Bad news for the Nius

The article on Niugini Nius going into receivership (Decem ber PIM, page 55) brings back memories.

The year was 1977 and I wanted to write. An expatriate woman approached me in the street in Mount Hagen, having heard of this desire of mine.

She was from the bi-weekly Lae Nius and explained that the paper was trying to expand its coverage in the highlands with a weekly supplement. She wanted someone to co-ordin ate, write and sell advertising for the supplement.

Things moved fast. I was soon in the office of Ray Thurecht, the then owner and publisher of Ailans Nius and Lae Nius.

He asked me to carry out a

feasibility study to discover if a similar paper might command a market in the highlands. It was to be called, of course, Hailans Nius.

The paper began its life in late 1977, centred on my home town of Mount Hagen. I tried to make it into a force that would unite the diverse communities in the area. It was a paper where anyone could be a story or feel they could come to us and say their piece (or peace). It also covered culture and sport.

I left Hailans Nius a few months before it was merged into the forerunner of Niugini Nius. The staff were trained and it was time for them to run their own show which they did well.

In later years I sometimes

saw the Nius as bastardising the concept of journalism and be coming a tool for often mis

guided reporting.

I often abused its Mt Hagen staff for not reporting the “truth”. Perhaps I was too idealistic and narrow in the my own views of what the paper should have been.

A newspaper in PNG, and probably in other parts of the South Pacific, cannot count its success in circulation figures.

One copy may be seen by ten readers before being torn up for making cigarettes.

Nothing lasts forever. But it is sad that Niugini Nius is in its current state.

Lois N Logan,

East Malvern, Australia