Apparently Bauer offered the NZ government these publications for one dollar. It should buy them. Editorial independence can be built into legislation. Or it could hand them over to workers-the journalists etc, for them to own and run as workers cooperatives.

Yes I agree, we may be identifying the wrong villains here. The real villain is us, both in terms of NZ commercial norms and in terms of the Govt’s amazing response to the $1 offer. In German commercial law the first duty of management is normally to maintain the enterprise and its workforce as a going concern and try to trade out of difficulties, even if banks and shareholders take a hit. It’s the opposite in this country of course and that possibly explains why Bauer refused the govt’s offer of cash to keep things going. They probably could not have refused such an offer back home in Germany: but obviously they could here. All the same, Bauer did offer the whole kaboodle, as a going concern (once more) to the NZ Govt for a dollar. The REALLY incredible thing is that the NZ Govt then walked away from this once-in-a-century offer.

Zack ‘If anything these magazines are a post Level-4, covid-19 biohazard found at your local fish-n-chipper.”

Don’t be rude. My local fish’n’chipper has wonderful out of date ‘National Geographics’ which they very kindly sometimes let me borrow. They trust me. I think that I must have a very honest aura – Filipinos can see auras, and, with due respect, I’m not sure if you could- considering.

My dentist has the ‘Guardian Weekly’, but between you and me, he could be showing off a bit, or compensating for keeping charging me for new keys for his boat-house which his wife loses inbetween painting delicate scenic water colours and ringing him at work to tell him.

For some reason, my doctor also goes nautical with mags about sea sort of stuff – whatever people do in and around the sea besides fishing and evilly polluting.

So Bauer’s gap has been filled, and she will have to really pull her socks up if she wants to return and have another go at further dumbing down New Zealand.

What date did you say the letter was posted? Or are you referring to one written but sent as email? It hurts so much if this has been ignored. Surely the government hasn’t been so emasculated by the pruning shears of business and commerce that they would fail to seize the opportunity, knowing that there would be large costs but nothing that government couldn’t handle, and would have had to handle anyway if the business had remained extant. This is tantamount to the lack of action years ago to obtain the rights to the trademark ‘Kiwi’.
It seems as if this government have trouble coping with anything more complex than those facing a school board.

Well, Rosielee, she could stand in a window to give everyone walking past the best laugh that they’ve had for weeks. Wearing her bear skin of course, instead of her usual spotted acrylic made-in-China hearth rug. Smile and wave at little kiddies.

On second thoughts – maybe she should pull the blinds down first. For the sake of those little kiddies.

Third thoughts – maybe go to Amsterdam, and dance double Dutch in a window there.

Fourth thoughts – Can Paula do double Dutch ?

Fifth thoughts – Is this fair on the Netherlands ?

Sixth thoughts – Paula could buy a bicycle, and bike all over Auckland just like all those lovely leggy young girls do in Amsterdam. Wearing shorts.

Problem solved.

John W. Yep. The Listener deteriorated so much that I’d stopped buying it. My first thought about the women’s mags vanishing was poor Simon Bridges – I gather that he gathers his fan base by showing off his family pix for dear old ducks’ clucks.

Query. Can we sustain a “celebrity” culture without the glossies? Probably not. Good.

The whole sleb thing is vacuous and pointless, but worse, it imparts to its followers a sense of values totally at variance with those which we need for a well-functioning,
reasonably cohesive, and healthy community.

I used to buy one glossy featuring a relative, to post to another one overseas, and the articles were invariably pointless crap about people taking themselves seriously for being little more than well-dressed and striking dumb poses.

“Delphinium has finally broken her silence about what she thinks of Jester’s latest antics, saying that she has no opinion to offer concerning Jester’s behaviour.”

Unbelievable if they offered it for $1 then the government should have seriously considered it!

I hoped they then offered it to staff.

Another model I have seen in NZ, is when they offer the publications to the staff and/or editor to continue onwards. Although a paper based publication is expensive, publishing on-line is not!

People also have to remember we have it easy compared to other nations with the virus so Bauer might have more pressing issues than it’s publications in NZ.

It is unbelievable what is happening overseas. Everyone in NZ should be grateful with our low density of population and Island location of NZ and decent free health system here, that seems to have stopped the infection and death rates in other countries so far.

‘They’re leaving us to die’: Ecuadorians’ plead for help as virus blazes deadly trail
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/03/theyre-leaving-us-to-die-ecuadorians-plead-for-help-as-virus-blazes-deadly-trail

Doctor with Covid-19 dies in Berlin flat after travelling from London
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/03/doctor-with-covid-19-dies-in-berlin-flat-after-travelling-from-london

Two young nurses die as NHS braces for more coronavirus losses
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/apr/03/two-young-nurses-die-as-nhs-braces-for-more-coronavirus-losses

Mexico murder rate reaches new high as violence rages amid Covid-19 spread
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/03/mexico-murder-rate-homicide-coronavirus-covid-19

The devastating impact of Covid-19 in New York
https://www.theguardian.com/news/audio/2020/apr/03/the-devastating-impact-of-covid-19-in-new-york-podcast

One chart shows 10 countries’ current coronavirus death rates, based on known cases and deaths. Italy’s is highest: nearly 10%.
https://www.businessinsider.com.au/coronavirus-death-rates-by-country-based-on-case-fatality-ratio-2020-3?op=1&r=US&IR=T

Two young nurses die as NHS braces for more coronavirus losses
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/apr/03/two-young-nurses-die-as-nhs-braces-for-more-coronavirus-losses

https://www.covid19india.org

Locusts Are Ravaging The Horn Of Africa, Covid-19 Is Making Things Worse
https://www.gizmodo.com.au/2020/03/locusts-are-ravaging-the-horn-of-africacovid-19-is-making-things-worse/

Here are the facts.

Bauer Media, accepting that their business model was beyond repair, seized upon the Government’s extraordinary decision to ban magazine production and distribution to pull the plug on their NZ operation.

They informed the Broadcasting, Communications and Digital Media Minister, Kris Faafoi, of their intention to wind up their NZ involvement by letter. The company explained that the Government’s assistance package might, at best, delay their operation’s collapse, but could not prevent it. Accordingly, they declined to take it up.

In the same letter, however – and this is the kicker! – Bauer offered their whole NZ operation to the Government for $1.00. They never heard back from the Minister.

Just think about that for a moment. The New Zealand Government could have taken possession of The Listener, Metro, N&S, NZ Woman’s Weekly – the whole kit and kaboodle – for $1.00. At the very least that would have meant those iconic mastheads and historically invaluable archives would have been protected. More generally, and with an eye to the future, the NZ people would have acquired, effectively free of charge, a very solid foundation for a publicly-owned print media operation to place alongside their public radio and television assets. With it becoming clearer every day that the private, profit-driven news media is unlikely to survive this crisis, that would have been a very good thing!

If we value a vibrant, functioning democracy, we must have a vibrant, functioning news media. What I have found most disappointing in the above commentary thread so far is the almost total lack of anything approaching a bold or imaginative response to the crisis gripping NZ journalism and media.

Schadenfreude we have here in abundance; a sense of democratic socialist possibilities – not so much.

I thought it was Joanne Black with her ties to Key and English but I think you are right about Stirling. I too was distressed at its direction but I’m sure it can be salvaged. Chris Trotter would make a good editor!

The Listener was set up by the government and owned by the government through the NZBC. There is no reason why they can’t own it again. You are too tied to neo-liberalism bonash.