Sideswipe turns 20: Tales from the back page - Ana Samways on two decades of NZ Herald column

Ana Samways has been compiling the Sideswipe column for 20 years. Photo / Michael Craig

This month marks the anniversary of Sideswipe, the quirky column that has occupied space on the back page of the Herald for two decades. A lot has changed in that time in New Zealand society and culture, but Ana Samways has charted a steady path through, keeping readers entertained and giving us something to smile about. Karl Puschmann asks her how it all began.

2002 was a big year. Sir Peter Jackson released The Two Towers, the second and arguably best film in his The Lord of the Rings trilogy, Brazil robbed Germany of Fifa World Cup glory in Japan by beating them 2–0 in a gripping final and People magazine named Ben Affleck the Sexiest Man Alive.

Closer to home, Labour's Helen Clark's wiped the floor with National's Bill English to be re-elected as PM, New Zealand athletes won a whopping 11 gold medals at the Commonwealth Games in Manchester and the power duo of Jonah Lomu and Tana Umaga not only kept the All Blacks in the game but also within striking distance of a win in the ABs' nail-bitingly dramatic loss to England at the start of their three-game European tour.

It was against this backdrop of triumphs and losses that the New Zealand Herald quietly launched a new column on its back page. It was pitched as a daily curation of true-life laughs - funny stories, humorous photos, weird news, that sort of thing - and designed for readers to dip in and out of while they waited for their coffee or to provide material to joke about with mates around the watercooler or at the school gate. Its bread and butter would be what we now call "snackable content" before that was a thing. It was called Sideswipe. It is now celebrating its 20-year anniversary.

"Oh, gosh no!" Ana Samways exclaims when asked if she thought the irreverent column she's edited since the beginning would be around to celebrate its 20th birthday. "I never, ever, thought Sideswipe would be a) still going and b) that I'd still be doing it. But it's such a great gig. I get to share with a really large audience the things I think are worthy of reading and the jokes I like. It's like my Facebook feed ... but more G-rated."

That wasn't always the case. Especially in its very first column on April 15, 2002, which featured items on sleep sex, an impotent man whose divorce from a Chinese woman he blamed on the Labour Government - proving conspiratorial nutters have always walked among us - and a definition of the brand new slang term "cougar".

The first Sideswipe was published on April 15, 2002.

"It was more wild and loose when it started," Samways admits. "But there was nothing like it. The 20 Questions column in Metro magazine was the only other thing similar. I was a lot younger then and, especially in the early days, I would try to push some boundaries. I'd sometimes get a call and have to replace an item because it was too raunchy or whatever. But that's the way I learned where the line was."

Sideswipe's initial concept was "sort of like a blog in print" and similar to Column 8, which has been running on the back page of the Sydney Morning Herald since 1947.

Samways' involvement was serendipitous. She'd just returned from "a really disastrous OE" in London and in desperation had taken a part-time job answering the phones at the Herald. Not exactly a taxing job for a qualified journalist.

"The Herald's then-editor Tim Murphy wanted to do a column on the back page that was just short and snappy bite-sized bits of news and views. Like a more informal Letters to the Editor page, with quirky news that they didn't feel would make a full story back in those days," she explains.

Ana Samways says the column is like her Facebook feed - only G-rated. Photo / Michael Craig

She remembers her promotion to Sideswipe editor wasn't particularly ceremonious.

"He said 'do you want to have a go?' and I said 'yes I do' and that's how it started."

She embraced the challenge of finding amusing stories each day - a hard task as the internet was not yet ubiquitous - and quickly found an unlikely source. Or, more accurately, sources.

"All the reporters in the office would contribute all the things that they couldn't put in their stories," she grins. "Hearsay or a little aside they'd heard when they were out reporting. You know, they'd hear this, that or the other thing. Heaps of things that used to come in from other reporters so that helped fill the column before the internet."

If Sideswipe's raunchier element has lessened over the years, there's a once-popular style of story that no longer features at all.

"The quite gossipy, celeb content we don't have that anymore," she says.

As an example, she remembers walking to work one day and seeing a giant billboard of the late broadcaster Paul Holmes.

"It was building-sized and it was incredible," she says. "I made some throwaway comment in Sideswipe about it being comparable to his ego and his media friends perhaps didn't like that so much ... I got a bit of retaliation. But that sort of story just wouldn't happen now. At all."

Along with its longevity, Ana is proud of how well the column has adapted to fit into the ever-changing cultural norms. Image / Rod Emmerson

Whenever you poke fun, you also run the risk of poking the bear and Samways has found herself on the receiving end of some unwanted attention. She's had internet trolls posting her face on to obscene gifs, had sexist and homophobic slurs lobbed into her inbox and received plenty of complaints.

"I was called a lesbian who just needed a chill pill. I remember a particular interaction in the early days with a group that was quite terrifying, learning that they can make really horrible misogynist gifs of you from photos online and things," she says. "I think it's hard for women. But I really haven't had much of it and that's because I'm trying to toe that line of being sensitive to a lot of people."

That said, there is one group that Samways has no time for.

"I'm trying to please everyone except the fringes; the fringes of religion, fringes of conspiracy theories, fringes of lady haters. I'm not interested. They're just terrible. I'm trying to appeal to the people that are reasonable. I'm not particularly edgy but I still try to push the boundaries sometimes."

One of the things she's most proud of, along with its longevity, is how well the column has constantly adapted to fit into the ever-changing cultural norms instead of stagnating on a hill of outdated views or tired ideals.

"The media landscape has certainly changed a lot after 20 years, and the changing of what's acceptable and what's not acceptable has also changed," she says. "Things that would only appear in my column are now front-page news because our news sense has changed in that time. There was a while there where I was being a tipline to the paper. I was finding things and doing stories that would then be covered as a legitimate news story. That's when you need to change and adapt, push things further or in a different direction, or change the content you're putting out."

She says that while she's mindful of her platform and what she's putting out into the world, it's not something she loses sleep over.

"For me, it's really instinctive based on my personality, of what I find funny and what I find acceptable and interesting. It's really just who I am."

Then she laughs and says: "That's why they haven't got rid of me!"

Ana Samways embraced the challenge of finding amusing stories each day. Photo / Michael Craig

That's a good line that's like the best Sideswipe content - funny because it's true. In today's media world, to still be going strong and to still be incredibly popular after two decades is an astonishing accomplishment.

"You've got to think, I've had to do it every weekday throughout the last 20 years; through the birth of children, through normal life things. I've done it every day. That's an achievement in itself.

"But I think it's part of my identity and a bit of a legacy; that's a weird word but I've done something and stuck at it and done it well enough to create something that's a memorable part of a lot of people's lives. Not to get too lofty about it - I haven't gone to Mars or built an electric car - but in terms of media I'm really happy with that achievement."

Despite its huge popularity, Samways herself keeps a mostly low profile outside of the column. She has occasionally appeared on TV over the years, and authored two best-selling Sideswipe books, but says she's more comfortable behind the scenes.

"I'm an invisible middle-aged woman, it's fantastic!" she jokes, before conceding that, "people do know the name, it's more my name that's recognised than my face. I get, 'you're the Sideswipe lady!' a lot."

As for the secret of Sideswipe's success, she has a theory.

"I think it's because it's been pitched quite nicely at not being mean, not being too highbrow, obviously, but not being too low either. Trying to have that broad appeal," she explains.

"The brand is now self-propelling. It's been going so long and people know what to expect and they know what they're gonna get. It's familiar and a lot of people think of it as the antidote to all the bad news and the trauma. I try to provide stress-free content that's smart yet funny. And not mean. That's a recipe for success."

Then she smiles and says: "I'm a good habit to have. A harmless vice. That's what I am."