The Timaru Herald


The Timaru Herald is a daily provincial newspaper serving the Timaru, South Canterbury and North Otago districts of New Zealand. The current audited daily circulation is about 14,500 copies, with a readership of about 31,000 people. The paper is owned by media business Stuff Ltd.

History

The Herald was first published in 1864. Initially it appeared as a weekly paper, and then in bi- and tri-weekly form, before eventually becoming a daily morning paper from 1 January 1878. It is currently published on six days a week, Monday to Saturday, in a broadsheet format with full process colour printing.
The Timaru Herald has a history of technical innovation within the New Zealand newspaper industry. At the beginning of the 20th century it became one of the first New Zealand daily papers to replace hand-composed type with Linotype setting. In 1914 the company began New Zealand's first daily rural mail and newspaper delivery service. By 1957 the Timaru Herald was offering two-colour printing, and in 1988 the paper introduced direct copy entry by journalists. During the late 1980s it was the first newspaper in the South Pacific to employ fully computerised page layout and production systems. In 2005 printing moved to Guardian Print, of Ashburton. In April 2013 printing moved to Fairfax Print & Logistics at 14 Logistics Drive, Harewood, Christchurch.
For a brief period in the 1920s the Herald was edited by John Hardcastle. He was a journalist with the Herald for about 40 years, but he was also a very keen amateur scientist who has subsequently gained fame for his studies on loess and is now seen as a significant pioneer in the study of palaeoclimatology.

Community newspapers

The South Canterbury Herald is a weekly newspaper, delivered on Wednesdays. It is free to residents and can be viewed free at the Fairfax Media Digital Edition website. It is distributed to Timaru, Temuka, Geraldine, Waimate, Pleasant Point, Albury, Fairlie, Lake Tekapo, Ohau, Twizel, Mount Cook and rural mail deliveries in these areas.
The Waitaki Herald is a bi-weekly newspaper, delivered on Wednesdays and Fridays to Oamaru, Kurow, Omarama, Otematata, Maheno, Hampden, Herbert, Moeraki, Palmerston and rural mail deliveries in these areas.