The Westport News is distributed from Karamea in the north to Punakaiki in the south and as far inland as Reefton.

[2][4] More than a dozen local newspapers were published in the West Coast in the 20th century, but the Westport News, Hokitika Guardian, and Greymouth Star were the only ones still operating in the 21st.

Golden Coast Airways was formed to enable this, flying a twin-engined Aero Commander to Westport each weekday; the plane appearing over the main street told people the News was on its way.

[3] This arrangement continued until 1978, even while Westport was temporarily isolated by the 1968 Inangahua earthquake.

In 1978 Colin Warren, who had started at the News as a journalist in 1966, purchased the paper with his wife Mary from the Lucas family.

[3] In August 2017 chief reporter Lee Scanlon and her husband Kevin purchased the paper from the Warrens.

[8] The newspaper reported on the opening of the West Coast railway during Premier Richard Seddon's first official visit to the region in May 1883.