Newspaper deeply embedded in the Kapi-Mana community
The look may have changed over 64 years but Kapi-Mana News’ commitment to the community has stayed the same.
Kapi-Mana News was started in 1949 by four Plimmerton businessmen: Alex Grant, Gladstone Hill, Frank Ross and Jock Cameron.
In the lead-up to the newspaper’s 60th anniversary in 2009, we visited Grant’s daughter, who played us a recording of an interview with her father.
On the tape he said the people in Tawa needed to know what was happening in Pukerua Bay and vice versa.
He said the Wellington City dailies never wrote a line about the area between Tawa and Kapiti unless a murder or some form of embarrassment was involved. Each of the men put in £1 ($71 now) to start the business. After initial printing success, they built a 30 x 30ft shed in Plimmerton, where the Baptist Church is now.
The men bought a second-hand stick flyer press that printed four pages at a time.
The paper was delivered between Tawa Flat and Paraparaumu, the area known as Kapi-Mana.
After a shareholders’ meeting in 1950-1, Gladstone Hill stepped down and Grant became the managing editor for 21 years.
Kapi-Mana News moved from Plimmerton to a building in Kenepuru Dr (Bathroom Direct today) in the mid-1950s.
In 1973, Grant retired and the paper was sold to Independent Newspapers Ltd.
Kapi-Mana News moved to its present location under the Canopies in September 1995.