The Star: July 05, 2018
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<strong>The</strong> <strong>Star</strong> CELEBRATING 150 YEARS 1868 – <strong>2018</strong><br />
9<br />
Connecting Christchurch<br />
for 150 years<br />
News as it happens<br />
News website star.kiwi started as a way to transition<br />
CTV from a broadcast television channel onto a<br />
converged news website in December 2016<br />
THE FIRST big test came on<br />
February 13, 2017.<br />
Just 14 days after the launch<br />
the devastating Port Hills<br />
fires struck. It was a tragic<br />
event for our city. Homes<br />
were destroyed, thousands<br />
evacuated and waited for<br />
days at cordons to find out if<br />
their homes were still there.<br />
Tragically, on the second<br />
day of the blaze, pilot and<br />
decorated SAS hero Steve<br />
Askin died after his helicopter<br />
crashed into the hills as he<br />
fought the inferno.<br />
Our city needed information<br />
and they needed it quickly.<br />
We at <strong>Star</strong> Media have print<br />
running through our blood.<br />
But in a civil defence emergency such as this, the value of<br />
a local news web site was invaluable.<br />
Our team of journalists, videographers and<br />
photographers spent hours in the hills to feed back<br />
images, video and information to the website. Directed<br />
by our popular Facebook page star.kiwi Rise Up<br />
Christchurch, with 112,800 followers, we reached more<br />
than three million people in that first week.<br />
This cemented a strong audience for our website.<br />
Because we highly value our newspapers, the website<br />
remains primarily as a way for people to connect to<br />
engaging video content about our city. Stories from our<br />
stable of community newspapers and magazines do not<br />
appear until several days after the papers hit the<br />
streets.<br />
Documenting our city’s rebirth is very personal<br />
for the team.<br />
Videographer Geoff Sloan was the first media<br />
at the site of the collapsed CTV building after<br />
it collapsed during the February 22, 2011<br />
earthquake.<br />
He captured the immediate aftermath of the<br />
disaster which claimed 115 lives. He won awards<br />
for his haunting photos.<br />
Only metres away from him was CTV<br />
receptionist Maryanne Jackson (who would later<br />
become <strong>Star</strong> Media’s receptionist). She had fled<br />
from the building just seconds before it collapsed.<br />
Sixteen of her colleagues from Canterbury<br />
Television never made it out.<br />
Our job and responsibility now is to record<br />
history as it rises up once again.<br />
<strong>The</strong> efforts of Sloan and Ashleigh Monk and Gordon<br />
Findlater have been recognised nationally.<br />
Findlater was a finalist in the <strong>2018</strong> Voyager Media<br />
Awards for best junior videographer. At the <strong>2018</strong> NZ<br />
Community Newspaper Awards star.kiwi was runnerup<br />
for best website with particular mention made of its<br />
visual storytelling. Judge Clare Swallow said: “Videos . .<br />
. are focused on great footage and powerful storytelling,<br />
which will ensure they remain relevant into the future.”<br />
But we do not do this work for awards or for kind<br />
words. We do it for our city, for those at the heart of it —<br />
the people.<br />
Shelley Robinson, Website Editor<br />
A moment in time during the Port Hills fires captured<br />
by photographer Martin Hunter.<br />
Geoff<br />
Sloan<br />
0800 933 008<br />
www.csg.co.nz<br />
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