Owners of Marlborough Media, the publisher of the new Marlborough Weekly. They are from left; Neil and Summa MacDonald and Andrew and Sarah Board. Photo: Sarah Hodgett.

Nelson publisher expands to Marlborough

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Nelson Weekly has a new sister paper.

Last week the first edition of Marlborough Weekly was published to 19,000 homes and businesses.

It is owned by Marlborough Media, a joint venture between the publishers of Nelson Weekly and Summa MacDonald, a Marlborough-based publisher.

It is based on the same successful formula as Nelson Weekly, including popular sections like Street Talk, Out & About, Opinion and sport pages.

Managing director of both companies, Andrew Board, says it’s a big step forward.

“Nelson Weekly Ltd has undergone huge change in the past couple of years. We’ve launched new products like the Nelson App and Nelson Magazine and now have a majority shareholding in Marlborough Media which publishes Marlborough Weekly, Marlborough App and Marlborough Magazine. These additional products are driving our growth, along with continued increased sales in the Nelson Weekly itself.”

He says the Marlborough company employs seven local staff and launched with more than 70 businesses advertising.

“We’ve been really humbled with the support from business owners in Marlborough but also from Nelson companies that do business there. A number of Nelson companies advertised in our first edition, which shows how important that market is for the growth of Nelson companies.”

Andrew says print media has an exciting future and he’s delighted to be launching a new newspaper.

“I think newspapers are incredibly important for a community and well-run, locally-owned newspapers, which are passionate about the area they cover, have a long future ahead of them.

“They are vital to informing and entertaining, and as trust in social media plummets, it’s local news platforms that are still providing trusted news. That’s great for readers but also really important for advertisers to be able to market their businesses in a product that is trusted and in one which their potential customers are engaged with.”

If you’re a business who’d like to advertise in Marlborough simply email [email protected] or [email protected].

If you’d like to read the Marl­borough Weekly head to its website, www.marlboroughweek­ly.co.nz and you can read a digital copy of the paper for free.