Few things earn a "usual" accolade in a fast-paced place like Queenstown.
But after 38 years, there is one aspect of New Zealand's ever-evolving adventure
capital that has become firmly entrenched as routine - Mountain Scene newspaper.
Hitting the streets every Thursday, locals and tourists eagerly devour the pages
in the award-winning tabloid for the latest Queenstown news - sometimes
controversial, always enthralling.
Publisher, Richard Thomas, accepts Mountain Scene is regarded as an institution
of sorts in the alpine town.
"It's a paper for the local community. Love it or hate it, it's our job to get
the community deeply involved in the issues. Taking a controversial editorial
stance on some stories is just part of the territory that goes with that. Not
all news is popular," he said.
Something of a media battleground, the resort town has three daily newspapers,
four television stations, an array of community weeklies, tourist publications,
internet sites and up to 13 radio stations being beamed in, catering for a
population of just 17,500.
"We've got to be right at the forefront of that. We have to compete at the high
end as a premium product and do everything in our power to maintain our
position", Mr Thomas said.
Mountain Scene has maintained impressive readership figures of around 90 percent
of all residents age 15+ for more than two decades. Modern ICT solutions are an
integral component of the operation - and that's where Focus Technology Group
come in.
With global media trends and end consumers now placing greater emphasis on the
multi-media Mountain Scene is rapidly investing in multi-media solutions.
"We're integrating the web and printed product more and more," Mr Thomas said.
"We've spent a lot of money ensuring our ICT systems, both hardware and
software, are state-of-the-art".
"Every aspect of our business is computerised - from classified ads to laying
out the paper itself".
"Focus has been fantastic - we don't have any ICT experience as such in-house.
It's all contracted out to Focus and they do a top job for us." |
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