Editorial: Herald on Sunday turns five

Creating a newspaper every week is a challenge but making a newspaper from scratch is a mammoth undertaking.

In the weeks leading up to the first issue of the Herald on Sunday, which rolled off the presses five years and one day ago today, the doomsayers were in strong voice: a startup was doomed to fail; the market wasn't big enough to support another paper; and anyway, newspapers were going the way of the dinosaur.

They were wrong. On our fifth birthday, the country's newest newspaper is also its fastest-growing. As the best-selling Sunday read in the northern half of the North Island, where most of the population lives, we're in robust good health.

In our first five years, our small and dedicated staff of writers, photographers, subeditors and designers have won all the major press awards, including, collectively, the coveted title of the newspaper of the year. But gratifying as award success is, it hasn't meant as much to us as the vote of confidence we've received from you, our readers and advertisers, whose loyalty, week in and week out, is the key to our success.

A lot has changed in the past five years and we've changed too. We've recognised, often because you've told us loud and clear, that our original recipe needed some tweaking which is why the paper you're reading this morning is substantially different, in both design and content, from the first issue.

As a publication that is a lot younger than the internet, we are conscious that we operate in an environment in a state of constant change. And we know that we can only continue to grow and improve by listening to what you want and expect from a Sunday newspaper.

One thing that will never change is our commitment to bring you the very best we can - every single Sunday of the year.

Thanks a lot. We look forward to the next five years of being your favourite Sunday.