Launch for Capital Times, Agenda Magazine and W5 on Wellington City Recollect

Wellington City Libraries invites the publishers, contributors and members of the public to attend a celebration marking the online launch of three digitised historic Wellington publications reflecting our past; Capital Times, Agenda and W5. Capital Times was a free weekly newspaper that ran for over 30 years. It emerged out of an earlier publication called Capital Visitor which began in 1974 to help tourists discover the city’s attractions, restaurants and hospitality venues. In 1982 it changed its name to Capital Times and slowly shifted from being a visitor’s guide to a weekly community newspaper. In 1990 the publication was purchased John Bristed and his partner Alison Franks who became the ‘managing editor’. Over the next 22 years, Franks steered the newspaper towards covering the local arts scene and it soon became the place to find out what was happening in the city in an era before the internet had reached a critical mass of public users. Pam Skogstad was appointed as sales manager and for the best part of two decades, she and Gaye Matheson kept the paper viable through selling advertising. Jenny Phillips was appointed the first editor and she was followed by a succession of others (including notable writers Steve Braunius and David Cohen) who used the opportunity to build up experience and develop their careers in journalism and publishing. Agenda was founded by John Dow and his partner Gayle Page in late 1984 with the first issue being printed in early 1985. Over the next five years the magazine became a quintessential part of the city's 'fourth estate', providing news, reviews, event listings and keeping Wellingtonians informed with what was happening in their city during a period of enormous change. W5 was short-lived magazine published over 1983 and 1984. Unlike Capital Times and Agenda which were issued a ‘freebies’, W5 had a modest cover price of $1 but included feature-length investigative articles from some of Wellington’s best new writers and was edited by the journalist and local historian, David McGill.