The ''Wairarapa Times-Age'' is the regional daily paper for New Zealand's

Wairarapa The Wairarapa (; ), a geographical region of New Zealand, lies in the south-eastern corner of the North Island, east of metropolitan Wellington and south-west of the Hawke's Bay Region. It is lightly populated, having several rural service ...

where it is prepared, and published in

Masterton Masterton ( mi, Whakaoriori), a large town in the Greater Wellington Region of New Zealand, operates as the seat of the Masterton District (a territorial authority or local-government district). It is the largest town in the Wairarapa, a r ...

. Though its roots are deep in Wairarapa's community, it joined a national combine in 2002 only to leave the combine in 2016, with its proprietors now entirely Wairarapa residents.

History

Of the first newspapers published in the region, the ''Wairarapa Mercury'' (later ''Standard''), the ''Wairarapa News'', the ''Wairarapa Register'' and the ''Newsletter'', all, except the ''Newsletter'' were forced to close down by fires in 1937, 1872 and 1878 respectively. However the ''Wairarapa News'' began again six years after the fire on 30 October 1878. This paper merged with the ''Wairarapa Free Press'' on 11 September 1878 to form the ''Wairarapa Daily'' which became the Wairarapa Daily Times in 1892. The ''Wairarapa Star'' was formed in 1881 and changed to the ''Wairarapa Age'' in 1902. These two papers, the ''Daily Times'' and the ''Age'' joined to form the ''Wairarapa Times-Age'' in 1938. The newly merged paper moved to a purpose-built

Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unite ...

-inspired building on the narrow corner of Chapel Street ( SH 2) and Cole Street in Masterton. While the ''Times-Age'' still has its offices and production team based in its building, the printing of the paper has now been outsourced. In 2006, the building was listed as a Category 2 historic place ("places of historical or cultural heritage significance or value") by the

New Zealand Historic Places Trust Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga (initially the National Historic Places Trust and then, from 1963 to 2014, the New Zealand Historic Places Trust) ( mi, Pouhere Taonga) is a Crown entity with a membership of around 20,000 people that advocate ...

(now Heritage New Zealand). The paper was acquired by Wilson & Horton Newspaper group in July 2002. This group was in turn bought up by

APN News & Media Here, There & Everywhere (HT&E), formerly known as APN News & Media, is an Australian media company. Divisions include broadcast radio and Out-of-home advertising. The company previously had assets in New Zealand, and previously owned Adshel ...

.APN leaps into Kiwi takeover. , Australasian Business Intelligence , Find Articles at BNET
/ref> In May 2011 ''Wairarapa Times-Age'', changed the format of its weekend edition and morning edition to a compact size, the Monday to Friday editions remained broadsheet afternoon publications. In November 2011 the newspaper changed all editions to compact sized, morning publications. On 30 June 2016, NZME sold the ''Wairarapa Times-Age'' to Masterton-based National Media Ltd, returning the paper to local ownership.

Other publications

The ''Wairarapa Times-Age'' also publishes:

''Wairarapa Midweek''

This weekly

community paper Community paper is a term used by publishers, advertisers and readers to describe a range of publications that share a common service to their local community and commerce. Their predominant medium being newsprint, often free and published at regul ...

is delivered free to homes throughout the Wairarapa District.

''Wairarapa Property''

This weekly property magazine can be found at Real Estate offices and inserted into the Wairarapa Midweek which is delivered free to homes throughout the Wairarapa District.

References

External links

''Wairarapa Times-Age'' Website
{{NZ newspaper Newspapers published in New Zealand Mass media in Masterton Publications established in 1878 New Zealand Media and Entertainment 1878 establishments in New Zealand