History of Extra Tapiri

It all started when…

16 years ago, Ivan Behrnes pitched an idea to the editor of the Timaru Herald (when the company was independently owned), that being, a newspaper in education resource to encourage young people’s interest in current affairs known as Extra! The Timaru Herald ran the Extra! educational programme up until 2005, when the Herald transferred ownership to Fairfax Media Ltd.

In 2005, Ivan pitched the idea to Allied Press Ltd, and Extra! has remained a subsidiary product of the Otago Daily Times to this present day. The spelling and event quizzes traditionally held in the Timaru region were expanded to include Canterbury, Central Otago, Dunedin and Central South Island, and now attract over 2,500 students from across the country.

In 2018, Tricia Rowe took over as the editor of Extra! and the ODT brought the production of Extra! in-house at the Otago Daily Times.

In 2020, Kim Dungey was appointed as the new Editor for Extra!.

In 2022 ODT Extra! became Extra! Tāpiri. The inclusion of Te Reo in our name is both a direct translation of “Extra”, but also means “young vigorous shoot growing alongside an established plant”. We feel that this is representative of our relationship with the Otago Daily Times and also speaks to the relationship between teacher and student.