Kia ora tātou.
At this time of the year, it’s traditional to take stock of what we’ve achieved. A magazine is never static; our content changes with every issue and in the newsroom there is movement, too. I joined the Listener in April, taking over from Karyn Scherer, to whom I owe a debt of gratitude for her excellent stewardship.
When I started, planning was well under way for the launch of listener.co.nz, which has been warmly embraced by subscribers since it debuted in July. Our digital platform allows us to offer enhanced content, from exclusive features and columnists to additional interview material and videos (Taika Waititi in full conversational flight and Julie Biuso’s “how to” turkey-stuffing tricks are recent examples).
In September, the magazine received a design update. Working on a project like this while still producing issues to a weekly schedule brings to mind that adage about building the plane while flying. Your feedback has been overwhelmingly positive about the new design, too. Thank you.
Canvassing the newsroom, we recall stories ranging from climate-change impacts and the grind of poverty to adult diagnosis of ADHD and the death by a thousand cuts to tertiary education. We’re also about literature and popular culture: our peak zeitgeist moment for 2023 would have to have been the Barbenheimer quiz.
Our writers and columnists not only talk to policymakers, health professionals, artists, musicians, expert academics and scientists, but also go to the ends of the earth to do so. As I write this, a story and photos arrives via satellite from science writer Veronika Meduna, who is on the West Antarctic Ice Sheet with a research team measuring ice density (you can read about it in the January 20 issue).
Rebecca Macfie’s “Hardship & Hope” series, which went behind the data on poverty and deprivation and focused on grassroots community initiatives in health and housing, was representative of the sort of journalism for which the Listener has long been regarded. Philanthropists Scott and Mary Gilmour generously supported Rebecca’s series with funding for travel and research. As well as that extraordinary four-part work, there have been two other outcomes from Rebecca’s mahi.
Encouraged by the response to Rebecca’s story, steps are being taken towards the possible establishment of a philanthropic fund that will allow further journalism like this. The second outcome has been realised: Rebecca has been announced as the 2024 JD Stout fellow at Victoria University of Wellington – Te Herenga Waka. The fellowship is a year-long appointment for “a scholar of high standard with an established publication record” and will allow her to continue the kaupapa begun with “Hardship & Hope”.
We are enormously proud of Rebecca’s achievement, as we are of all the award-winning, peer-recognised journalists, columnists, photographers and cartoonists who contribute to the magazine. Every page or section represents the work of people deeply immersed in their specialist subjects or writers who are able to turn their hand to a breadth of topics.
The aim of every issue is to inform, educate and entertain. Whether we make you laugh out loud with witty writing or trigger dyspepsia with a columnist’s view, we are doing our job. Engagement with our audience is critical, and even when it is exactly that, we respect your opinion. Over a long career in newspapers and magazines, I have never worked anywhere with such an engaged readership – if we measure “engagement” by the emails we receive for the Letters pages. It’s one of the best things about the Listener: please keep those missives coming, via satellite link if necessary.
A toast to you, our readers, and to all whose mahi shapes our pages. To you, to us, to all our whānau, may 2024 be a year of hopes fulfilled and good health. And to the world, peace.
Meri Kirihimete,
Kirsty Cameron, editor
Artwork: Peace and Quiet by Julia Christian, an Auckland artist with a background in illustration and painting. Her work is inspired by a love of imaginary houses and gardens. Selected originals are available, including this cover, via Instagram@juliachristianartist.