Ed Said - A bit different, but just the same

 

In a slight deviation from the norm, our first foray into publishing came in 2000. I won’t bore you with the preamble but through association with the motorhome industry we became aware of how fast that sector was growing and though the New Zealand association had their members magazine there was nothing Kiwi available nationwide. 

In August of 2000 we published a 100 page glossy A4 motorhome magazine, a first for New Zealand. Our designer became Rebekah Augustin, based in Albany. In November 2005 the Focus emerged. We juggled things for a year, the motorhome magazine changed hands in 2006 and Daniel Sterling joined the team (if three can be called a team) and so it has continued. 

At one point Dan’s wife Jaimee took over the designers chair as situations are apt to change from time to time. When their son started school and Jaimee went back to full-time work, Dan again took up the baton and so we have continued the schedule almost unchanged for well over eleven years. Good times. Crazy times, as Dan, Rich and myself have collectively wide ranging interests and the weirdest and most bawdy senses of humour so, though the job was almost always done without too much stress or strain apart from some late nights, there was always, and I mean always, laughter in the camp – an essential ingredient to a good working relationship.

Good things do last, but they also, eventually come to an end and Dan’s ‘real’ job has become more demanding and so he has bowed out of the Focus team for wider and hopefully greener pastures.

Re-enter Rebekah Augustin, or ‘Bex’ to most. Since her Albany days she has continued her graphic design business but a couple of years ago moved with her twin daughters to just south of Whangarei, and joined us a year ago as partner in the ‘pink paper’ the Bream Bay Trader. She, the consummate foody, with equally wacky and bawdy sense of humour, has now become the lady who puts the Focus together. They say life is cyclical and I guess this is evidence of the epigram made famous by Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr: ‘The more things change, the more they stay the same’. 

We all had lunch together last Tuesday. That seemed to seal the deal of the new posting but that was only three days before the paper was to go to print on Friday so you can see, not a lot of lead-in time. Though not experienced in newspaper production Bex is not short on grey matter and so has absorbed a fair amount of advice and instruction in a very short space of time. Maybe a little different in how she approaches some things but advertisers can be assured your artwork will be done to the highest standard. All in all the job was done and done well, the paper arrived via the airwaves at the printers on time and we all sat back and enjoyed a nice glass of French red wine. 

And if I hadn’t told you this, you would be none the wiser and that’s just how a changeover should go.

Busy days ahead as wife and self prepare to move into our new home in a couple of weeks but that’s a saga for another day.

Enjoy this issue. There will be a three week break until the next one – our Queens Birthday issue.

Rob and the team.

Welcome back Bex.