Te Awamutu Courier

The first issue of the Te Awamutu Courier was published on 17 April 1936. Previously known as the Waipa Post, the title was changed to mark the newspaper’s 25th anniversary. An editorial in the first issue of the Courier said that the reason for the change was the increased use of Te Awamutu as the name for the local area, rather than Waipa.

The Te Awamutu Courier was owned by a public company, but the Warburton family had a three-generation connection with the newspaper. Arthur was the editor and managing director of the Waipa Post when it was established in 1911. When he died in 1956, his son George was promoted to the role of manager of the newspaper. George remained involved with the newspaper until 1995, having overseen the sale of the paper to Wilson and Horton in 1992. His son, John Warburton, also worked for the Courier from 1966 to 2008, becoming the manager from 1986.

In 2014, after more than a century on the same site in Alexandra Street, the Te Awamutu Courier moved into new premises in Sloane Street. By then the Courier was owned by New Zealand Media and Entertainment (NZME), who also re-introduced the Waipā Post in 2018 as a free weekly newspaper.

For two years the Post came out on a Tuesday and the Courier every Thursday. However, after the government introduced a brief ban on non-daily newspapers during the 2020 Covid-19 lockdown, the Waipā Post closed down. In 2021 the Courier was still being published as a free weekly newspaper.