I like a challenge.

Many years ago I worked as a cleaner in Sydney. I’d not long previously ditched a job as editor of NZ News UK in London. The cleaning job was, I hoped, temporary but necessary, having just had a new son arrive.

My boss was Jorge, a Latvian immigrant to Australia and known to be forthright in his comments. I told him I was returning to New Zealand, hoping to have more luck than in Australia returning to journalism.

“You won’t have a show,” he said. “Too many good journalists. Not enough jobs.”

I take such negative comments quite personally, but they almost always motivate me, especially if I think they’re wrong. It’s an “I’ll show you” sort of thing.

I got job offers from The Dominion and The Evening Post, taking the latter. I showed Jorge!

His negativity is similar to the doom and gloom that surrounds community newspapers. The prevailing sentiment – including in most areas of the media – seems to be that the newspaper business is in its death throes. I can’t help but disagree.

Not only are we doing OK with Ōtaki Today (it’s an income, not a cash cow), but we’ve stuck our head above the parapet and announced we’re starting another newspaper, The Horowhenua Star.

Some people are like Jorge, saying it won’t work – “too big a step”. But having made the decision, it’s now a matter of “showing them”.

The Star and Ōtaki Today are a rarity – newspapers starting from scratch. Few other newspapers have emerged from nothing in the past 10 years. In fact the trend has been quite the opposite, with papers closing throughout the country, hence the idea that it’s not a good business to be in.

A good look at the mastheads that have disappeared shows some seemed to be doing alright.  The decision to close was made by executives in the big cities, despite a few papers apparently having strong advertising support.

It looked like there was strong revenue at the Horowhenua Chronicle and the Kāpiti News, both of which NZME closed down in December. NZME’s rationale can only be that these two papers were part of a larger group of papers that were collectively struggling.

Being a newspaper enthusiast, I hated seeing the two mastheads that served Horowhenua and Kāpiti go west. The idea of two adjoining districts having no district-wide media coverage appalled me. How else were readers going to get their news; or the council and community groups promote their events, road closures or AGMs; how were real estate agents and car dealers going to advertise their open homes and vehicles?

I had several conversations with people who saw the potential for our company, ID Media, small as it is, to step in. Wife and business partner Debbi also saw the potential.

So we’ve jumped in, saving jobs for former Chronicle staff and letterbox distributors, and providing a new newspaper for Horowhenua.

• MP Tim Costley returns with his regular column next month.