THE LOCAL PAPER.

Putaruru Press, 9 March 1933, Page 5

THE LOCAL PAPER.

ITS VALUE TO COMMUNITY. 1 1 Effective Reply to Criticism. A masterly summing up of the value of local papers, such as the j Matamata Record, to the community' | which they serve has been written by : Mr. T. E. McMillan, a resident of Matamata, in reply to a letter sent to the Bay of Plenty Times by a correspondent signing himself George H. Bates. The writer condemned the Tauranga paper for the way in which he considered it served the public interests. He said: “ Before long the public will begin to realise that businesses like yours are a luxury 'in small villages like Tauranga, and that a far wider outlook and a more comprehensive view of affairs can be obtained from larger publications then you will really feel the draught.”

Advertisers’ Viewpoint. Mr. McMillan in reply says: Narrowing the issue down to the purely local aspects, the facts show that the Bay of Plenty Times is not a luxury in the economic sense, but a necessity. Were there no paper in Tauranga, the business people would require to advertise in journals outside, and thus pay for considerably triment of the town and of the surrounding district based upon Tauranga, and using Tauranga as the main centre. Fostering Local Interest. “ On the news side, as an outside paper would publish only a fraction of the chronicle of local events, there would be a distinct slackening of inlarger coverage of circulation than they would have much hope of doing commensurate business for. The sure result would be restriction of the growth of Tauranga, to the deterest in local affairs, and a great lessening of that co-operating and co-ordinating power a local newspaper is peculiarly fitted to foster.

“ Once a town has a newspaper, it then rises to the ‘ status of a newspaper town,’ and if it loses its paper it drops down in status accordingly.