 Westport News office in former BNZ building | |
| Type | Monday–Friday daily newspaper |
|---|---|
| Format | Broadsheet |
| Founded | 1871 |
| Headquarters | Westport, New Zealand |
| Website | westportnews.co.nz |
The Westport News is an independently-owned evening newspaper published in Westport, New Zealand. It is published on weekdays, and is one of New Zealand's smallest independent newspapers. The Westport News is distributed from Karamea in the north to Punakaiki in the south and as far inland as Reefton. [1]
In the 1860s Westport had two newspapers: the Westport Times and Buller Express, started by Job L. Munson and John Tyrell in December 1866, and the Westport Evening Star, started in December 1867. [2] (These merged in 1892, becoming the daily Westport Times and Star, which became the Buller Times before ceasing publication in 1941.) [2]
The Westport Evening Star was owned for a short time by Irishman Eugene O’Connor, who then set up the Westport News as a rival tri-weekly paper in 1873 [2] (not 1871, as often claimed). [3] It was initially printed on demy sheets. After several owners and name changes the Westport News was bought in April 1889 by Robert Reid, owner of the Greymouth Star , and enlarged to a double demy daily morning paper. [4] Reid (and increasingly his wife Emma) ran the paper, until his death in March 1897. The News was then purchased by Boundy & Co., who sold it to Walter Atkin, former editor of the Lyell Times and Grey Valley Times, on 4 April 1898. [4] Sherman Strachan became editor of the paper in 1899, and members of the Atkin family controlled the paper until 1945. [2] [4]
More than a dozen local newspapers were published in the West Coast in the 20th century, but the Westport News, Hokitika Guardian, and Greymouth Star were the only ones still operating in the 21st. [5] The News published as a daily until 6 July 1961, when it was closed by its Christchurch owners. The Lucas family of Nelson, owners of the Nelson Evening Mail , immediately bought the paper and continued printing the next day. The printing of the paper now took place in Nelson, with copy wired from Westport by teleprinter and the papers flown from Nelson. Golden Coast Airways was formed to enable this, flying a twin-engined Aero Commander to Westport each weekday; the plane appearing over the main street told people the News was on its way. [3] This arrangement continued until 1978, even while Westport was temporarily isolated by the 1968 Inangahua earthquake. [3]
Following the earthquake the BNZ vacated their building on Wakefield Street. Later the Westport News bought it, and still operates for there. In 1978 Colin Warren, who had started at the News as a journalist in 1966, purchased the paper with his wife Mary from the Lucas family. [3] [6] He continued as owner, and later "editor-at-large", for nearly 40 years. Warren moved the printing of the paper back to Westport, initially on a sheet-fed printer, then reel-fed, to the current multi-unit press with colour printing. [3] In August 2017 chief reporter Lee Scanlon and her husband Kevin purchased the paper from the Warrens. [7] Scanlon, who prefers the title "chief reporter" to editor, had been at the News for over 40 years. [1]
The News also founded and operated a local Coast-wide radio station (Fifeshire FM Westport) in partnership with Nelson's Fifeshire FM in 1995. The station was forced to cut it's ties with Nelson and rebranded as Coast FM in 1999. The station was sold to a different local owner in 2012.
The News has a mixture of local, national, and international news, and a copy-sharing arrangement with RNZ. [1] There is a total staff of 15; aside from Scanlon, there are three other journalists, one of them the writer Becky Manawatu. [1] Ellen Curnow joined as a reporter in November 2019. [8]
The newspaper reported on the opening of the West Coast railway during Premier Richard Seddon's first official visit to the region in May 1883. It also described how Seddon allowed the mining town Seddonville to be named after him. [9] Almost a century later, it reported on the paving of the new Buller Bridge in November 1976. [10] Otago University holds an archive of the newspaper from 1982 to 1991. [11]
The Otago Daily Times (ODT) is a newspaper published by Allied Press Ltd in Dunedin, New Zealand. The ODT is one of the country's four main daily newspapers, serving the southern South Island with a circulation of around 26,000 and a combined print and digital annual audience of 304,000. Founded in 1861 it is New Zealand's oldest surviving daily newspaper – Christchurch's The Press, six months older, was a weekly paper until March 1863.
Reefton is a small town in the West Coast region of New Zealand, approximately 80 km (50 mi) northeast of Greymouth, in the Inangahua River valley. Ahaura is 44 km (27 mi) south-west of Reefton, Inangahua Junction is 34 km (21 mi) to the north, Maruia is 63 km (39 mi) to the east, and the Lewis Pass is 66 km (41 mi) to the south-east.
Allied Press is an independent New Zealand media and publishing company based in Dunedin. The company's main asset is the Otago Daily Times, New Zealand's oldest daily newspaper. Allied Press has a number of other daily and community newspapers and commercial printing operations throughout the South Island including the Canterbury–based media company Star Media. It also formerly operated Dunedin's regional television station, Channel 39.
The Stillwater Ngākawau Line (SNL), formerly the Stillwater–Westport Line (SWL) and the Ngakawau Branch, is a secondary main line, part of New Zealand's national rail network. It runs between Stillwater and Ngakawau via Westport on the West Coast of the South Island. It was one of the longest construction projects in New Zealand's history, with its first section, at the south end, opened in 1889, and the beginnings of the Ngākawau Branch, at its Westport end, in 1875. The full line was completed in 1942. The only slower railway projects were Palmerston North to Gisborne, 1872 to 1942, and the Main North Line to Picton, 1872 to 1945.
The West Coast Rugby Football Union, formed in 1890, is the official governing body for rugby union in the Westland County, Hokitika Borough and Greymouth Borough districts, located in the West Coast provincial region of New Zealand, and is affiliated to the New Zealand Rugby Football Union. The West Coast RFU provincial representative team, a founding member of the National Provincial Championship, is based in Greymouth. It plays home matches at John Sturgeon Park.
Roderick McKenzie was a New Zealand Member of Parliament for Buller and Motueka, in the South Island. He was a member of the Liberal Party.
James Colvin was a New Zealand Member of Parliament for Buller, in the South Island.
The 1933 Chatham Cup was the 11th annual nationwide knockout football competition in New Zealand.
Joseph Petrie was a 19th-century Member of Parliament from Westland, New Zealand.
Robert Caldwell Reid was a 19th-century Member of Parliament from the West Coast, New Zealand. Born in Scotland and attracted by the gold rushes in Victoria and the West Coast, he was later the proprietor of a series of newspapers.
The Otago Witness was a prominent illustrated weekly newspaper in the early years of the European settlement of New Zealand, produced in Dunedin, the provincial capital of Otago. Published weekly, it existed from 1851 to 1932. The introduction of the Otago Daily Times, followed by other daily newspapers in its circulation area, led it to focus on serving a rural readership in the lower South Island, where poor road access prevented newspapers being delivered daily. It also provided an outlet for local fiction writers. It is notable as the first newspaper to use illustrations and photographs and was the first New Zealand newspaper to provide a correspondence column for children, which was known as "Dot's Little Folk". Together with the Auckland-based Weekly News and the Wellington-based New Zealand Free Lance it was one of the most significant illustrated weekly New Zealand newspapers in the 19th and early 20th centuries.
The 1927 New Zealand rugby league season was the 20th season of rugby league that had been played in New Zealand.
The Greymouth Star, formerly the Greymouth Evening Star, is a daily newspaper published in Greymouth and circulated on the West Coast of New Zealand's South Island from Westport to Haast.
James Kerr was an editor and politician. He was a member of the New Zealand Legislative Council from 1892 until his death.
The Mayor of Grey, often referred to as the Mayor of Greymouth, officiates over the Grey District of New Zealand which is administered by the Grey District Council with its seat in Greymouth. The current mayor is Tania Gibson. Two predecessors to this office were the mayor of Greymouth, officiating over the Greymouth Borough Council from 1868, and from 1877 the chairman of the Grey County Council.
The Ensign is a regional newspaper based in Gore, New Zealand published on Wednesdays and Fridays by Allied Press Ltd. It was first published in 1878 as The Mataura Ensign and changed to its current name in 1973. The newspaper features coverage of local government, sports and recreation, arts and entertainment, education, farming and business news. It is currently distributed to approximately 12,000 homes over a circulation area that includes Gore and the surrounding area that stretches from Mandeville and Waikaka in the north to Mataura in the south.
Coast FM is a locally-owned and independant radio station, based in Westport, New Zealand, broadcasting to most of the West Coast Region. The station was born in 1995 as Fifeshire FM Westport, in a partnership between Fifeshire FM in Nelson and the Westport News, and progressively expanded it's broadcast reach to Reefton, Greymouth and Hokitika from 1997. The station was rebranded as "Coast FM" in 1999, but is not related to NZME's Coast network that broadcasts in other parts of the country. The stations studios and offices were based in the Westport News offices in the former BNZ building on Palmerston Street. Today, Coast FM broadcasts from 52 Palmerston Street.
The Reefton Distilling Co. is a distillery founded in 2017 in Reefton, in the West Coast region of New Zealand. It specialises in gin, including one named "Little Biddy" after famed West Coast gold miner Bridget Goodwin.
Alison Hale is a New Zealand artist, based in Reefton, known for her depictions of horses and the natural environment.
The Grey River Argus was a New Zealand newspaper which was published between 1865 and 1966. The paper served the West Coast Region, focussing mainly on the area around the town of Greymouth. Its chief rival was the Greymouth Star.