End of a printing era in Gisborne

A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.

Opinion

Publishing the final Gisborne Herald to be printed in its hometown is a sad day for our company, the many people who have worked for it, and the Muir family who have had an ownership interest in this newspaper since 1884 and have a 200-year history in printing.

Many readers will be saddened too, and we really appreciate the kind messages we have received this week since announcing the difficult decision to cease printing here and have The Gisborne Herald printed in Auckland from next week.

The first edition of the then Poverty Bay Herald was printed on an Albion press in a small wooden building set well back from a meandering, unmade Gladstone Road on January 5, 1874.

For the most part information arrived by boat, but from 1875 a single, frequently unreliable telegraph cable linked Gisborne to more news via Hawke’s Bay.

Ironically it is the proliferation of information sources now — especially social media providing alternative platforms for information and marketing — that has played a major role in the need for The Gisborne Herald to outsource printing and the sub-editing of national and world news, to reduce costs and secure a sustainable future.

There is more irony in the fact trusted independent media sources are more important than ever in today’s world of fragmented media and fake news: to continue providing an independent check on financial and political power; to seek the truth; and to connect communities.

The Goss Community Press that has printed The Gisborne Herald since 1996 is the company’s ninth and final press. It has been a workhorse lovingly cared for by press managers Robert Thompson and Nick Scanlan and a team of qualified printers. Over the years they have won numerous printing awards and Robert was involved in training printers nationally.

Your editor’s great-great-great grandfather James Muir learned the printing trade at Ballantynes in Edinburgh in the 1820s, and was the printer for the first newspaper published in New Zealand in April 1840. Three of his sons trained as printers, one of whom bought a partnership in The Poverty Bay Herald in 1884.

Today marks the end of a printing era in Gisborne — it also heralds what will be a new chapter for The Gisborne Herald, even more focused on the heart of our business which is connecting communities across the Tairāwhiti and being a high-quality source of local news and information, both in print and online.