LOYAL readers will have noted that there has been a bit of a hiatus for this column over the school holidays. As is the case, when you take time out, there is an accumulation of work waiting when you get back - the world moves on.
And the world moving on is where I start this week.
There has been a fair bit of airplay in recent weeks on the state of Wanganui's "main street" retail, specifically Victoria Avenue. The environment for retail worldwide (to quote an old song) " ... ain't what she used to be".
The advent of major retail chains and, more recently, internet-based commerce is having a permanent impact on the industry and those in local retail operations.
Quite apart from showing us that he had mastered the skill of counting, Duncan Garner's missive on the state of Wanganui because of the "35 empty shops" was what we have come to expect from our friends in the national media - five minutes on the ground, skim the surface research and sweeping generalisations in 45 seconds of video. The fact that you have to sit through Kieran Read selling plumbing products before seeing Garner's video says it all really - the challenges of the regions are a great generator of revenue for "big media", never mind investing time and cost into research to determine a modicum of truth.