Former manager John Warburton reads the edition of the Courier which announced the potential closure. His grandfather started the business in 1911. Photo / Leonard Powell, RNZ
Former manager John Warburton reads the edition of the Courier which announced the potential closure. His grandfather started the business in 1911. Photo / Leonard Powell, RNZ
Te Awamutu Courier editor Dean Taylor sits down to talk to his old boss John Warburton on the eve of the paper’s closure.
When John Warburton learned that NZME had proposed to close the newspaper his grandfather had founded he was shocked.
“I went through stages, to disbelief and anger,” he said.
Warburton was my boss for a good part of my time at the Courier. He still reminds me of the mess I made of my first day and as we shake hands after I’ve helped him load some memorabilia into his ute I thank him for taking a chance on me, an untrained journalist who made a bad first impression.
“Communities are about relationships and trust,” he said.
AG Warburton.
The Te Awamutu Courier began life as the Waipa Post, founded by Arthur George (AG) Warburton who worked for the New Zealand Herald until 1906 and operated a commercial printing press after he arrived in Te Awamutu.
He also recognised the need for a local newspaper, so the Waipa Post was first published on Tuesday, April 18, 1911.
Founding Waipa Post staff.
The newspaper continued under the same name for 25 years when it was renamed the Te Awamutu Courier.
For some time it was published three times weekly.
AG Warburton died in 1956 and his son George, who joined the company in 1937 as a printing apprentice, took over the newspaper business and was manager until 1986.
He was succeeded by his son John but remained as company secretary until 1995.
George Warburton.
John’s son Stephen was a commercial printer for the Te Awamutu Courier during the 1990s, making the fourth generation of the Warburton family to be involved with the company.
Couriers (NZ) Ltd was a limited private company until 1992 when it was purchased by Wilson and Horton, publishers of the New Zealand Herald.
During its busiest era (1980s-1990s) the Te Awamutu Courier employed 35 people and had three `arms’:
Printing Hall housed a Goss press which produced newspapers from around New Zealand and some from overseas. Printing all of these papers required 30 tonnes of newsprint each week. The press was closed at the end of 1998;
Commercial Printing printed a wide range of books, magazines, invitations, flyers, etc, and ran until the end of April 2002.
Te Awamutu Courier staff, 1986.
Te Awamutu Courier was then a bi-weekly community newspaper, printed on site until the end of 1998.
Warburton said the decision to sell the business to Wilson and Horton was purely to look after staff.
“Like us, it was a family-orientated business and they were looking for a Waikato-based printing operation,” he said.
“For a while, they left us alone to run our business and also sent a lot of printing work our way.
APN became NZME and over the years local control and expertise have been replaced by centralised management, systems and shared staffing.
“Te Awamutu was lucky to have dedicated local people working for the newspaper in their community for so many years,” said Warburton.
He said ideally it would be purchased by private buyers and re-established under local management where it can flourish and serve the people of Te Awamutu once again.
