The Chatham Islander was published monthly between April 1992 and March 2020 . It succeeded a newsletter with the same title issued from 1990 to 1992 by the Chatham Islands Enterprise Trust.

The Chatham Islands are about 800 km east of New Zealand’s South Island. European settlement was established from the 1840s, and the current population is about 800. Newspapers are not new to this isolated community. A handwritten news bulletin, the Chatham Islands Chronicle, was published weekly at Waitangi in 1867, and another cyclostyled handwritten newsletter, Te Korero Pono, appeared monthly from Te One in 1904. In the 1970s and 1980s the local County Council intermittently produced a newsletter called News and Views, initially on a Gestetner duplicator and later photocopied. The Chatham Island Enterprise Trust produced The Chatham Islander newsletter from 1990 to 1992, but decided it did not want to be in the publishing business. 

The Managing Editor and owner of the new Chatham Islander was Graham C. Ellery, based in Napier with a Chatham Islands representative. Ellery was manager of the Napier community newspaper the Courier, which featured Chathams content. About 1000 copies of the tabloid format of the 8-page newspaper were printed in Napier. It was available free to residents on the Chatham Islands. Those wanting extra copies paid $2 for every additional copy. Each monthly issue was typically 8 pages, increasing to 12 pages on occasion (such as the August 1992 issue which carried a history of policing in the Chathams). When reports of the Chatham Islands Enterprise Trust were included, some issues ran to 20 pages (such as a history of policing in the Chatham Islands in the August 1992 issue) or when the reports of the Chatham Islands Enterprise Trust were provided. In later years the typical page count was 12 or 16. Ownership and Managing Editorship changed from Ellery to Napier-based John Hart from the April 2006 issue, and to Rosemary Jackson, based in Christchurch, in November 2010. The final issue of March 2020 made no mention of its impending closure.

The Chatham Islander’s subtitle varied, but always with a strong emphasis on community: initially “Community Newspaper of the Chatham Islands”, it became just “Community Newspaper” (from January 1997) and was dropped in 1999. From 2002 the front page carried the words “bringing you the community news and views since 1992“. “Local News and Views” was the subtitle from 2011. 

Hugh Rennie comments that the Chatham Islander “contain[s] much of the history of the Islands over the period of publication, including news, annual reports, photographs etc. which are not otherwise accessible.” The Chatham Islander exemplifies the real strength of local newspapers: their closeness to the communities they served, and the wide range of local news they covered. It captures the heartbeat of its community, from local politics and sports to everyday moments and major milestones.