Daily paper to giveaway

Press, 17 June 1986, Page 6

Daily paper to giveaway

PA Wanganui The “Wanganui Herald” is to cease publication in its present form on Saturday, the general manager of Wanganui Newspapers, Mr Arthur Bates, announced yesterday. He said the move was dictated by market forces.

There would be changes in staffing levels — the company has a staff of 135 — but “it is hoped to cover this by reorganisation,” Mr Bates said.

“Management has reserved its position on the matter of redundancies and will review the matter in seven months.”

In place of the evening "Herald", Wanganui Newspapers will publish two weekly community newspapers — the “Midweek Herald” on Tuesdays and the “Herald Weekender” on Fridays. These will be delivered free to all Wanganui city homes.

Mr Bates said the morning “Chronicle” would be improved and enlarged. Now the two long-estab-lished newspapers had been reorganised to fit specific positions in the market they could face the future with confidence and move ahead in different spheres. The changes were welcomed by the editor of Wanganui Newspapers, Mr Jim McLees.

"It has been something

of a juggling act to produce two daily newspapers from the same office,” he said. "Now we can concentrate our resources on the ‘Chronicle’ and, as well, fill a specific need in the city for a strong community-orien-tated newspaper.”'

Mr McLees said. the demise of a newspaper, particularly one as distinguished as the “Herald”, was normally a sad affair. However, in this case it was a change of direction rather than a closure and the “Herald”, in a different form, would continue to flourish and serve the people of Wanganui as it has done since June 4, 1867. '

Wanganui Newspapers, Ltd, is owned by United Printing and Publishing, a Rotorua-based company that owns the Rotorua “Daily Post” and the Levin “Chronicle”, as well as extensive commercial printing plants. Last year U.P.P. was taken over by Wilson and Horton, publisher of the “New Zealand Herald", the country’s largest newspaper. The “Wanganui Chronicle” and “Herald” merged in 1971 and the two operations were run from the Drews Avenue plant. For a time the editorial staffs remained separate, but in recent years both papers shared a common pool of reporters.