Roman Travers: Changing Dominion Post's name makes no sense

If you live long enough, I guess you’ll get to see everything either change or completely die out.

On Friday the news that Wellington’s grand old lady of the fourth estate is to have a makeover was a bit confronting and sad for me and those who’ve grown old with the name of The Dominion Post.  

The Dominion Post is dropping the word ‘dominion’ from its name - and its parent company is signalling further change is yet to come.  

Sounding dangerously like something from Italian mafia, ‘The Dom, started 21 years ago as a merger of The Dominion and The Evening Post.  

In an act reflective of a complete lack of any creativity, the new name will be… are you ready? The Post.  

I wonder how many creative types with cool cardigans, fridges filled with tofu, eclectic Spotify playlists and electric scooters at reception in some Willis Street creative agency got together to come up with that catchy name?  

The editor of The Post is Caitlin Cherry and she says that New Zealand's status as a dominion ended in 1945 when it joined the United Nations, so it is time for the word to go.  

She says they thought carefully about what they wanted The Post to represent now and into the future. For the next fortnight they’ll be having morning teas and ‘farewell to the past’ dinners before launching The Post.  

The Dominion Post’s former editor Tim Pankhurst says he’s sceptical about the name change saying that when The Dominion and The Evening Post merged the papers, they did market research, and we found those masthead titles were so entrenched in Wellington, they had better brand-name recognition than Coca Cola.  

Isn’t that incredible? Mind you, when I hear the name Coca Cola, I instantly think diabetes militias, obesity and huge dental bills.  

There’s a great deal to be said about the name of anything and how well entrenched that branding is. Like Three Waters for example, now to be called Affordable Waters.  

I guess the premise is that if you say it out loud repetitively for long enough, you’ll begin to believe it. Just like positive affirmations and the power of placebo in a medical trial.  

Changing the name of a capital institution like The Dominion Post is a move being made for reasons that don’t really seem to make sense. But as their editor says, there’s more change to come. So brace yourself Wellington. 

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