The 1st issue in The Press

John McCombe

Our brilliant editor, Yvonne Martin.

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Editor’s Corner

Living the dream? Bring on Cup Week The 1st issue in The Press Looking forward What happened in July? June's welcome May's editorial April's news A word on March What happened in February?

Welcome to the spring edition of Avenues. Special greetings go to subscribers of The Press, who begin receiving a complimentary copy of Avenues with their newspaper this month.

Our readership has been going from strength to strength, with Nielsen's latest National Readership Survey showing we now have 68,000 readers, up 11,000 on last year. But we're planning to grow a lot more than that.  

On the first Thursday of each month, Christchurch subscribers of The Press will receive a free Avenues. By gifting the magazine in this way, we'll be quadrupling our circulation to 40,000 copies and introducing tens of thousands more readers to our product.  

Avenues will still be sold in selected bookshops and available to read in doctors' surgeries, dentists' waiting rooms and cafes. Meanwhile, if you currently subscribe to both Avenues and The Press, and are now receiving a free magazine, we'll refund the rest of your magazine subscription.  

A small format change has been necessary for Avenues, including the way the magazine is bound, to enable its insertion into the newspaper, but its content will remain the same. 

We have also revamped our website on www.avenues.net.nz, posting more of our content, including scrumptious recipes, and giving readers an opportunity to comment on stories. 

This month we celebrate spring's arrival after a long, gloomy winter, with sunny daffodils and lambs on the ground. 

We have examined the city's security to see just how at risk Christchurch residents are of being exposed to crime, with surprising results that might help you sleep easier at night. However, after midnight, Christchurch's inner-city streets certainly do have trouble with marauding, inebriated youths. Active policing of a 24/7 liquor ban within the four avenues has helped rein in the problem, but we were surprised during a recent night on the town at how disrespectful youths are towards police officers doing their job. The youths hissed, cussed and shoved - and that was the girls. It made us appreciate what a tough job police have in keeping the streets safe, long after most of us have gone to bed with a magazine and a Milo.

Next month, we'll be previewing November's Cup and Show Week, the biggest week in Canterbury's social calendar. We'll be looking at upcoming events and the people behind them, hunting for the best bubbly, and sampling artisan chocolates.

It's been a long wait, but the sun frocks, fascinators, boot picnics and smells of cut grass are just around the corner.