Skiing takes over local paper?

Ruapehu Bulletin, 8 September 1992, Page 4

Skiing takes over local paper?

• Ski season is with us again. In just about every page of your newspaper there is news about skiers or skiing, advertising for the skiers, accommodation, dining guide etc. I know your newspaper is a business and all this advertising must be good for you, but have you forgotten someone? The locals. For the last two weeks I have delivered the Waimarino Darts results to your office, the same as I do all year round. For some reason these results have not been published. Is it because it is darts and not skiing? Or because we are locals and not skiers? Remember, we are here all year round. We sup-

port your paper all year round. Skiers don't. Your publication of local sports results is appreciated but please, keep is up all year round. Katheryn Most. Editor replies: Thanks for appreciating us - we aim to publish all sports results that are submitted and I believe we have published a very high proportion oi your darts results, submitted. As you have indicated, we do get "snowed under" at this time of year - both with local and visitor-re-lated work, and it seems you did fall victim to the increased pressure our small staff is under. As a community newspaper we serve many masters The locals are very important to us so we work very hard to provide them

with a good newspaper. The ski industry is also very important to us (and the people in it are mostly local!), so we endeavour to work hard on their behalf as well. I understand thefeelings of local people, who see their towns taken over by the ski industry, but would remind them that it is for a very short time. While it may seem the Bulletin is taken over by the ski industry for these six short weeks, if you look more closely you will see that there is actually more local news in the winter issues than some of the smaller summer issues. We do apologise for omitting your darts results and assure you that no local news is deliberately left out in favour of ski news.