Lewis Ratapu, CEO Tātau Tātau o Te Wairoa Trust, and Aayden Clarke Kaihautū (CEO) Tātau Tātau Commercial. Photo: Tātau Tātau o Te Wairoa
Wairoa's independent newspaper the Wairoa Star is back under new ownership after it stopped publishing in May due to financial constraints.
Tātau Tātau o Te Wairoa iwi trust announced the acquisition of the 103 year old paper on Thursday, through its commercial entity.
Kaihautū (chief executive) of Tātau Tātau Commercial Aayden Clarke told First Up the Star is a taonga of the Wairoa community.
"Our community has been through some tough times we very much relied on that newspaper for a number of reasons. So strategically it made sense for us."
It will continue as a printed paper which would likely be spread from the Mahia Peninsula to Mohaka and Raupunga, with a digital option as well, Clarke said.
"[There's] something special about putting it in the letterbox for some of our people in town, I used to do it as an eleven year old little boy on my BMX bike myself so it's a little bit of a full circle here."
The goal is start publishing again in late October, with a leaner model of one edition per week down from the two editions per week that were published before the paper closed, Clarke said.
The Wairoa Star would remain the same community newspaper it always was, he said, and would continue to be a medium to share the stories of Wairoa.
"Most community newspapers die a slow death and they're never returned. Look for us and for myself personally it's really important that we are sharing the activity of Tātau Tātau and we are being transparent and we are able to get that out and all the great news that's happening across Wairoa, but how do we do that without a newspaper."
Clarke was hopeful the newspaper will continue to be something special for the next 100 years.
