Founded in September 1872, the Bay of Plenty Times has endured numerous changes of ownership before 1913, then survived global economic depression, two world wars and tumultuous global, national and local events - including devastating fires, to remain the district's number one source of news and advertising.
The newspaper has faithfully recorded the development of Tauranga city and surrounding district, making Tauranga's progress from a small fishing village to one of New Zealand's fastest-growing centres.
Today the Bay of Plenty Times employees over 80 local staff and is read on average by 43,000 people every day*, making it the region's highest read daily newspaper.
On March 4, 2013 the weekday Bay of Plenty Times changed to a compact format and morning delivery. The Bay of Plenty Times Weekend, the big read on Saturday, remained a morning delivered broadsheet newspaper.
The daily newspaper produces one newspaper inserted magazine and three weekly lift-outs a week, all of which are inserted into a full run of the Bay of Plenty Times:
flavours, Wednesday's local food and wine lift-out
vibe, Thursday's entertainment lift-out
Driven, Friday's motoring lift-out
indulge, Saturday's women's lifestyle magazine
The Bay of Plenty Times also produces a network of free community newspapers each Thursday:
Bay News
Te Puke Times
Katikati Advertiser
Waihi Leader
Whangamata Coastal News
In the online news space the Bay of Plenty Times website; bayofplentytimes.co.nz attracts over 48,000 unique browsers every week** and with daily e-news alerts it continues to grow its reach in the community.
Readers can also connect with the daily newspaper via Facebook and Twitter.
In 2012 the Bay of Plenty Times was awarded Newspaper of the Year at the Canon Media Awards and the paper's website was named finalist in the Best Website - Breaking News Coverage section. The Bay of Plenty Times was also a Newspaper of the Year Finalist at the Pacific Area Newspaper Publishers Awards in Sydney.
*Source: Nielsen CMI Regional Database, All People 15+, 2 Y/E Dec 2012
**Source: 2012 Average Weekly Browsers