‘A light in dark places’: The Dominion Post turns 20

Reporter Mark Stevens was on maternity leave with his newborn when his boss, Clive Lind, called to say the newspaper he worked for would be closing in two weeks.

“I remember thinking ‘what am I going to do?’ I’ve got this baby, I can’t put it back,” Stevens said.

Lind had been editor of the Evening Mail for a little over a month when he made that phone call in June 2002, meaning his tenure as editor only lasted seven weeks.

He still laughs at how a friend in his former office in Southland called him to joke, “It didn’t take you long to…that newspaper, huh?”

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It was June 2002. stuff was still a young news website with a small team of web editors and a very Y2K aesthetic†

But the internet had already started guzzling advertising dollars, and with both the Post and its rival The Dominion, owned by the same company – Independent Newspapers Ltd (INL) – a morning and evening publication was no longer justifiable.

The run-up had been top secret.

Senior management believed advertisers would leave both papers as soon as they knew they were closing and feared a potentially crippling strike.

Both Stevens and Lind rallied, but 90 employees and more than 800 contracted delivery drivers did not make it through the layoffs.

(For context – the newspapers had 400 editors together at the time – that’s the number of journalists) stuff now works nationwide.)

Sure enough, on July 9, 2002, The Dominion Post launched its first edition – a combination of two newsrooms and hundreds of employees.

Over the next 20 years, The Dominion Post would expose the dodgy credit card spending of then Labor MP Shane Jones, reveal fraudulent transactions by Sir Ngatata Love and follow the shooting of convicted murderer Graeme Burton through the foothills of Lower Hutt.

Love would be jailed for more than four years after journalist Hamish Rutherford’s first story.

Dominion Post journalists would be on hand when a nationwide pandemic began and readers turned to the 1 p.m. press conferences for answers.

They would be there every day 23-day occupation at Parliamentas country camped at Shelly Bay and were there to piece together the effects of the 2016 Kaikōura quake.

Production editor Kylie Walker had put the newspaper to bed that night in 2016 and was in the work parking lot when the 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck at 12:02 a.m.

Readers that day woke up to a newspaper with early images of the earthquake and its damage. Walker had redone the front page at 2 a.m.

Eighteen months after the paper’s inception, journalist Phil Kitchin discovered Louise Nicholas’ story, which bore the headline, “The police raped me.”

It was the culmination of a two-year investigation, with people marching in the streets in support of Nicholas, and would lead to a large-scale investigation into how police handled cases of sexual assault.

There were also some highlights: the unforgettable goal scored by All White Rory Fallon in the 2009 World Cup qualifier against Bahrain.

In 2004 there was a David Bowie concert with flooding and the announcement that the region would have a new children’s hospital.

There was the night Peter Jackson won 11 Academy Awards and the day Richie McCaw would lift the Rugby World Cup after the touch-and-go win against France in 2015.

In April 2022, Anna Fifield put the C word on the front page† (If you’re not familiar, it starts with C and rhymes with front, hunt and blunt).

The story was about the increasing vitriol and the abuse directed against female politicians.

†[I]can you imagine being pelted with this word multiple times a day — on your social media, in your inbox,” Fifield wrote in an accompanying editor.

No subscribers cancelled.

Former editor Eric Janssen​ (2018-2020) recalls the “phenomenal support” from readers when the newspaper was printed with a new Māori masthead donated by Taranaki Whānui and Ngāti Toa.

It was June 2018 when the paper was first printed under the masthead Te Pūrongo o te Upoko-o-te-Ika, which loosely translates as “the report of the head of the fish” – (In Māori legend, Wellington’s head of the giant fish hooked by Māui and his brothers).

“It’s not surprising that there were also a few dinosaurs,” Janssen said.

“From memory, eight subscribers canceled and said they didn’t want ‘Māori in their paper’.”

There’s no point in withholding a response, he thought as he wrote back. “No editor likes to lose subscribers, but in your case I consider it a win-win. We will process your refund as soon as possible.”

In November 2020, the words “Nō mātou te hē – we are sorry” would be spread across the cover, a apologies for racist reporting that reinforced a Eurocentric narrative.

Fifield says the commitment to better represent the Māori voices is ongoing and that the editorial staff is now better armed with knowledge of the Maori tīkanga, te reo Māori and relations with local iwi.

In May 2022, Kaumātua and groups of Te Ati Awa Taranaki blessed Whānui Stuff and the new offices of the Dominion Post with karakia and waiata, and bestowed the name Ngā Pānui.

The name refers to puna o te kī – a well of deep words, puna mātauranga – a pool of knowledge, and puna kōrero – a pool of speakers.

The Dominion Post looks very different today than it did 20 years ago, not least because it’s compact on weekdays, Fifield says.

But it has survived the internet revolution, the rise of Google and Facebook, and the “fake news” crisis caused by a certain former US president.

But Fifield says the combined newspaper’s mission remains true to its predecessors: to hold the powerful accountable and shine a light in dark places, while also celebrating the Wellington region’s successes.

The newspaper’s staff still strives to give readers the political news and insights of the Dominion and the local coverage and flavor of the Evening Post, Fifield says.

“Our newsroom may be smaller now, but our team of hard-working journalists love their work and are an integral part of the Wellington community,” she said.

“Over the next 20 years, we will continue to tell the stories that matter in our region without fear and without favor.”