Passion, dedication and determination saw the late Frank Veale set up The Ashburton Courier 40 years ago.
His was a story of perseverance, growth and durability – and serving the public.
Frank, a veteran newspaperman, founded the newspaper from virtually nothing. The first edition was printed on September 12, 1985, and it has grown year-on-year.
It is now owned by Allied Media, printed in Dunedin. It is produced in Ashburton, from start to finish, by a dedicated team of eight Mid Cantabrians who all live and play in the district.
Frank once lamented that it was a bit out of character to write about this business.
‘‘They say that a plumber’s taps may leak and a sparky’s home may be the last to get wired – that’s usually because, like us, they’re too busy serving others,’’ he said.
‘‘Sometimes I shudder when I look at our own promotion. In another business I would have to apportion some time to promotion and advertising.
However, because we are in the communication game it is easy to overlook the need to explain occasionally just who we are and what we do.’’
He was not wrong.
We do tend to keep our heads down and crack on with tasks at hand, rather than self-praise.
But in this issue, we are celebrating our 40th anniversary.
It includes a feature about us, you – our readers, and, of course, our valued advertisers, who allow us to continue to provide this newspaper.
We could not be prouder of our free community weekly, which goes to more than 16,000 households across Mid Canterbury and into Geraldine.
This paper survives on its advertising, and we get plenty of positive feedback from advertisers, who benefit from its high readership.
It means those advertisements – and our stories – are read.
As part of our 40th anniversary feature, this edition has stories spanning from humble beginnings born of passion, news stories from yesteryear, the people involved, momentous occasions, and some of the older advertisements that featured in The Courier.
