stratford – such as the district enjoying plenty of success in hockey and other sports.

Anderson went back to Kilburn to discuss the idea of a small news sheet for the district, perhaps four tabloid pages once a month.

Kilburn agreed with the idea, providing Anderson took on responsibility for the venture.

Hodgson, McCutcheon and other Rotary Club members were also keen on the idea and began drumming up support.

It wasn’t easy to get off the ground, Anderson recalled some years later. He said it probably would not have survived without the help of the local Rotary Club.

Eight pages were delivered free to 2000 homes each week. It was the first free community newspaper to be published outside the main metropolitan areas.

“It looked good on the outside,” commented Anderson in a Press interview in the late 90s, “but behind the scenes it was bedlam at its best.”

Anderson’s efforts are recalled by many in our community today, with people often mentioning his name as being synonymous with the Stratford Press – his efforts and passion for community news are legendary, I would say.

In fact, one gentleman mentioned Keith Anderson to me this week.

“He used to report county council meetings and the smoke from the pipes and cigarettes smoked meant he had a job reading what he was writing.”

An old hand-fed press was used almost continuously for the paper. Sheets were hand-fed into the press at the rate of 1000 an hour at two pages a time, starting on Wednesday afternoon and going to Friday morning.

Six months after the Press first hit the streets, the company was able to buy its own linotype machine, which eliminated the need to send copy to Palmerston North.

Plenty of animals have featured in Stratford Press articles over the years.

The paper began to grow – too fast, in fact, because it became too big for the available equipment. The hand-fed press moved at snail’s pace and couldn’t keep up with demand.

A new Italian press was purchased and around the same time the paper changed names – with the final edition of the Mountain Town News printed on December 15, 1959, with the newly named Stratford Press printed for the first time in February 1960.

Two years later, disaster struck. A fire broke out on the night of July 20, 1962, destroying the printing factory.

The community rallied around the paper and helped save it. The council, then known as the Stratford Borough Council, held a special emergency meeting the night after the fire to discuss what could be done.

Through the efforts of the council, an old bakery building in Miranda St was made available to the Press team to work from. Offers of help also came from New Plymouth and Hāwera newspapers and the paper was able to be printed from Hāwera.

The following Thursday, just a few days after the fire, the Stratford Press was printed and ready to be read. In bold letters on the front page, it read: “Down, but not out”.

Heavy lead printing forms were set up in the old bakery and an old Fordson van travelled to Hāwera with the forms each Wednesday afternoon, coming back with the forms and 5000 copies of the Stratford Press.

Time passed and more changes came to the Stratford Press.

In 1981, ownership of the company was taken over by Laurence Bunyan, Gloria Webby and Russell Smith. Smith left in 1988 to open his own print business and Stephen Coleman filled the resulting vacancy.

While the prices and business names might have changed over time, one constant has been the Stratford Press' reliance on advertisers' support.

In April 2006, the Stratford Press was purchased by APN New Zealand Ltd. By then, Stephen and Carey Coleman and Laurence and Rhonda Bunyan owned the paper.

In September 2014, the Stratford Press became part of the NZME family, through the merger of the New Zealand division of APN News & Media, APN New Zealand, the Radio Network, part of the Australian Radio Network, and GrabOne, one of New Zealand’s largest ecommerce websites.

On December 5 this year, NZME confirmed it would be closing the Stratford Press along with 13 other community paper titles.

Leafing through Stratford: Shakespearean Town Under the Mountain, there are numerous references to the paper throughout, demonstrating just how interlinked the town’s history and life have been with the community paper that reported on it.

So is this the end of the journey of the Stratford Press?

NZME has said it’s been approached by several parties interested in buying individual titles and would liaise with them.

For now, however, we are closing the next chapter on the illustrious history of this community paper, ever hopeful that maybe it may be a case of down, but not out.

Ilona Hanne is a Taranaki-based journalist and news director who covers breaking and community news from across the lower North Island. She has worked for NZME since 2011.