Executive Committee

President John Spring - Whakatane Beacon

Managing Director of the Beacon Media Group.
The Beacon Printing & Publishing Co Ltd is the parent company and the group is made up of 3 newspaper companies and 4 printing companies.
My father, Leicester Spring, started The Whakatane Beacon newspaper in 1939. I joined the company in 1990.
I’m a chartered accountant, married for 21 years with three children. Golf handicap is 12.

Bill Deed, QSM JP

Bill has had his hands in newspaper ink since he was eight, back in the letterpress days.
Director of Waiuku Publishing who produce the Post Newspaper in Franklin, southern Auckland with a circulation of 23,000 copies.
A printer by trade, Bill is passionate about the newspaper industry.

Karla Wairau

Operations Manager for Times Newspapers Ltd, Manager of sister company Times House Publishing Ltd and Director for Times House Digital Ltd.
Karla has 20 years industry experience covering both radio and print. Her Times career has incorporated a wide range of roles giving her in-depth knowledge of the newspaper industry and critical understanding of both the sales and editorial directions and more recently the digital arena.
A strong supporter of Times involvement with the New Zealand Community Newspapers Association she says membership has provided many benefits for both the company as a whole and individual staff members.
“As an independent newspaper company we appreciate having a forum in which to share ideas and resources. Not only do we enjoy the support of peers but we feel that through the association we can give something back to the industry.”
Karla says CNA conferences put company leaders in touch with old hands and newcomers to the print arena with workshops providing information on the latest technology as well as highlighting the changing face of newspapers.
“The awards are a measure of our success as a paper and provide a benchmark from which to work. They also give individual staff members something to work towards and reward their abilities.”

Gary Anderson

Gary Anderson has served over 40 years in the media industry, his career started in 1968 at The ChCh Star delivering advertising proofs, moving through to sales and in a short time to become a senior sales consultant.
From there moving into community newspapers as advertising manager for the then NZ News Ltd's "Canty Community Newspapers" group which was the start of a long career in communities.
 After a short time as GM for the communities, in the mid 80's Gary purchased a community newspaper based in Picton, this is when he first became elected onto the executive committee of NZCNA where he did a 10 year stint.
After selling the paper he moved back to Christchurch as Manager of the Mid Week Mail, a new publication started by Trevor Laplanche in partnership with The Press.
Gary then spent several years with Circular Distributors/PMP Distribution as Southern Regional Manager specialising in setting up newspaper distribution, so was never far from newspaper connections.
During his time Gary has been involved with the start up a several publications in the Christchurch area.
Presently Gary is employed as Canterbury Regional Manager for Allied Press Ltd, he is involved with community and farming newspapers plus CTV.
With ink in his veins he has never moved far from newspapers.

Pier Smulders