Postscript: New Zealand’s lively media scene

It’s been six months since my last post, and it’s just two weeks shy of the one-year anniversary of my long flight from Los Angeles to Auckland. It's time, therefore, for a belated recap of what I discovered in New Zealand.

First, my initial assessment of NZ newspapers – bright, lively and fun to read -- held up well. This was as true for the community weeklies as the metropolitan papers in Auckland, Hamilton, Wellington and Christchurch. New Zealand’s newspapers have done a better job than their American counterparts in retaining both advertisers and readers. I’m indebted to journalist and author Ian Grant of Masterton for his insights into NZ papers’ relative health. He wrote recently:

No newspaper closures here or significant layoffs. The economy remains pretty constrained, but advertising, while not bouncing back, is no worse. In fact, the two newspaper companies – Fairfax and APN – are looking in much better shape across Australasia than a year ago.

I look forward to Ian’s book about the history of New Zealand newspapers from 1840 to 2010, scheduled for publication sometime in 2012.

My primary source of international news during my time in Hamilton was Radio New Zealand, a world-class network that pound for pound, exceeds National Public Radio in scope and depth of news coverage. I would sing Radio New Zealand’s praises even if I hadn’t been interviewed for Jim Mora’s thoughtful Afternoons show or Colin Peacock’s incisive Mediawatch program. I still listen to the Radio NZ Morning Report when I want to hear a New Zealand news reader’s accent.

Television was a bit of a disappointment. I had expected more arts and cultural programs from TV New Zealand, perhaps something similar to PBS or the BBC on a smaller scale. With a few exceptions, the evenings on the four over-the-air channels are filled with U.S. crime dramas, a few British soap operas (“Coronation Street”) and a handful of home-grown programs (including a quaint weekly agricultural show, “Country Calendar.”) I do miss TV1’s witty weathercaster, Jim Hickey, and his entertaining descriptions of fine and foul weather.

The magazine mix includes The Economist and international editions of Time and Newsweek. I became a fan of the monthly North & South, and not just because of the community profiles by Steve Braunias (see my post for June 28). Sadly, N&S doesn’t put any of its content online, so I’ll have to wait for someone to mail me a printed copy. I also enjoyed The Listener, which started as a program guide for Radio New Zealand and now resembles The New Yorker, full of book and movie reviews, as well as arts listings.

Finally, I found advertising – both print and broadcast –creative, clever and droll. For a sample, take a look at the campaign for 2Degrees, a cellphone provider. The company’s initial ads featured actor Rhys Darby from the quirky HBO comedy “Flight of the Conchords.” One of the early commercials illustrated the company’s premise is that no one in New Zealand is separated by more than two degrees from anyone else. That proved to be a motto for our travels from Cape Reinga at the northern tip of the North Island to Slope Point at the southern tip of the South Island. Without exception, our Kiwi hosts were eager to help us discover the country’s spectacular scenery, rich history and flavorful cuisine.

The photograph was taken outside a shop at the Auckland Airport after our return from the South Island in April. “News Travels” sums up my stimulating and rewarding New Zealand experience.

Matamata editor embraces Facebook

If Hobbiton had a hometown newspaper, it would be the Matamata Chronicle. Matamata, less than an hour’s drive from Hamilton is the nearest town to the movie set used for the Hobbit village in Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. And the Chronicle has been a big booster of efforts to film The Hobbit, the prequel to the LOTR trilogy, on the reconstructed set. “Anything that helps Hobbiton will help Matamata,” says editor Joel Maxwell.

Joel took over editorship of the Chronicle, a lively free-distribution weekly, early in 2009. Since then, he’s trying to connect with younger readers with more aggressive reporting and more provocative writing. He hasn’t been afraid to challenge the district council on issues he thinks are important. At the same time, he doesn’t want to alienate long-time readers, many of them retirees from Auckland.

His greatest innovation has been to set up a page on Facebook. Joel grew impatient while waiting for the paper’s parent company, Fairfax, to set up Websites for community newspapers in the Waikato. “We needed an online presence but had zero budget,” he said. So armed with a FlipVideo camera from a local electronics shop, Joel set out to shoot video of community events and newsmakers and upload it to Facebook each week.

The venture has been a huge success. The Chronicle has nearly 1,100 Facebook friends, one-tenth of the Nielsen-audited readership figures for the print edition. Joel shoots three video stories a week, edits them on his PC and uploads them directly to Facebook. A teaser on the front page alerts readers to what they’ll see online. Recent videos include a school assembly celebrating the success of a Future Problem Solving Team, a profile of champion cyclist about to embark on a trip to Canada and a short performance by an 85-year old piano teacher – whose playing is now recorded for posterity.

Matamata capitalizes on the Hobbit connection. The entrance to the tourist-information center resembles a Hobbit hole and a sculpture of Gollum sits in a grassy median in the street across from the Chronicle office. Tourists still flock to the sheep farm that was transformed into the Hobbit village for the movie, paying NZ$64 (US$48) for tickets.

Hobbiton has been in the news lately. After shooting ended for Lord of the Rings, the set was dismantled except for the frames of some hobbit holes. But when the trilogy’s popularity prompted plans for a Hobbit movie, the village got a new lease on life. Crews cleared a road, planted fruit trees and started building new hobbit holes. But financial troubles at MGM have stalled the project and Guillermo del Toro resigned as director last month.

In response, Joel wrote an open letter to Peter Jackson, the biggest name in New Zealand filmmaking. On the front page of the Chronicle’s June 2 edition, Joel called for the recently knighted Jackson to move the project along by taking over as director. (He’s already co-writing the script and serving as executive producer.) Joel wrote:

“Taking up the directing reins and completing the Middle Earth Films has a certain dramatic circularity to it. Kind of like a ring, actually. Welcome home, Sir Peter – come back and finish the job you started.”

And though it may not be in response to the Chronicle’s plea, press reports in Hollywood this week indicate that Jackson is in talks to direct not one, but two, Hobbit films for Warner Brothers and New Life Cinema. If that happens, you can read about it on the Chronicle’s Facebook page.
Photo: Red Carpet Tours via Waikato Times

Journos rank low on NZ trust scale

Journalists score ahead of real estate agents but behind tow-truck drivers in a national survey of most-trusted occupations. The New Zealand edition of Reader's Digest released the results of its annual survey of the trustworthiness of people, professions and brands.

Emergency personnel and health-care workers led the list of most trusted occupations, with firefighters coming in No. 1 and ambulance officers No. 2. Financial planners and corporate CEOs have dropped in public esteem, coming in at 32 and 33, respectively. But both careers were ahead of journalists (35). Politicians and telemarketers were at the bottom of the 40-place list.

Among individuals, Cpl. Willie Apiata, a soldier awarded the Victoria Cross for heroism in Afghanistan, was a the top, followed by Kevin Milne, host of a TV consumer show, Fair Go. Sir Peter Snell, a New Zealand Olympic hero and holder of a Ph.D. from of Washington State University, was No. 3. Snell lives in Dallas and was recently diagnosed with heart disease. Film director Peter Jackson tied for 6th. To no one's suprprise, politicians held nine of the 10 bottom slots on the trustworthiness index.

Braunias challenges, inspires young writers

Steve Braunias decries New Zealand’s espresso culture. He laments the passing of the traditional tearoom, which served simple sandwiches and drip coffee, poured from the pot. So when I arranged an interview with Steve, I was at a loss to suggest a place to meet. We settled on the student center at Wintec, high on a bluff overlooking downtown Hamilton. I had my usual flat white (a double-shot cappuccino with extra foam). Steve ordered a cup of tea with milk and a jelly doughnut.

I first encountered Steve’s writing soon after I arrived in New Zealand in January. The Saturday Waikato Times runs his column “May Contain Facts,” a tongue-in-cheek reflection on the week's quirky news events. Next, I discovered his weekly column on the back page of the Sunday Star Times magazine. And then I picked up a copy of North & South, the country’s superb national magazine, in which Steve and photographer Jane Ussher regularly explore New Zealand’s small towns. This man is everywhere, I thought to myself.

Then I discovered his books: Fool’s Paradise, a collection of newspaper columns; Roosters I Have Known, profiles of celebrities and politicians (including the current and former prime minister); and How to Watch a Bird, a delightful account of the joys of learning about New Zealand’s many and varied birds. When I read in the Times that Steve had been appointed editor-in-residence at the Waikato Instiute of Technology (Wintec), I immediately wondered: “When will he find time to teach?”

When we met at Wintec, the term was coming to a close. Steve, who lives in Auckland, explained his appointment: one day a week for 30 weeks in 2010, with the option to renew for another year. Starting in February, he came to Hamilton every Tuesday – by train through the end of April, when NZ Rail’s Overlander was catering to the tourist trade, by bus after the Overlander shifted to weekend-only service. He much preferred the train: the views of the Waikato River, the people, and especially the rhythm of the 2½ hour ride each way.

Steve said there were few ground rules to the residency: advise students, coach them in person and by e-mail, help them find internships. He was impressed with several of the students’ zest for tracking down stories. Does he teach them to write the way he does? No, he’s focusing on basic writing – perhaps finding a single word that jumps off the page and praising it. Next semester, his criticism will be tougher, he’s warned the students.

He’s obviously enjoying his work – and the students are, too. I asked several of them about Steve’s teaching:

"Steve adds a sharp dose of reality to our writing. If it's no good he will let us know -- there's no beating around the bush, only brutal honesty. But he also give praise where it's due. The occasional 'brilliant!' or 'that’s goood' break the trend of expletives targeted at my literary transgressions." (Tony Stevens)
"Steve’s critiques are always startling. He brings an element of industry brutality with him, but as eager students we all think a Pulitzer is just one story away – so his views are refreshing." (Ceana Priest)
"Steve's advice and mentoring are invaluable. He has a youthful charm, and cheeky sense of humour that softens any critique and makes him highly approachable. My confidence and skill as a journalist have definitely improved…."(Paul Kendon)

As for his own writing, he keeps to a strict schedule at home. North & South is running the community profiles every other month instead of monthly, so that’s taken some pressure off. He’s at work on his first novel, which may get more attention while Wintec is on its semester break. Although the Star Times doesn’t post Steve’s columns online, here’s a recent example of “May Contain Facts” that gives some context for New Zealand’s recent success in World Cup soccer. And for one of Steve’s long-form pieces, check out “A Cold Day in Hell,” a gripping look at New Zealand’s Antarctic base, which won the Cathay Pacific travel-writing award for 2010.

And finally, some thoughts from Steve about his craft, from a column that appeared in The Listener magazine and was reprinted in Fool’s Paradise (Random House, 2001):

Journalism is the first refuge of scoundrels: everyone knows the profession is venal, uncouth, morally corrupt: too right I like it. It pays you all right. You get to travel. Chance and bad judging mean you can win the occasional award. You learn a great deal about a great many subjects, even though you usually forget everything a week or two after each story is published; interviews are a strange, low art, and you can sometimes come up with a nice sentence. And because the trade is a public service, there is opportunity to do a power of good for others.

I won’t be surprised if some of Steve’s protégés at Wintec take these words to heart and use their story-telling skills to inform, persuade and right wrongs in society.

Founder’s son keeps Beacon independent

When Leicester Spring arrived in Whakatane in 1938 to take over an accountancy practice, he discovered that one of his clients was the town’s only newspaper. The Whakatane Press was bankrupt, and he had no choice except to shut it down. Within months, however, townsfolk were clamoring for Spring to start another newspaper.

In response, Spring lined up investors, recruited an editor and found office space. On April 6, 1939, the Whakatane Beacon was born. More than 70 years later, it survives under the capable leadership of Leicester’s son, John Spring. It’s one of a handful of independent community newspapers in New Zealand.

Whakatane (pronounced Fahk-uh-tahn-ee) is one of the sunniest places in New Zealand, with warm summers and mild winters. With a population of 15,000, it is the largest town in the eastern Bay of Plenty on the North Island. The economy is based on agriculture (kiwifruit is a major crop), logging and tourism. Whakatane is the trading center for a region of about 45,000 people.

Published three times a week, the Beacon stands out as a broadsheet in a sea of tabloids. And unlike most NZ community papers, its 8,000 circulation is paid. “We have adhered to the principle that a paid circulation is, among other things, the soundest basis upon which to develop a successful newspaper,” Leicester Spring, who died in 1997, wrote in his autobiography. The formula has proven successful for the family-owned company.

Like his father, John Spring studied accounting. He started at the paper cleaning the presses on school holidays, he worked as a press helper and in the paste-up room in the Compugraphic era. After five years at an accounting firm in Hamilton, he returned to Whakatane to take over the paper. The company has 23 shareholders, mostly family members. A brother is a corporate director but not involved in daily operations. APN News & Media, which owns community newspapers throughout the North Island, holds a 20 percent stake.

John gave me a tour of the Beacon’s modern office building before walking a block to the printing plant, which houses a Goss Community press, resembling those used in the 1980s at the Sandpoint Daily Bee and Kellogg Evening News. The press was new in 1995, purchased for more than $1 million – a substantial investment for a small paper. In addition to the Beacon, the company publishes the twice-weekly Opotiki News for a small town farther east along the coast, and the Bay Weekend, distributed free to 20,000 homes in the district. It also owns the Waitomo News, south of Hamilton, and prints other papers on contract. The day I visited, the press was running the weekly Raglan Chronicle.

John acknowledged that the past two years had been tough. The Beacon’s circulation was flat, and real-estate advertising had dropped from 40 pages a week to 24 pages a week in the previous 18 months. One of the largest real-estate offices had recently closed. A printer and a photographer were laid off after a 2008 restructuring. But advertising for cars, furniture and whiteware (appliances) was holding up, and national chains anchored a mall on the south edge of Whakatane.

The Beacon and its sister papers are solidly rooted in their communities. Editor Mark Dawson oversees a staff of 11, producing six editions each week. Novice reporter Samantha Motion was recently named the best young journalist in an annual competition sponsored by the New Zealand Community Newspaper Association. “She knows what news is,” Mark told me.

The lead story in the issue that John holds in the photo is typical of local coverage: “A judge has ruled all four bulldogs present during the savage mauling of a woman in her neighbor’s garden in March 2008 should be destroyed – as soon as they are found.” (Someone kidnapped the dogs from the pound after they were seized after the mauling. The victim is recovering from her injuries.)

The Beacon’s first editor, Clive Kingsley-Smith, wrote: “A Beacon’s beams penetrate the darkness, revealing the furtherest corners and shedding light on every movement and activity that takes place within its arc.” After seven decades, the paper holds true to that mission.

A visit to New Zealand’s biggest sub-hub

Two rows of empty cubicles in the New Zealand Herald’s newsroom in central Auckland offer visible testimony to the effect of outsourcing a major piece of the newspaper’s production.

Until the fall of 2007, the desks were full of copy editors and page designers. Since then, that function has been performed by editors working 10 km away in the Auckland suburb of Ellerslie. In a spacious newsroom adjoining Herald’s printing plant, a corps of 58 editors turns out more than 1,000 pages a week for the Herald and nine other newspapers.

In Britain, Australia and New Zealand, copy editors are called sub-editors. Their duties – choosing and editing stories, writing headlines and designing pages – are known as subbing. Hence, a centralized subbing operation is a sub-hub.

The Ellerslie operation is operated by Pagemasters, a subsidiary of the Australian Associated Press. It contracts with APN News and Media, to produce pages for the Herald and its sister papers across the North Island. The Herald retains some in-house subs to produce its weekly entertainment section and weekend magazine.

George Butler (above right), formerly the news editor of the Herald, oversees the Pagemasters operation. He was initially skeptical of the concept but was won over by the company’s commitment to cut costs without reducing quality. Antony Phillips, who oversaw the sub-hub before becoming editor of APN’s Hawke’s Bay Today earlier this year, described Butler as “the poacher turned gamekeeper.”

When I visited on a recent Friday morning, about 20 subs were at work in the spacious newsroom. The first editors, who had arrived at 4:30 a.m. to finish work on several of the provincial dailies, were nearing the end of their shifts. Others were working on pages for the following day. Butler said the relative calm was deceptive. “They’re like swans on a lake – calm on the surface and wild panic underneath,” he said.

The staff has been relatively stable; only one person has left since Butler took over as managing editor in January. That undoubtedly contributes to the consistency and quality of the system.

At mid-day a dozen subs would arrive to start work on the New Zealand Herald; many were Herald subs who simply transferred to Pagemasters. Others are newcomers to editing, coming from magazines and regional papers. One is a former teacher; two are recent graduates of Auckland University of Technology’s journalism programme.

And I was surprised to discover an American, Nik Dirga (above left). Nik worked at several U.S. newspapers, including the News Review of Roseburg, Oregon, before moving to New Zealand.

At many U.S. newspapers, copy editors’ workload is uneven – slow at the beginning of a shift, a flurry of frenzied activity as the deadline approaches, and often coasting after the deadline passes. Sub-hubs seek to even out the work flow. That requires careful scheduling and sharing of duties. A computer monitor (left) shows the number of stories awaiting editing for each newspaper.

Butler carefully monitors the centre’s weekly output. So far the results are promising: At the Herald, a sub-editor produced an average of 1.5 pages per day. Here, the daily output is more than double that pace, 3.7 pages per editor. He insists that quality has been consistent with what the individual papers enjoyed before, and Nik agreed. “I do think PM generally lifts the quality of non-local coverage to a higher standard with our copy-tasting [story selection] of news, which I've been heavily involved in.”

The subs are in constant contact with editors at the client papers by phone, e-mail and through story lists shared over a common editing and pagination system. Still, it would be hard for me to get used to having stories edited across town (in the case of the Herald) or hundreds of kilometers away (in the case of two of the smaller APN dailies at the south end of the North Island). I asked Nik whether he thought sub-hubs would work in the United States.

I've been asked this before and am unsure ... The biggest difference is simply the scale -- all of NZ is the population of the San Francisco Bay Area alone so centralizing works better here. I have trouble seeing how you could pull something like Pagemasters off on a national scale in a country the size of the US, but on a more regional/market level it could definitely work, done right.

Along those lines, Media General, which owns several newspapers in the southeastern United States, announced in April it would centralize copy-editing and page design for its three largest dailies. And Nik says Gannett has been sharing world news copy from USA Today with some of its sister papers.

APN also “in-sources” subbing for many of its community weeklies to a much smaller hub in Tauranga. I’ll provide more details about that arrangement in a future post.

Ambassador finds hidden culinary talents

U.S. Ambassador David Huebner was a bit out of his element in the Kiwi’s Best demonstration kitchen at Fieldays, New Zealand's agri-business extravaganza. “I can’t cook to save my life,” Huebner told celebrity chef Al Brown. Nonetheless, Huebner carefully followed Brown’s directions to sautée veal medallions, accompanied by a cream sauce with honey liqueur and a hash of root vegetables.

Huebner is no stranger to Brown’s approach to cooking. He has eaten several times at Logan Brown in Wellington, honored as Cuisine NZ’s 2009 restaurant of the year. Huebner also praised the variety of ethnic cuisine he’s tasted since taking up his duties in New Zealand six months ago.

Dressed in a crimson polo shirt and blue jeans, Huebner was clearly comfortable on stage, asking in jest for cilantro (coriander), a popular ingredient in Mexican food. He held up a copy of Brown’s latest book, Go Fish, and quizzed him about his new TV series, Coasters, which portrays people who live—and eat—along New Zealand’s coasts. When the veal was ready to serve, Huebner drizzled the sauce artistically around the meat and vegetables. Brown praised him for the attractive presentation.

Trained as a lawyer, Huebner headed the Shanghai office of an international law firm before President Barack Obama appointed him ambassador to New Zealand and Samoa. Before taking up his culinary duties on stage, he attended Wednesday’s opening ceremony and attended a luncheon with Prime Minister John Key.

Huebner listened attentively to Key’s support for New Zealand’s Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) to slow global warming. “Both New Zealand and the United States are determined to show good stewardship of our planet – and that requires addressing the serious and long-term challenge of global climate change,” Huebner said in a prepared statement. (Read more on the ambassador's blog about U.S.-New Zealand efforts to reduce greenhouse gases from agricultural sources.)

Huebner likened Fieldays to the Los Angeles County Fair, which he attends whenever he is at home in California. “I feel very comfortable amongst farmers, animals, crops and machinery,” he told me after the cooking demonstration. “Farmers, wherever they are, share something in common,” he said. “American farmers and Kiwi farmers share the same problems, they same challenges, the same joys in what they do.”

Asked whether he owns a pair of gumboots -- the standard rural footwear in New Zealand -- Huebner acknowledged that he did, but hasn’t had occasion to wear them. “I spend all of my days inside, in the embassy in Wellington – I haven’t been outside in the rain or the mud yet.” He will no doubt have an opportunity to get his boots muddy in the months to come.
First published in Fieldays Exhibitor. Photo: Barker Photography

Farming show tests student journalists

Turn two-dozen student reporters and photographers loose for four days at the largest agri-business show in the Southern Hemisphere and what do you get? For readers, a daily magazine, Fieldays Exhibitor, full of news, features and photos. For the students, an unmatched hands-on experience.

Waikato Institute for Technology (Wintec for short) has one of ten accredited journalism programmes in New Zealand. It’s based on a compact urban campus in downtown Hamilton. But during the third week of June, the journalism students and staff move to the sprawling Mystery Creek Events Centre near the Hamilton Airport.

That’s the scene of the New Zealand National Agricultural Fieldays, now in their 42nd year. Imagine an American county fair on steroids: more than 1,000 exhibitors displaying tractors, fencing, milking equipment, four-wheeled ATVs (called quad bikes here), and of course, rubber gumboots in all colors and sizes. The site is huge; in three days I never made it to the south end of the grounds. More than 120,000 people pass through the gates over four days.

For aspiring journalists, the story possibilities are practically endless. Ceana Priest, a Wintec student, told me: "With so much media coverage, the challenge of Fieldays is finding an untouched story or uncovering a new angle." She turned a feature about the Golden Pliers fencing competition that also ran in the local daily, The Waikato Times.

Instructors Charles Riddle and Jeremy Smith direct coverage from the Wintec van, a mobile classroom with 16 computer work stations parked on the Fieldays site. Stories and photos are sent electronically back to campus where Venetia Sherson (a former Wintec editor-in-residence) and graphic design instructor Georgie Gaddum supervise a team of four student designers who put together each issue -- printed on glossy paper with full color on every page.

I watched both ends of the process and came away impressed with the real-time, real-life nature of the learning. My favorable impression would stand even if Charles hadn't offered me a four-day media pass (and free coffee) along with an invitation to submit an article for Saturday's edition.

Qantas awards recognize NZ's top papers

Hawke's Bay Today, one of the papers I visited in April, has been judged New Zealand's top daily newspaper of under 30,000 circulation for 2010. The Qantas Media Awards (sponsored by the Australian airline) were handed out in Auckland a week ago.

Today won on the strength of its coverage of a May 2009 police siege in Napier in which one police officer and the gunman were killed. That's consistent with past years, when coverage of a single breaking story led to a top Qantas award.

The judge in this category was Jim Tully, head of the graduate school of journalism at Canterbury University in Christchurch. He wrote:

Our provincial dailies have a clear focus on reflecting the diverse interests and aspirations of the communities they serve. The finalists all demonstrated that they consistently serve their communities well and seek to engage their readers in a variety of ways: by providing comprehensive coverage of high-impact stories; by initiating campaigns; and by fostering interaction primarily through their websites.

The other finalists in this category were the Rotorua Daily Post (the 2009 winner), and two South Island papers, the Marlborough Express of Blenheim and the Southland Times of Invercargill.

The New Zealand Herald - the country's largest daily with a circulation of 170,000 - won the award for papers of 30,000 or more subscribers, and its stablemate, the Herald on Sunday, was the top Sunday paper (beating two competitors). Here's a complete list of the winners.

‘Cheers’ to 50 years of television

For the past month, the theme song from the long-running American sitcom “Cheers” has been playing over and over in my head. If you’ve forgotten, here are the lyrics:

Sometimes you want to go
Where everybody knows your name (dah-dah-dah),
and they're always glad you came.

The song has been used in daily commercials promoting the 50th anniversary of television’s New Zealand debut June 1, 1960. TV celebrities, sports figures and politicians are seen in short clips singing (or lip-synching) the words.

Television came late to New Zealand. Britain had experimental TV broadcasts in the 1930s, and commercial stations on the East Coast of the United States presented several hours of evening programming in the 1940s. (Many western cities, including Spokane and Boise, didn’t get TV until the FCC lifted its freeze on new licenses in 1952.)

The June 1, 1960, broadcast was seen only in Auckland. It took four months before Christchurch’s station went on the air, followed by those in Wellington and Dunedin. A network linked the four major cities in 1969, which allowed the first national news broadcast. All broadcasts were in black and white until 1973.

Programmers drew heavily on American and British comedies and dramas to fill prime-time hours, and still do. Viewers now see a handful of original New Zealand series, including a soap opera called Shortland Street, a knock-off of the UK's Coronation Street. But the longest-running NZ show (on the air since 1966) is a half-hour agricultural program called Country Calendar, which airs on Saturday evening right after the national news. Here’s the synopsis for the most recent show: “Two innovative brothers boost apple growing in South Canterbury.”

The New Zealand government owns TV New Zealand, which operates two of the over-the-air commercial channels. There hasn’t been true “public television” – along the lines of the BBC or PBS – since 1988 when a deregulating government dissolved the Broadcasting Corporation of New Zealand. A requirement that TVNZ pay an annual dividend to the government submerged public-service broadcasting to commercial pressures.

TVNZ marked the 50th anniversary with a hokey two-hour quiz show last week, which drew large audiences but jeers from critics hoping for something with more substance. That function apparently will be served by a seven-part documentary on the rival Prime TV, owned by Rupert Murdoch’s Sky satellite network.

Even so, the anniversary week provided plenty of opportunities for Kiwis to look back at TV’s early years, including the Goodnight Kiwi (pictured above). Before 24-hour programming began in 1994, this animated short was shown at the end of each day’s broadcasts. The bird is depicted turning off the transmitter, putting out a milk bottle, and climbing into a satellite dish to go to sleep. Viewers were expected to do the same.

Jefferson’s words inspire NZ journalists

No New Zealand city has had two daily newspapers since 2002, when Wellington’s morning Dominion merged with the Evening Post to form The Dominion Post. With a circulation of just under 90,000, the Dom Post (as it’s commonly known) is the country’s second-largest daily.

The paper’s modern building has a comfortable café just off the lobby called The Front Page. On the wall, I was surprised to see this quotation from Thomas Jefferson: "Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter."

When I became editor of the Argonaut (the University of Idaho’s student newspaper), I placed this quote on the masthead – a jab at the student government. A few years later, I discovered that Jefferson’s enthusiasm for newspapers waned, particularly after he became president in 1800 and was the target of some nasty barbs from Federalist writers. He wrote to a friend: “The man who reads nothing at all is better educated than the man who reads nothing but newspapers.” And in retirement, he remarked, “ I do not take a single newspaper, nor read one a month, and I feel myself infinitely the happier for it.”

Even so, Mr. Jefferson’s first quote seems especially fitting for the paper published in New Zealand’s capital, just a short walk from Prime Minister John Key’s office and the Parliament building. It’s a long way from Monticello to Boulcott Street in Wellington, but I suspect that Mr. Jefferson would be pleased to see his comment receive such prominence.