Brief History
When I first came to live in Timaru in 1976 the Timaru Herald was locally owned by the Kerr family and it was a very balanced unbiased newspaper. It is now owned by the Fairfax family from Sydney Australia and as a result the content and management has changed. In the last couple of years it has acquired a new Editor David King that was sent down from the North Island to replace the former long serving Editor David Wood. The deputy Editor of the Timaru Herald is now Grant Shimmin formally of Ashburton.
Biased
I have been a regular writer to the Herald for some 30 years and what they now report and more importantly what they don’t report makes me very angry. All newspapers are expected to allow their readers freedom of speech but unfortunately the Editors of the Timaru Herald don’t see it that way and they will not publish letters that in any way criticise their associates.
The Timaru Herald is a major sponsor for the controversial new Aquatic Centre that the Timaru District Council are building and as result they naturally get all the advertising to promote the fundraising for the new complex. Several thousands of dollars worth of advertising have already been spent by the Timaru District Council with the Timaru Herald. If you are a rate payer of Timaru you are paying for the $23.5 million swimming pool and gym whether you like it or not. Your rates are also paying for the advertising to fund raise to find the money to build the complex.
Sacked
There is no pay attached to writting letters to newspapers even though they use them to entertain their readers. In my case they decided to reject my letters without giving a valid reason and I am not the only one that has their letters rejected without a valid reason. I contacted their boss at Fairfax in Wellington but my complaint was totally ignored. I have become so angry and frustrated with the management of the Timaru Herald that I have sacked the lot of them and started my own publication
Timaru Directory News
Timaru has just been introduced to a new news publication called the Timaru Directory News as part of the Timaru Directory website. The first publication Timaru Southend Community News was distributed free into mailboxes on labour day 2010. The funding of the publication came from public donations as a result of Save the Century Pool campaign. The next suburban publication will be the Timaru Gleniti Community News and this will be distributed free into the Gleniti letterboxes once sufficient public donations have been received.
WATCH THIS SPACE - Tell others about this popular fast growing website and the SH1 Timaru Directory News
