Mountain Scene is Queenstown's longest running, most read and most loved newspaper.
Download the latest Queenstown media survey here
Hardhitting Content
- NZCNA Newspaper of the year 2007 and Winner of nine Community Newspaper Association Awards including Best Journalist and Best Advertising Portfolio.
- 2007 Qantas Media Awards Finalist.
- Winner Qantas Media Awards; Best Community Newspaper 2006, Finalist Best Overall Newspaper 2006.
- Winner of eight Community Newspaper Association Awards 2006; including Best Young Journalist, Best Sub-Editing and Best Advertising Portfolio.
- Exclusive News Policy
Most Critical Mass
• 87% reach 15+ Wakatipu residents What’s believed to be the country’s highest Market Penetration.
• 69% of all Wakatipu households have Mountain Scene delivered
• Low Home Penetration of Daily Papers – Southland Times 18 per cent, Otago Daily Times 22 per cent.
Only 4per cent have both delivered. Only 38 per cent of Wakatipu Households have a daily paper delivered.
Locals First Choice
• Preferred Local Paper of 83 per cent of all Wakatipu 15+ Residents – six times more popular than The Mirror. ‘Queenstown Focus’ is the leading reason given for the preference – followed by ‘More Variety’, ‘More Relevant’, ‘More Local Information’, ‘Lots of Gossip’, ‘More News’ and ‘Serious and Controversial’.
• “No.1 Classified Source” with local residents – almost three times more popular than its nearest rival.
More Time Spent Per Page
• Longest Read in Town with 38% more impact per edition than The Mirror– Exclusive local focus ensures readers spend longer reading Mountain Scene.
Seven-day Shelf Life
• Primary TV source and Weekend Weather
Lion's Share of Local Retail & Other Advertisers
497 Regular Advertisers, incl. almost all major local retailers
|
|
"FILLING A LONG FELT NEED" was Mountain Scene’s first-ever headline on November 1, 1972.
Queenstowners had been starved of a local paper since the demise of the Lake Wakatip Mail in 1947.
The new free paper announced it intended to serve both visitors and locals, adding: "No longer will it be necessary to clutter up shop windows or rely on word of mouth to get your message across. »»
|
|
29 Feb 2008
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 »»
|
A senior board member of what is now Destination Queenstown, unhappy at a story, storms into the Mountain Scene office and threatens to punch a cub reporter. He leaves after a warning that police will be called if he doesn’t.
Hostile takeover bid
The board of the public but unlisted Mountain Scene Ltd is taken by surprise in October 1986 at a hostile takeover bid by Southern Equities Ltd.
The Invercargill development and »»
|
Auckland’s Metro magazine publishes Queenstown – Amusement Arcade in Heaven, written by a former Mountain Scene editor. Several Queenstowners write to the magazine to complain and the article also sparks a war of (unpublished) words between Mountain Scene’s publisher, who was slagged in the magazine article, and Metro editor Warwick Roger. The Scene publisher tells Roger his magazine is a "drooping organ" and »»
|
|
|
Mountain Scene marks its coming of age with 12 months of 12 different community promotions costing $50,000 in cash and advertising. About $30,000 was raised for various good causes, over $12,000 of which went to a local nurse badly injured in a car accident – trustees bought her a $5000 motorised wheelchair and other funds went on special-needs therapy. »»
|
Mountain Scene invests in its first computerised publishing system. Until then, all news and advertising content was typeset and pages put together at a remote printery from typewritten or hand-written copy and layouts. (A new state-of-the-art publishing system was installed in 2004.)
A courier pack containing a giant dead rat is delivered to Mountain Scene’s publisher. There is no clue about the sender, nor on the story which »»
|
|
|
In December, a long-running court case comes to an end with the publication of the following statement:
Cooper Case Withdrawn
A four-year-old defamation case brought by former Queenstown mayor Warren Cooper against Mountain Scene has been settled prior to its scheduled February 27 trial. »»
|
|
|
B
est lil’ paper in the land
ALWAYS the bridesmaid, now the bride.
After being runner-up for the past four years, Mountain Scene is now officially New Zealand’s Best Community Newspaper.
The title was bestowed on the Queenstown newsweekly at the 2006 Qantas Media Awards in Auckland in May. »»
|
|
03 Mar 2008
After years of success, the Mountain Scene team are spreading their winning formula across the South Island.
A recently announced joint venture between Mountain Scene and Ashburton Guardian will see Scene Media launched in Dunedin.
The glossy, weekly tabloid to be launched soon will be distributed to 45,000 homes, and will be 'more hard edged and editorially driven' than Allied Press's community Star newspaper or the daily ODT.
A »»
|
|
17 Apr 2008
2008 Community Newspaper Awards
Junior Sports Journalist
Judge – Brent Edwards
C1 – John Lazo-Ron (Howick & Pakuranga Times)
C2 – Anika Forsman (Mountain Scene)
Overall – John Lazo-Ron (Howick & Pakuranga Times)
Anika Forsman (Mountain Scene) displayed a strong news sense to win class two. Her portfolio was enhanced by snappy, eye-catching headlines.
Senior Sports Journalist
Judge – »»
|
