The agricultural sector has lost a staunch advocate with the passing this week of long-serving journalist, Terry Brosnahan.
A journalist for 33 years, Terry edited the Country-Wide magazine from 2009 to 2023 when it was bought by new owners.
Raised on a farm near Timaru, Terry initially intended becoming a farmer and studied at Lincoln University.
On returning home in the 1980s having lived overseas, he realised farm ownership was not attainable, so studied journalism at Aoraki Polytechnic under tutor Dale McCord.
McCord instilled in Terry an old school approach to journalism, that journalists are first and foremost to serve the reader.
Terry started his career at the Ashburton Guardian then moved to Straight Furrow, initially as a contractor then an employee. He joined Country Wide in 2000.
The notion that readers come first combined with passion for agriculture and uncompromising journalistic values, underpinned everything Terry did as a journalist and an editor.
He constantly sought facts and data to support claims made in stories even if it required the questioning and amending of submitted stories.
He was not afraid to challenge convention or the status quo, to shine a light where it needed to be shone.
It was an approach that saw Terry and Country Wide win multiple awards but of far more importance to him was that he made a contribution to agriculture, a legacy for which he should be proud.
The massive outpouring of sympathy following his passing is a testimony to the esteem in which Terry was held by colleagues and readers.
