Hawera Star

The Hawera Star was founded as the Hawera & Normanby Star in 1880 by Patrick Galvin, Joseph Innes and James Yorke. The first issue appeared on 10 April 1880 and the paper was published twice a week, until October 1881, when it became a tri-weekly.

In 1882 a new press was installed and the paper began daily publication. By 1889 Yorke was the sole proprietor. Four years later he sold the Star to the paper's editor, William Alfred Parkinson, who ran the paper until his death in 1920. After Parkinson’s death, the newspaper continued to be run under the private company he established, W A Parkinson & Co. Robert Page, Parkinson’s son-in-law, and C H Walker were directors of the company. After Walker left in 1922, Page’s wife and three of her brothers bought into it. Some time later Percy Bond, the general manager of the Star, also acquired shares in the company.

On 12 June 1924 the title of the paper was changed to the Hawera Star. This appears to have been a pragmatic decision, as the change to a new press meant ‘the old style [of title was] too cumbersome in present circumstances’ (12 June 1924: 6). The pages of the paper were also reduced in size. The new press was a Cossar, designed by Scotsman Thomas Cossar (1875–1952) to be packed flat and shipped around the world, and was a significant investment for the owners.

In 1934 the Hawera Star Publishing Company was established by a group of local residents, including James Campbell, then mayor of Hawera. The company purchased the paper and continued to run the Hawera Star until it was taken over by Independent Newspapers Ltd in 1987.

Like many local newspapers, the Star struggled to attract skilled staff, particularly during the Second World War, and into the 1960s. However, once there some staff stayed for decades, such as Len Ablett, who came from Christchurch in 1927 and stayed at the paper until he retired as editor in 1962. Some former staff went on to have prominent careers in the New Zealand media, such as journalist and cartoonist Harry Dansey (1920–1979), journalist Pat Booth (1929-2018), and radio journalist and broadcaster Joan Faulkner Blake, all of whom worked at the Star early in their careers. According to David Hetherington (editor from 1962-1975), well-known New Zealand author Ronald Hugh Morrieson’s first published work was a local news item about a nocturnal monster haunting South Road.

January 1972 saw the Star switch to publishing news on the front page. The newspaper continued as a daily until 1977, when the Saturday issue was stopped, because it was too expensive to continue with. A more significant change took place in October 1978 when the Star became a free community newspaper, published on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays. It was distributed to everyone between Pihama (34 kms to the west of Hawera) and Patea (28 kms to the south), and circulation rose from 3,000 to 7,000. During the 1980s the newspaper began to be printed at Wanganui Newspapers, rather than at Hawera itself.

In 1980 publication dropped to twice-weekly, and in 1984, the paper became formally known as the Star. Twenty years later, now owned by Fairfax, the paper was renamed the South Taranaki Star and issued weekly. In 2014 the title was changed again to the Taranaki Star and as of 2020 it continued to be published under that name every Thursday.