New Zealand Listener

New Zealand Listener was first published 30 June 1939 as the weekly Journal of the National Broadcasting Service (NZBS). The Listener started as, according to Prime Minister Michael Joseph Savage, ‘an essential means of acquiring entertainment and instructive information’ (30 June 1939: 9) making it easier for New Zealanders to gain information on radio programming and to plan their listening accordingly. Its introductory issue was offered free to every householder in New Zealand, claiming to have used fifty tons of newsprint and every postman in the Dominion to deliver it. In September 1939 the Listener would incorporate its precursor Radio Record.

Not long after the Listener began, news of the German invasion of Poland; and with it the start of the Second World War; was being relayed to New Zealanders through re-broadcasted BBC radio bulletins from London. Over the next decade The Listener would relay detailed coverage of the war, from public service announcements and messages from the Prime Minister, articles about the importance of radio on propaganda and coverage of women in the war effort, even while it was forced to reduce in size due to newsprint shortages.

Throughout the war and beyond, the Listener would feature regular columns focusing on woman and the home. This would include a weekly column on early childhood education by pioneer educator Beatrice Beeby and the Ask Aunt Daisy advice column created by Maud Basham, an extension of her popular radio show and adaptation of her original Radio Record column.

In 1960, a weekly two-hour evening television broadcast would be introduced to New Zealand. With the first non-experimental broadcast made from Auckland in June 1960, followed by Christchurch and Wellington in 1961, and Dunedin in 1962, the Listener would start adding regional television listings to their programme to inform viewers of the local and international programming coming to New Zealand TV sets.

In addition to programme listings and commentary, the Listener is known for giving New Zealand authors, artists and journalists their start; publishing literary works, illustrations and cartoons, in-depth interviews and opinion pieces. This would include publishing Janet Frame’s first adult work, the short story University Entrance in March 1946 (credited as J F) and Maurice Shadbolt’s first short story Annual Holiday in June 1955. It would also employ its own designer and illustrator, the first of these being Christchurch artist Russell Clark until 1962. In the 1950s freelance cartoonist Neville Lodge was a regular contributor, with a section called Lodge Listens.

Oliver Duff was appointed the first editor and has been credited as shaping the Listener into the independent, political, literary and cultural icon it would become. Montague Harry Holcroft would take over as the second editor from 1949-1967 and then again briefly from 1972-1973, stepping in after the dismissal of controversial editor Alexander MacLeod. Holcroft would carry on from Duff’s independent nature and fostering of the arts. His editorials would become so popular that two collections were published, The Eye of the Lizard and Graceless Islanders. Ian Cross would become the third editor in 1973, refreshing the magazine’s layout and cover to reflect the introduction of colour television and hiring at the time unknown talent such as cartoonist and political columnist Tom Scott and feminist columnist Rosemary McLeod.

Changes to the Broadcasting Act and the New Zealand Broadcasting Corporation (NZBC) in the 1970s and 1980s would result in a lot of changes to the Listener, eventually leading to the loss of the monopoly it had on weekly publishing of television and radio listings. During this time, circulation of the Listener was around 400,000 copies a week. While this new policy created more competition in the sector, for the Listener it led to declining sales. The dissolution of the Broadcasting Corporation in 1988 led to the Listener being established as a separate business owned jointly by Television New Zealand (TVNZ) and Radio New Zealand (RNZ). Not long after, the Listener was prepared for commercial sale and in November 1990 printers and publishers Wilson and Horton Limited purchased a majority shareholding in New Zealand Listener 1990 Limited, becoming the new owners.

With privatisation, the focus of the Listener from a broadcasting service mouthpiece to independent, in-depth, investigative journalism would grow. Over the next three decades the Listener would cover key moments of New Zealand’s history including the introduction of MMP, New Zealand’s first women Prime Minister, closely followed by the second, high profile criminal investigations, the Lord of the Rings premiere, the 2008 global financial crisis, early articles on the science of climate change, the Pike River Mine disaster and the 2011 Canterbury earthquakes.

In March 2014 Bauer Media Group took over publication of the Listener from New Zealand Magazines, a division of APN specialist publications (APNSP) who owned Wilson and Horton. The commerce commission approved the acquisition of all APNSP assets by Bauer in January 2014. In April 2020 Bauer Media Group announced the closure of its publishing business in New Zealand, citing the economic impact of the Covid-19 pandemic as the main reason. In July 2020 Mercury Capital acquired and resumed publication of many titles within Bauer Media’s New Zealand portfolio, including the Listener, with Are Media being the new company name for the Bauer Media properties acquired.

The Listener has endured through the 20th and 21st centuries, carrying on its tradition of independent, investigative journalism by covering the wide range of subjects and events that have shaped the history of New Zealand.