AUGUST 10 2019 LISTENER 5

EDITORIAL

Still living dangerously

I

t was Charles Dickens who first raised the idea. Early one

morning in January 1847, tiring of life in London, he wrote

to his friend John Forster: “Disposed to go to New Zealand

and start a magazine.”

It was a fine plan, flawed only by the complete lack of a

viable readership. Dickens contented himself with publish-

ing some New Zealand stories.

It was to be almost a century before the launch of

the New Zealand Listener, in 1939. And, by then, Dickens had

presciently provided the perfect quote for the

circumstances in which the young magazine

found itself: “It was the best of times, it was

the worst of times ...”

There could hardly be a darker or more

inauspicious moment in which to launch a

magazine than on the eve of a world war. By

1942, six of the 10 male Listener staff were in

uniform, and the number of pages had been

drastically cut due to paper shortages.

And yet, in the deepest of ironies, the war

was to be the Listener’s saviour. In August

1939, New Zealand Finance Minister Walter

Nash was in Britain renegotiating the coun-

try’s loans. The treatment he received was

hostile and condescending, with the British

government and banks reluctant to subsi-

dise New Zealand’s welfare state. However,

just two days after Nash’s arrival home on

September 1, New Zealand declared war on

Germany – and within days Britain offered

to buy New Zealand’s entire exports of meat

and dairy products. As James Belich once told

the Listener, in a sense, World War II saved

New Zealand. And without it, he added, the

government-funded Listener “might have lasted only a year”.

No one then would have expected the Listener, long since

stripped of its government funding, to be celebrating its

80th anniversary this year in such fine form. In a world of

profound change, however, people gravitate to brands they

trust. Driven by the strength of its content, this publication

has become New Zealand’s bestselling current affairs maga-

zine with a per capita circulation higher than Time, the New

Yorker or the Spectator. At a time when, sadly, the indicators

are flashing red for many publications internationally, the

Listener’s circulation is remarkably stable. It now sells more

than twice that of its nearest local current affairs magazine

competitor and has overtaken most New Zealand women’s

and lifestyle magazines. The readership now stands at

201,000 – up 5.8% year-on-year in the latest Nielsen survey.

H

ow do we do it? In a world of fake news, our aim is to pro-

duce an independent, respected and compelling magazine

that is not afraid to rattle cages but which is a positive,

energising force in New Zealand’s cultural, intellectual and politi-

cal life.

From the beginning, the Listener clashed with the stifling con-

formity of its times. A 1940 article on the US elections met with

government disapproval and a Listener poster was removed from

the streets by order of the Prime Minister. Editorial comment

on US isolationism was also “regarded with

disfavour”. The editorial courage and integrity

of the first two editors, Oliver Duff and Monte

Holcroft, built the foundations upon which

this magazine still stands. On its 10th anni-

versary, the editorial noted, “There are times

when to be alive is a sort of a miracle, and

in its infancy the Listener had to live danger-

ously.” Duff used to send prime ministerial

memos back unanswered.

The Listener proudly continues the tradition

of independent investigative journalism and

it advocates strongly on issues of importance.

Our first climate-change cover, a subject of so

much controversy at the time, was published

15 years ago, long before publications such as

Time did so.

This magazine will always champion

New Zealanders. It printed Janet Frame’s

first short story as an adult, as it did the

first fiction of Keri Hulme and many others.

It published Lorde’s first-ever interview.

We were honoured to publish Sir Edmund

Hillary’s last interview.

On this special anniversary, we’re delighted

to share with you some of the often-moving Listener content as

it recorded the journey of our nation over the past 80 years. Not

everyone has approved – after the very first issue, one reader

thundered, in suspiciously Dickensian language, “Sir, to what

purpose is this waste?”

It was not, thankfully, the only letter. There were many mes-

sages, including this: “Please to accept my congratulations on No

1 of the New Zealand Listener. I don’t know how you did it ... I

expect you must have been pretty well standing on your head by

the time it went to press. In fact, there is evidence of that in the

position on each page of the heading and page number.”

It’s the lively, engaging and stimulating readers who have

made it such a joy and a privilege for all of us who have worked

on the Listener over its 80 years. We hope you enjoy this celebra-

tory issue. l

MI

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OO
KE
After the very
first issue, one
reader thundered,
in suspiciously
Dickensian language,
“Sir, to what purpose
is this waste?”
Pamela Stirling,
Editor