The Bay Beacon, originally an A4 advertiser-style publication, came into being almost by default. The owner of the Mercury Bay Weekly Advertiser suddenly decided to close his publication in 1996. Beacon publisher Sue Collins had been working for the MBWA and she and a friend Sue Greatbanks decided to start their own publication.
Within a week though the MBWA was back on the streets and that continued until Ian Meredith bought it in 1998 and proposed a merger with The Bay Beacon.
There was a name change to The Beacon Advertiser but when Sue Collins bought out her partner in 2003, the publication reverted to The Bay Beacon.
In May 2003, the momentous decision to become a newspaper was made. In 2007, The Moehau Messenger was added as a fortnightly supplement to serve the Coromandel town and points north, but in April 2008 the Beacon and the Messenger were merged and re-named The Coromandel Peninsula Post to give better coverage every week to the top half of the Coromandel Peninsula.