Mountain Scene takes the plunge and changes from fortnightly to weekly publication.

1974
Mountain Scene Ltd’s first annual general meeting is held on March 1 at the now-defunct Treetops Restaurant in Sunshine Bay. Maiden accounts for the year ended October 31, 1973 show the public but unlisted company made a loss of $3199 from advertising revenue of $22,496 against costs of $25,670. There was no dividend.

Founder chairman Barry Thomas said the most difficult aspect the board had to grapple with was "the amount of local news that should be included in the paper and how much tourist-type news". He went on to say the initial policy was "to be a promotional paper, promoting the tourist activities of the Southern Lakes area and incorporating such local news to give interest to local readers and the advertisers directing their sales at the consumer." This editorial policy would be maintained but "it has been difficult to obtain the desired balance".

1975
At this year’s AGM, Mountain Scene Ltd announces its first profit, $1125 after tax, and its first dividend – $348.
Mountain Scene is appointed Queenstown "stringer" for Radio New Zealand, "receiving payment for news items supplied". 

1976
The paper experiments with "no sell, no pay" advertisements, with ads being placed free and advertisers then paying 10 per cent of the product’s price if and when it sells.
Board minutes record the following resolution: "That particular issues such as nuclear power and political issues should be carefully handled by the paper."advertisement.

1980

• Board minutes record "that the Southland Times had approached Mountain Scene to provide editorial backup for them" – a fee of $5000-$6000 per year is mentioned.
• With a "very serious" loss of $16,000 over the first five months of the financial year, "all part-time staff are to be put off forthwith [and] all costs rigidly scrutinised". Mountain Scene’s sole salesperson "is to be told quite strongly that she is to get out of the office and sell". 
  
  1982
  The paper receives its first threat of a defamation lawsuit after a "guest editorial" allegedly defames a local personality of the time. A lawyer’s letter demands $11,000 to settle out of court – the actual sum paid is $1000.
  
  1983
  The style of Mountain Scene begins to evolve with a more hard-news approach occasionally being applied to front-page stories.
  
  1984
  Mountain Scene introduces its TV WEEK guide, the first free weekly in New Zealand to do so. The annual licensing fee demanded by the broadcasters, at that time about $20,000, was a major cost for the small paper.
  1985
  
• Mountain Scene launches a daily "Jobs Bus" to transport dozens of Cromwell unemployed to fill vacancies in Queenstown.
• Board minutes of the time reveal Mountain Scene directors are concerned over rumours of the Southland Times launching a home delivery subscription service in the resort and Radio Otago "setting up a direct broadcast from Queenstown". A new local competitor, the Wakatipu Advertiser, was also put on "close watch". (This latter subsequently ran out of money and Mountain Scene and the Otago Daily Times together embarked on a year-long rescue bid but the 1987 stockmarket crash and subsequent recession put paid to the fledgling paper and it had to be closed.)
• Mountain Scene commissions the first Otago University Media Survey, the first independently-conducted research into the reading and listening habits of Queenstown and Arrowtown residents. The newsweekly is shown to reach 96 per cent of local adults 15 years and over, and is clearly the most popular media outlet in the Wakatipu. (Mountain Scene has continued to commission regular Otago University surveys, all of which have shown the paper to be unrivalled in the local readership stakes, with reach consistently at 94-96 per cent.)
• The first-ever Mountain Scene reader contest is announced – a $55,000 section in the new Goldfields subdivision is to be given away in a 10-week promotion beginning at Christmas. The contest drew over 23,000 entries and the homesite was won by a low-income family from Glenorchy. The contest was believed to be the largest newspaper promotion in the South Island to that time.