tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8442430064359197279.post3130141013346837815..comments2024-03-26T10:03:51.827+13:00Comments on Karl du Fresne: A personal perspective on the closure of The ListenerKarl du Fresnehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05054853925940134404noreply@blogger.comBlogger10125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8442430064359197279.post-37112339469700090832020-04-22T10:19:05.889+12:002020-04-22T10:19:05.889+12:00I have just looked at Stuff and seen that they are...I have just looked at Stuff and seen that they are seeking "contributions".<br />I tried to contribute what I thought was in keeping with the value of the Stuff "news" site.<br />But they refused to accept my 10 cents donation for a year !!!!Doug Longmirehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12008729336442910333noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8442430064359197279.post-56545165210443149452020-04-21T18:00:50.604+12:002020-04-21T18:00:50.604+12:00I'm left wondering (yet again) - how did this ...I'm left wondering (yet again) - how did this country ever let foreigners own our media? What was in the brains of the politicians to allow foreigners to own anything that is ours? Our land, our farms, our businesses ?<br />Once sold it is gone and not ours. Foreigners own it. Simple as that.<br />Did we not learn this lesson from the Maoris?Doug Longmirehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12008729336442910333noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8442430064359197279.post-72292813833818987832020-04-06T12:58:32.210+12:002020-04-06T12:58:32.210+12:00I wondered why the Listener occasionally seemed to...I wondered why the Listener occasionally seemed to contain sense! Its left-lean was really off-putting. While foreign ownership has been a disaster, the sad fact is that these titles could not be produced by NZ owners. They are for sale - make Bauer a (low) offer and then buy a barrel of red ink. The financial sort, not political.Max Ritchiehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09700377308425417842noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8442430064359197279.post-52710730305439870892020-04-06T09:56:03.484+12:002020-04-06T09:56:03.484+12:00Actually David, I don’t recall ever writing a List...Actually David, I don’t recall ever writing a Listener editorial that caused me to hold my nose, figuratively speaking. Perhaps the tone would sometimes have been a bit different had I been writing under my own name, but the editorials generally took what I would like to think was a classically liberal line, probably not too far removed from the Listener tradition of an earlier era. I was always very conscious of the fact that Pamela had ownership of the editorials and would be answerable if they took a strident line that alienated the readers. <br />BTW, I totally agree about Murdoch. Whatever else is said about him by his legions of detractors, he was always committed to newspapers. What’s more, he had the good sense, when he had a controlling interest in what was then INL (publishers of The Dominion, the Press, the Sunday Star Times and a stable of provincial titles), to step back and leave the running of the company to competent New Zealanders. <br />Karl du Fresnehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05054853925940134404noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8442430064359197279.post-66710525374746544442020-04-06T09:26:19.200+12:002020-04-06T09:26:19.200+12:00I had a really good laugh at the revelation that y...I had a really good laugh at the revelation that you wrote Listener<br />editorials, Karl! I honestly thought Pamela wrote them. You must have<br />been the very model of a leader writer, writing what the editor wanted,<br />not what you believed yourself, when the two diverged.<br /><br />I have always bought the Listener, and had bought the very final copy<br />just two days before its sudden end. I kept buying it even during the<br />long years when it was proudly known (including to its staff) as the<br />Alliance House Journal. I always found some good writing in it. Like<br />many men of a certain era who bought Playboy for the articles not the<br />photos, I bought the Listener for its articles, not the TV programmes,<br />which I barely glanced at for all this century, so irrelevant have those<br />schedules become in my household.<br /><br />What to me was the biggest shock of all was the simultaneous closure of<br />North & South. I worked for that magazine for 11 years during the<br />wonderful editorship of Robyn Langwell, who encouraged and allowed me to<br />produce the best journalism of my life, including many articles which I<br />am sure did not accord with her personal view of the world.<br /><br />When the news of the closures broke mid-week, Judith was exercising one<br />of the few civil rights that seem to be left with us -- visiting the<br />supermarket, not because we needed anything, but because it is still not<br />forbidden so we take it in turns to go every day. It feels like an act<br />of rebellion. She grabbed the latest and last North & South from the<br />supermarket shelf for me, knowing how much the magazine meant to me.<br />Next day I bought the latest and last NZ Woman's Weekly; not because<br />either of us had ever bought it (I don't think either of us ever had)<br />but because it marked the end of another major part of New Zealand<br />journalism.<br /><br />Almost all our media has passed into overseas ownership during my<br />career, some of it changing foreign hands many a time. Most of that<br />media has been trashed by its foreign owners. I cry today to see the NZ<br />Herald and DomPost, newspapers I once proudly worked for which are now<br />pathetic impotent irrelevancies IMO. North & South and Metro fell into<br />the hands of Kerry Packer's ACP long ago but Packer was a bulldogged<br />supporter of journalism and they thrived under him. His sons only cared<br />about casinos and ACP was hocked off to Bauer of Germany. I was only<br />vaguely aware that the Listener had fallen into Bauer's clutches, and<br />didn't learn the NZWW had until its closure was announced with all the<br />rest of them.<br /><br />(As an aside, prompted by mention of Packer, most of my media colleagues<br />hate Murdoch almost as much as they despise Trump, Boris and Morrison,<br />yet Murdoch is a proud newspaper man and while he is alive, his many<br />excellent titles will also live. The day after he dies, most of them<br />will die too. I fear many journalists will cheer loudly, such is the<br />state of journalism today.)<br /><br />The only remaining national NZ-owned media outlets are the pathetic<br />TVNZ; and Radio NZ, which I enthusiastically support and follow 24-7 <br />(along with the BBC and ABC), because it gives me the widest-ranging<br />selection of news and current affairs produced in NZ. I have grave<br />concerns for its future, given the proposal to merge it with TVNZ. If<br />TVNZ's management and attitudes dominate in the new merged structure, I<br />don't see much future for an informed public in an era we need that more<br />than ever.<br />David McLoughlinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07572242600889192661noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8442430064359197279.post-22343599359917100922020-04-05T13:24:38.165+12:002020-04-05T13:24:38.165+12:00This does concern me too. I read the Listener for ...This does concern me too. I read the Listener for many years and my wife still reads it each week. Until now. A casualty of the massive overreaction to a virus.<br />We need more debate around issues. The Listener was generally of the left but that's OK. We need publications of all types. A sad day indeed. <br />And you are spot on about overseas owners. Globalization is not all its cracked up to be. <br />A loss for NZ culture I'm afraid. Scotthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09006013946847228416noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8442430064359197279.post-7870414681817203422020-04-05T11:01:52.092+12:002020-04-05T11:01:52.092+12:00Well it's morning mourning in this household t...Well it's morning mourning in this household these days...being Listener subscribers and library borrowers of the other titles Metro, North & South. My childhood household, like yours, subscribed or bought several titles weekly, that told our own stories & remain in the heart as icons of our magazine heritage. Still in denial I suppose. Good column Karl, chuckling over the editorial bit.<br /> Just...bugger. Bigtime.Hilary Taylorhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00240590567749247083noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8442430064359197279.post-50921426946149405292020-04-04T18:13:18.012+13:002020-04-04T18:13:18.012+13:00Thanks Karl - devastating that a foreign financial...Thanks Karl - devastating that a foreign financial predator was ever allowed to own our media. I am personally very concerned that a large chunk of our culture and history is probably gone. Doug Longmirehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12008729336442910333noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8442430064359197279.post-70188579215683971912020-04-04T16:52:47.496+13:002020-04-04T16:52:47.496+13:00Magazines like the Listener and North and South ar...Magazines like the Listener and North and South are needed more than ever now the government has such draconian powers with the lockdown. <br /><br />Protests against foreign ownership of land, is vociferous but if a foreign owner doesn't make a success of the investment, the land is still here. Protest against foreign ownership of media or businesses with intellectual property which can be taken away is far more muted. Ele LudemannHomepaddockhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03685868536382354551noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8442430064359197279.post-54090637792775244442020-04-04T15:39:24.674+13:002020-04-04T15:39:24.674+13:00Wow, reading that was like going on a magic carpet...Wow, reading that was like going on a magic carpet ride. Thanks.Mark Wahlberghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17959889940311304180noreply@blogger.com