“ TIMARU POST ”

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLV, Issue 21304, 25 March 1939, Page 8

“ TIMARU POST ”

Ceasing Publication Forty Years’ Service It was officially announced yesterday that the “Timaru Post” was ceasing publication on March 31. and in this connection our evening contemporary publishes the following:— "After having served the people of Timaru and South Canterbury to the best of its ability fop almost 40 years, the ‘Timaru Post’ has to announce to-day that it will cease publication on March 31. A newspaper, more perhaps than any other kind of business, takes on human characteristics. It is always addressing itself to the people; it feels for them in their trials and exults with them in their joys; it has to defend and attack, and in these processes enemies as well as friends must sometimes be made. But now that the final leave-taking is so close at hand, we may be pardoned for expressing the confident hope that we have a handsome balance on the side of friendship. The explanation for cessation of our publication is a tale simply told, and in this realist world there need be no hesitation about facing facts. Hopes Not Realised “When the present proprietors took control of the ‘Timaru Post’ it was losing money heavily, but it was hoped that savings effected through amalgamation would enable this unsatisfactory position to be rectified. These hopes, however, were not realised, for the economy and efficiency resulting from new arrangements were nullified later by the depression years in which hard blows were struck at the heart of all business enterprises. This storm, which would have been discouraging to weak-spirited people, was weathered at the expense of the shareholders, and once again the struggle was resumed. It is possible that the outcome would have been successful were it not for the rising costs of the past three years which, by increasing overhead charges, imposed heavy burdens upon business generally. This factor alone would have justified the unhappy course now forced upon the proprietors of the ‘Timaru Post’ by the pressure of economic circumstances. Money was being lost at an alarming rate, and while prevailing conditions had much to do with this condition of affairs, it must be stated that the ‘Timaru Post’ suffered additionally through public apathy and also because competition from outside South Canterbury became more effective. The ‘Timaru Post’ provided an up-to-the-minute news service unequalled by that of any rival in the evening paper field, but this fact was not appreciated as much by South Canterbury readers as it should have been. No Alternative “These are the points, then, which swayed the proprietors of the ‘Timaru Post’ in making their decision to cease publishing this journal. It is a decision they regret as much as we hope it will be regretted by generous friends, both advertisers and readers, who have given us their support through the years. From a business standpoint there was no alternative to this decision. One final handicap under which the ‘Timaru Post’ had to labour was that the Timaru and South Canterbury area is a relatively small one, and we can say with sincere assurance that it will continue to be covered adequately by our morning contemporary-. With this full, and we hope satisfactory. statement, presented to the public, there is in the meantime nothing more to say.”