Demise of cultural and social icons as Bauer shuts up shop
These magazines and websites were splendid for all that. We have lost so much.
The Listener is no more. Along with Metro, North & South, Woman’s Day, NZ Woman’s Weekly and a host of other magazines. All gone, with the sudden announcement from Bauer Media NZ that it is shutting down, immediately, and will not start up again.
We have lost so much and we will lose more, because where Bauer goes, others will follow. CEO Brendon Hill made the reason clear enough: the Covid-19 crisis has destroyed Bauer’s advertising support. “Publishing in New Zealand,” he said, “is very dependent on advertising revenue and it is highly unlikely that demand will ever return to pre-crisis levels.”
It’s true, and it’s also true for commercial radio and television. That hasn’t always been widely understood. Without advertising, the only media we would have is statefunded or, in niche markets, subscription funded.
The Bauer titles are cultural and community treasures. Many of them have spoken truth to power, repeatedly over the years. They share a long, proud record for quality writing; for long-form and in-depth journalism; for insightful, entertaining and authoritative cultural analysis. If all their awards were lined up, the certificates would smother many walls.
They have also done much more. Magazines are part of the glue that sticks communities together. It’s as true for the readers of NZ Woman’s Weekly as it is for Metro, that magazines engage their readers in a world, enliven that world and give readers a sense of belonging to it.
All media does these things, but magazines, with their invitation to readers to return, to savour them, are especially good at it. And Bauer titles have been to the fore.
The Listener has been our publication of cultural record since 1939, leading the way nationally in its coverage of books, the arts, social issues and so much more.
Lois Daish and Annabel Langbein were the first to bring a modern sensibility to food writing, in their alternating columns in the 1970s and 80s. In the same period Tom Scott created a whole new way to do politics, by treating MPs as deeply flawed characters in an ongoing comedy, which he both wrote and drew cartoons about. His column became one of the great democratising influences in our history. The legacy was brilliantly continued by writers Denis Welch and then Jane Clifton, and cartoonists Trace Hodgson and Chris Slane.
Diana Wichtel did a similar thing in television, with sly wit and immense grace, and powered by a revelatory view that there are good and bad versions of every type of programme. Benchmark writing.
North & South brought a sophisticated sensibility to readers outside the metropolitan centres, invented from nothing by editor Robyn Langwell and developed magnificently by her successor, Virginia Larson. Its writers include Donna Chisholm (also in the Listener) and Mike White, both titans of contemporary journalism.
And there’s Metro, which I edited for five years, hoping always to honour the presiding spirit of its late, great founding editor, Warwick Roger. Its role was to be the spirit of Auckland, in love with and also highly sceptical about the city. Critically engaged for 39 years. Entertainment and edification, satire and celebration and a lot of advice on good eating, all poured into one heady cocktail.
Visually, too, these magazines have been indispensable. Photographers like Jane Ussher, David White, Alistair Guthrie and Adrian Malloch did such great work.
More Bauer titles, more leaders in their field. Home, Fashion Quarterly, Next and others. And the “mass market” titles: Woman’s Day, NZ Woman’s Weekly and Australian Women’s Weekly. Conduits to the world and mainstays in the lives of hundreds of thousands of Kiwis.
You want to know who we are, where we’ve come from, where we might be going, and what the hell is going on, and be entertained — wildly, quietly, whatever suits — along the way? These magazines and their websites were splendid for all that. We have lost so much.
Now what? There’s no right answer to the question of how commercial media should make a buck. In the good old days, quality journalism in newspapers was paid for by classified advertising. Then that disappeared online. Then a lot of other advertising disappeared online too. Trade Me, Facebook and Google have swung like wrecking balls.
Media companies fought back, diversifying into their own online services. They’re often successful, wildly so right now, but they don’t pay for newspapers or the quality journalism expected of them.
Herald publisher NZME has responded with a digital subscription service, which means online readers pay for “premium” content.
Some people say it’s not fair, especially to those on limited incomes. Yet this argument has never been raised against newspapers themselves. The digital subscription is cheaper than the paper.
Some say it’s wrong to charge for important information. But we don’t, for example, make breaking news premium. A lot of our Covid-19 coverage is free, and some of it is not. There’s a balance.
Some say they object to subsidising non-premium content. That’s the “why should I pay for Mike Hosking?” argument. But you don’t. Hosking is a star at NZME’s Newstalk ZB because he’s popular with listeners, so he brings in a lot of advertising money.
But even his advertising support has been compromised now. Will we climb back? That requires the advertisers to see a future for themselves, and not all will.
Even if they do, they’ll know the end of this crisis won’t be like the end of a war. We’re not going to flood the streets on a joyous day of victory. The return to normal will be cautious and uncertain. If we want media to survive, it will require, perhaps on a temporary basis, the attention of government. Exactly how? I don’t know. But yes, with money.
Meanwhile, RIP Bauer magazines. I miss you already.