issue 5 - nz media post covid

an assessment of the new local magazine boom, the best local merch to cop for summer and all the links and tunes from the week that was.

August 30, 2020

Welcome to clipboard, a weekly newsletter about Auckland and other things by Reilly Hodson. You can follow me on Instagram and Twitter, and email me if you’d like to get in touch.

nz media, post covid

I’ve always loved magazines. My parents had a subscription to the Listener for as long as I can remember, and I would read it cover to cover from a far-too-early age, getting slightly confused but trying my best to read it the whole way through. When we moved to Auckland when I was 9, Mum bought me a copy of Metro, introducing it as the authority on  this scary, huge new city we now lived in. It showed how important Auckland was, in my head, that it had its own magazine. Magazines line the bookshelf in my flat, and one of my favourite local stores is Mag Nation in Ponsonby, a whole shop dedicated to the format.

The media ecosystem in New Zealand before lockdown 1 is almost unrecognisable now. Bauer, at the time the largest publisher of magazines in the country, no longer exists, and some of its titles may never come back. Stuff, the largest newspaper publisher and news website, is now owned by its CEO, Sinead Boucher, a former journalist, not a big Australian conglomerate with no interest in New Zealand. All of the major producers of media in the country have experiences some level of redundancies or pay cuts for staff.

What’s happened in the months since is much more positive: suddenly local media outlets are popping up in droves. The Bauer crowd in particular have been busy. Zoe Walker Ahwa, the editor of Fashion Quarterly when it folded, started Ensemble, a new fashion publication, with Rebecca Wade. Simon Farrell Green, the former editor of Home, started Here, a magazine about homes and craft with a strong local point of view. Henry Oliver, former editor of Metro, and commissioner of my first professional article, started Essential Services, a zine which gives space to many of New Zealand’s best writers. Sido Kitchin, who was the editorial director for Bauer’s stable of women’s magazines, is starting four (count ‘em!) new titles in partnership with advertising agency Stanley Street. Sara Black, who was a senior stylist at Home, started Index, a quarterly fashion magazine whose first issue hits newsstands on Friday, with Adam Bryce. A team of staffers from Bauer’s women’s titles started Capsule. That’s not even counting the former Bauer titles which are being revived independently.

In short, there’s a lot of local magazine-ing going on at the moment. It’s a brilliant development that there’s going to be so much local content, and room for local writing talent. And, promisingly, all of these publications launched with strong statements of intent about inclusion, shaking up the industry, and not falling into the mistakes which occur in big, corporate media environments (really, whose idea was it to put all of Bauer’s different established brands’ online presences under one, new website no one had heard of?). The reader-pays model is also, generally speaking, one which leads to much better content than an advertising-first one, and is what many of these publications are taking.

It’s still too early to say whether those promises will be fulfilled: the economy is in shambles, and who knows what the world will look like in a month, let alone a year. Interestingly (but not surprisingly), too, all of the people I listed above, as far as I can tell, are Pākehā. That’s not to say that Pākehā leadership can’t bring inclusive environments and coverage, just that it’s probably worth keeping an eye on. All in all, though, it’s positive, and if you have the means, pick up one of these magazines if they’re at your supermarket or bookstore, consider subscribing to your favourite titles and contribute monetarily in the way they ask you to. Auckland and New Zealand are better off when there’s a robust, competitive media ecosystem that makes its money off of its readers, and we can all be a part of helping that continue to improve. All of the links in this post take you straight to the place where you can directly support those outlets, where possible.

Other clipboard-approved local media not listed above that you can (and should) support monetarily: The Spinoff, The Pantograph Punch, Newsroom, E-Tangata.

clips

local merch

Merch is relevant at the moment for two key reasons. The first is that purchasing merchandise is a great way to support businesses which have not been able to operate at full capacity for the past couple of weeks, and the second is that summer is coming (a couple of days a week, anyway), and you need t shirts to reinvigorate your summer wardrobe. The best graphic t shirts, I will always maintain, are merch tees. These are my favourite merch items in Auckland at the moment.

  • Ockhee on Ponsonby Road have a great central character design for their restaurant that is portrayed on all their merch. They just dropped a line of tees, and they’re very good, including a tan long sleeve that gives you the look that owner-manager Paulee rocks in the shop. Pick one up and grab a delicious dinner.

  • Checks Downtown is a new-ish mainstay of the New Zealand streetwear scene, and their new shop tee heralds their recent move uptown (Checks Uptown?) to Pitt Street with some psychedelic imagery cooked up by their excellent graphics guy Roydon Misseldine, who’s the reason that their recent graphic tees, hoodies and tote bags have been so very good. 

  • Do you like socialist punk music? Would you like a t shirt that says “Dick Move” on it in very dramatic lettering? If you answered yes to either of those questions, socialist punk band Dick Move has what you need.

  • Molawin Evangelista and Cyrus Chow of Platform Store and Studio are some of the best retail operators in the city. They stock “if you know, you know” joints from around the world, and are very much in the beating heart of Auckland’s burgeoning menswear and creative scenes. Their signature shop tee is a statement of intent: “experiences and experiments for the betterment of Auckland city,” a message I can get behind.

  • Good Dog Bad Dog boss Ollie Simon hooked me up with one of their “Support Your Local Dog Dealer” tees before they opened and I can confirm that this is a very good top. Their hot dogs are pretty awesome, too.

  • Auckland vibe masters Leisure are famous for their great songs, but their merch is also top notch. They have a couple of great designs you can get on tees, or even beach towels. You’ll look great in them, and almost certainly get some knowing nods of approval at the Grey Lynn farmers market. 

  • Chelsea Jade is one of New Zealand’s best musical exports, truly one of the best pop songwriters working today, and her merch is really excellent, too.

  • Special mentions to Chlöe Swarbrick’s vintage Green Party jumper and Garage Project’s Ghost Light beer, both great merch projects for good causes that sold out before clipboard’s publication.

music

Locals only this week!

  • JessB has a new EP, called ‘3 Nights in Amsterdam,’ and it is predictably filled with bangers.

  • Grey Lynn legend Diggy Dupé, who used to do my uniform laundry at an old job, funnily enough, put out his debut album, That’s Me, That’s Team and it is jammed with local hip-hop features.

  • Church & AP have a two-song project that’s the first of their ‘Silhouette Series’ that’s well worth a listen.

  • Auckland sad boy Lontalius has a new song called ‘Someone Will Be There For You.’

notices

  • You can still register to vote at vote.nz, and you should!