Mount News. Mount Maunganui. 1948 Dec 10-1990 Sep 26. Merged with Timescan to form Bay News.  w.  UC1987.

 The first issue of the Mount News was published in Mount Maunganui on 10 December 1948. Published weekly thereafter, its first issues were printed in Rotorua for editor and publisher Albert George Charles Cottrell. In the first issue Cottrell emphasised that for Mount Maunganui, “the days are past when its doings should be chronicled by favour of another town,” and that the newspaper would “be only a homely town paper, leaving outside world affairs to the bigger dailies”; its growth would reflect the town’s bright future. Issues from 1949 to early 1963 featured a changing banner beneath the masthead, typically boosting the town, promoting events or activities, or advertising the newspaper’s services.

 Initially, the newspaper was printed in Rotorua, then in Te Puke in 1949–50, and by John Round in Ocean Beach Road, Omanu, in Mount Maunganui, from 15 December 1950. The page 1 banner of this issue proclaimed “PROGRESS – THE FIRST NEWSPAPER EVER PRINTED AT THE MOUNT”, and its editorial began, “You now hold history in your hands. Before you is the first newspaper ever printed and published at Mt Maunganui.” It noted that the town’s progress necessitated the printing of 650 copies each week and reiterated its local focus. The newspaper now owned its own premises and printing plant.

A special edition on 29 December 1950 reported the wreck of the launch Ranui with loss of life. Three weeks later the Mount News noted this to have been the first time the paper had published two editions on the same day.

The death of founder and editor Charlie Cottrell on 11 October 1952 did not appear to affect the newspaper’s production immediately. The 12 December 1952 editorial, headed “Now We are Five”, reflected on the town’s future as its newspaper began “its fifth year of service”. Printer John Round, Cottrell’s partner from the end of 1950, was probably a partner in Mount News Ltd, the paper’s proprietors.

Printing moved again to Te Puke until early August 1953, when it returned to Mount Manganui and carried the first mention of Kathleen D’Bett Cottrell, Charles Cottrell’s widow, as publisher, which she remained until her death in late 1984. By that time the Mount News was owned by the Bay of Plenty Times Ltd and printed in Tauranga.

Until the 1980s there had been no major changes in the paper’s format or appearance, but the number of pages had slowly grown from 4 to 8 pages. Major changes were foreshadowed in the 23 June 1983 issue. The paper, in a new format, changed from a subscriber newspaper to free distribution each week to all residents of the borough of Mount Maunganui, and soon after to Papamoa residents, boosting circulation to more than 6000. Publication day moved from Thursday to Wednesday, but the aims of the paper expressed in its first editorial in 1948 remained unchanged. In its new format, the newspaper carried much more advertising, including full-page advertisements. With a fresher, more modern look, the number of pages doubled, typically 16 or 20 pages per issue, but sometimes up to 28 pages, particularly from the 1983-84 summer period when coloured illustrations began to grace the front page; the illustrations in the summer 1990 issues are noteworthy

The final edition of the Mount News was published on 26 September 1990. It merged with Timescan to become Bay News from 3 October 1990.