Here's to many more Hawke's Bay Today anniversaries

It was 20 years ago today, that Hawke's Bay Today started out in these Hastings premises.

There's a tinge of sadness to today's 20th anniversary of Hawke's Bay Today.

As you will see in the paper today and online, Margaret Goodwin, the lady who named our paper, passed away on Saturday, just a few days before our anniversary.

Our condolences to Margaret's family - 20 years ago, Hawke's Bay gave birth to a new regional daily newspaper and Margaret named us. She will always have a special place in the hearts of Hawke's Bay Today's family.

There was also some news history created this week.

Twenty years ago, we knew about this thing, the internet, but we had no real strategy around using it to spread the news.

In 2004, as a rookie editor, I asked a retiring news executive his thoughts on a strategy of how to deal with online news, and in particular, the fact we were giving our news away for free. He shrugged and said "that's your problem".

For the next 15 years, New Zealand media companies have strategised, and thrashed out the subject.

This week, NZME - Hawke's Bay Today's parent company - revealed a partial paywall based on the "freemium" concept. That is, some news is free and other news, readers have to pay for.

We value our journalism, and we don't take anyone who reads it for granted, so our challenge now is to continue not just the work that started 20 years with Hawke's Bay Today, but the work that started more than 150 years ago, when time honoured journalistic practices began in this region.

It is a privilege we should never take for granted, because without our readers, we have nothing.

Whether it is in print, on the radio, or online, we thank you for consuming Hawke's Bay news, and we look forward to the next 20 years, and the 20 after that, and after that ...