Weekly newspaper bought by Greymouth Star Co

THE Greymouth Evening Star Company Ltd has added the Kaikoura Star newspaper to its portfolio, which includes the Hokitika Guardian and West Coast Messenger.

The change of ownership of the weekly Kaikoura newspaper was announced on Tuesday by Stuff management.

In February, Stuff signalled the newspaper was for sale and had worked over the past three months to procure the deal.

The last publication under Stuff ownership will be on June 20.

Greymouth Star general manager John Goulding said the Greymouth Evening Star Co Ltd had been publishing local community newspapers on the West Coast since 1866.

The Kaikoura Star joins three other regionallybased newspapers; the daily afternoon paper Greymouth Star, the daily morning paper Hokitika Guard ian, and the weekly community paper West Coast Messenger.

‘‘The ethos behind our papers is local news that reflects the local community, and we will apply this to the Kaikoura Star as we have done successfully with our West Coast papers.

‘‘To this end we have set a priority of employing a Kaikourabased journalist and sales representative. With the right emphasis on local content, we believe there is a great opportunity to grow readership and attract more advertisers,’’ Mr Goulding said.

Stuff chief executive Sinead Boucher said that the sale showed newspapers like the Kaikoura Star still had an audi ence and attraction.

‘‘We are very focused on creating a predominantly digital growth business and that means making some difficult decisions around our print portfolio.

‘‘However, our intention was to find new loving owners, where we could, and we are thrilled to see the Greymouth Evening Star Co Ltd snap up the chance to invest in a wellloved local paper.’’