Adam Hollingworth
AUCKLAND (TV3 News / Pacific Media Watch): The New Zealand Herald has relaunched in a tabloid format with the promise of a "new dawn".
Herald bosses say street sellers reported a 30 to 40 percent jump in sales and critics liked what they saw.
It's said less is more, and the Herald's publishers believe that's key to rejuvenating the paper. Today's editorial said its mantra is to tell the truth and raise hell, but the editor says that doesn't mean going down market.
“We have to be really careful that the content isn't tabloid and so the front page for instance is actually a lot more toned down than you saw in the original broadsheet in the last few months," says editor Shayne Currie.
"People want text and substance on the front page so it's not like the UK tabloids where it's all headline and photographs."
“There are some tabloid angles like clear-cut pictures, one or two stories on a page, that's all. That will always make the more so-called sophisticated reader cringe a little bit," says AUT University journalism lecturer Greg Treadwell.
"However, I think we just need to be realistic that they've got to attract younger readers, and I think they've done a good job overall.”
The Herald has also relaunched its website and bosses are considering making readers pay for online content.
And while the critics are generally giving the Herald a favourable reception there is one group not happy with the new format: fish and chip shops will find it harder.
“As of today, virtually we've got no newspapers to wrap our fish and chips in," says Markus Blum of Kiwiana Fish and Chips. "We've always used the Herald because we want to maintain our Kiwi flavour of wrap but we just can't use the current format."
So, if nothing else, the old saying that today's newspaper is tomorrow's fish and chip wrapping can't now apply to the Herald.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 New Zealand Licence.
Pacific Media Watch
