Journalist/editor
Community newspaper, Ohakune
Part time
The Ruapehu Bulletin is looking for a journalist/editor to join our small team publishing the southern Ruapehu area's community newspaper, as well as regular tourist publications.
Journalism training is necessary but the most important quality we need is someone who has the community at heart and is keen to dig out the stories that the local community wants and needs to read. The ability to take good photos to capture the people of the community is also required.
A good standard of English is necessary, as is the ability to write accurately, factually and efficiently, sometimes under pressure.
The Ruapehu Bulletin is based in Ohakune in a stunning area looking up at the Ruapehu maunga and the Turoa Ski Area, in the Tongariro World Heritage National Park
The community is small but diverse – with the local economy based on tourism, farming, market gardening, forestry and conservation. There is also a small but growing population of people moving to the area to work remotely for businesses based in New Zealand's cities and around the world. So there is an interesting and varied mix of people making up the community.
The newspaper has a readership of around 5000 people and this is boosted in winter with several hundred ski season workers moving in. In summer, more and more people are visiting to hike and bike on the many tracks in the National Park and surrounding areas.
There's year-round outdoors activities on the doorstep – skiing & snowboarding, mountain biking, hiking, fishing and hunting.
The job involves working with many people in the community and the many positive projects that have been going on for decades, as well as several new ones ramping up right now, such as new sections of the Mountain to Sea cycle trail. The Turoa ski area has new owners and Whakapapa's future is also looking promising.