North Shore Times
On March 29, 1949, the North Shore Times was launched to serve a collection of seaside settlements and small towns that dotted one of the most beautiful places on earth.
Sixty years later, North Shore City is the fourth-biggest city in New Zealand, and the newspaper that serves it has exceeded all expectations.
From once-a-week and just four pages, it now comes out three times a week and at times has been 64 pages.
It has an all-time record readership of 132,000, far greater than any other newpaper serving the area, and has become widely respected for its fair and balanced reporting.
The lead headline in that first issue was “Pretty weddings on the North Shoreâ€.
You may laugh, but news needn’t always be gloomy. And over the years the North Shore Times has balanced its hardnosed coverage of local affairs with the lighter and brighter side of life.
Back in 1949, there was an air of excitement. The terrible memories of World War Two were fading, and New Zealand was in the midst of a baby boom.
Our farmers were feeding Britain and the exports receipts created a prosperity that would last until the 1970s.
But it wouldn’t be for another 10 years that the construction of the harbour bridge saw the Shore take off.
That remarkable feat of engineering let people live near the Shore’s stunning beaches and beautiful freshwater lake, yet work in the booming commercial, retail and industrial centres of Auckland.
Shore residents still travel across the bridge daily, but today many have jobs on this side.
There are industrial parks in Glenfield and Mairangi Bay, while farmland has been swallowed up for housing.
But the speed and size of Albany’s development has dwarfed everything.
Just where the Shore will end is anyone’s guess and maintaining green space will be one of the most important tasks facing whatever local body comes out of the current reorganisation.
And whatever face the Shore eventually shows to the world, the North Shore Times will be its voice.
