BayBuzz — Who?

We’re almost a month into our refreshed online incarnation, having quick-stepped after discovering the ‘non-essentialness’ of our print magazine for the lockdown period.

Like so many other endeavours in the ‘lost month’, we’ve gained a lot too. Regular feature writers have been challenged to speed up and produce stories fast, a change to our two-monthly cycle. Reliable long-term columnists have taken to their keyboards and introduced new ideas and takes on their communities and industries. New contributors have landed on our virtual pages.

We’ve been pleased to include municipal responses and approaches from the Napier, CHB and Wairoa mayors. Katie Nimon on tourism and hospitality, Louise Ward (books), Roy Dunningham (art), Dr Jeff Green (the cruising Petrie ship), Chris Tremain (HB ‘tipping points’), Claire Buckley (nursing), Mike Petersen and Greg Hart (farm and fibre futures).

And we have others about to ‘emerge’ to cover key areas like food, sport and regional business.

These voices are all sitting alongside BayBuzz columnists Kay Bazzard (the arts sphere and more), Dominic Salmon (waste), Andrew Frame (Napier), Matt Miller (tech), Paul Paynter (when he isn’t harvesting), Hazel Thomas (wellness), with Mary Kippenberger, Mark Sweet and Jess Soutar Barron ‘observing life’ in HB in their unique ways.

Our feature writers Bridget Freeman-Rock and Keith Newman have filled their days and this site with stories from throughout the Bay and from a multitude of Covid-19 angles.

And this is just the editorial ‘staff’ that complements our photographers, designers and online crew. More on that side another time.

So far, this is ticking along nicely! Amidst family and home-schooling pressures, work worries and the emotions and stresses of lockdown, the articles and columns have continued to roll in, for us to roll out. Huge thanks to all of our contributors, and we look forward to more top-notch research, opinion and insight over the coming uncertain but fascinating weeks and months of recovery!