New editor, new challenges in Nelson

Paul McIntyre traded the comfort of a metropolitan daily for the challenges of a regional newspaper. After 14 years at The Press in Christchurch (the largest city on the South Island), McIntyre is hoping to reinvigorate the much smaller Nelson Mail, founded in 1866. To turn around declining circulation, he plans to emphasize hard news, improve photography and launch campaigns around local issues.

At The Press (circulation 83,000), McIntyre held a variety of newsroom roles, including news editor and online editor. As editor of the Mail (circulation 16,000), McIntyre, 45, will oversee a staff of eight reporters, three editors and three photographers. Subbing (copy editing and page design) is done in house by editors employed by the Mail’s parent company, Fairfax, some of whom work in the newsroom in Nelson.

When I visited McIntyre in mid-March, he had been on the job for just a month. He was already impressed by the dedication of his staff. “Journalists work harder at small papers than at big-city papers,” he said, an assessment that reflects my own experience. “I like being closer to the action here.” He was getting better acquainted with community issues, including declining employment in the fishing industry and port.

His immediate task is to stabilize circulation, which peaked at 23,000 a few years ago. Nelson’s population is aging, as people are attracted by its mild climate. (It’s the sunniest city in New Zealand.) That’s the demographic that still reads printed newspapers. But many of the retirees and summer residents are migrants from elsewhere in New Zealand, and they bring their reading habits with them.

Both The Press and The Dominion Post (from Wellington, across the Cook Strait on the North Island) circulate in Nelson. Together, they sell about 11,000 copies a day in Nelson. In McIntyre’s view, they have an advantage because they are morning papers, hitting the streets hours ahead of the mid-day Mail.

McIntyre is itching to switch the Mail to morning publication. For inspiration, he points to his native England, where most regional papers lost circulation in the six months ending February 28. An exception was the Dorset Echo on England’s south coast, whose circulation grew by 2.1 percent after switching from afternoon to morning publication. McIntyre believes a similar change would benefit the Mail. In the meantime, he is trying to learn more about issues affecting Nelson and its surrounding region to redirect the paper’s coverage. I’ll check in with him in a few months to see how he’s doing.
Photo: The Nelson Mail