Newspapers
Newspapers assume special significance in the New Zealand publishing
context. Unlike the situation in Britain, where book publishing was
established well over one century before newspapers were produced, in
its New Zealand colony newspapers came first. J.E. Traue comments, 'If
New Zealand's cultural topsoil was deficient in monographs, it was
enriched by the newspaper printing press,' and he demonstrates this by
citing numbers of newspapers produced in New Zealand: 16 by 1851; 28 by
1858; and between 1860 and 1879, 181 newspapers were founded (1985,
pp.12-13). The study of newspapers in New Zealand, especially for the
19th century, therefore assumes special significance in the history of
print culture in New Zealand.
This section is
primarily concerned with publishing of newspapers, rather than with
production aspects (see Chapter 2) and with the role of the media in the
political process; note, however, that this distinction is on occasion
difficult to draw and so the user can profitably read both sections. It
is also heavily weighted to 19th-and early 20th-century newspapers, the
period which has been most closely examined. Research into more recent
aspects of the newspaper press have been largely concerned with control
and ownership of the newspapers and with their role in the political
process, which is not the primary interest of this section.
The student of the
history of New Zealand newspapers needs to be constantly vigilant about
distinguishing fact from fiction, and this is as true for recent
material as it is for the 19th century. Journalists and editors, perhaps
because their stock in trade is skill with words, manufacture their own
myths and history rather more than other writers.
A considerable amount
of information about newspapers is to be found elsewhere in this guide.
Note in particular the section on Mäori newspapers later in
this chapter, and also the sections in Chapter 6 which note newspapers
published in New Zealand in languages other than English and
Mäori.
History
New Zealand, as a British colony, took its models from that country and
retained strong links to it. Newspapers were no exception. British
immigrants were advised to arrange, before leaving, 'to receive a file
of some weekly London paper' (Wakefield, quoted in Hankin, 1981, p.39);
this provided important links to 'home' and reinforced the colonial's
ties with Britain. However, no research has been carried out to
establish more precisely the similarities between the British models and
their New Zealand offshoots, nor to ascertain when and how divergence
from the models occurred. Works about British newspapers such as Brown's
Victorian News and Newspapers (1985) provide
a starting point for such research, and Australian models should also be
examined for similarities and differences.
Harvey in 'Formula for
success' (1993b, pp.208-209, based on Day, 1990) has characterised the
establishment of newspapers during this period. In the 1840s and 1850s
newspaper ownership was unremunerated, political advantage rather than
financial profit being the main incentive. During the 1860s many
newspapers were established with financial profit as the main motive:
both large city dailies and small circulation weeklies were feasible,
and newspaper management became a full-time occupation. The 1870s saw a
rapid expansion in the number of titles and the opening of the
trans-Tasman cable in 1876; and in the 1880s the telegraph and other
factors resulted in a uniform news service and newspapers played a role
in establishing the national identity.
Newspapers were
initially established in New Zealand as government organs, whether
directly or indirectly subsidised, and were centred at or close to the
main areas of European settlement. Government control of these early
newspapers is an essential element to understand and has been examined
in several studies, most notably in G.M. Meiklejohn's Early Conflicts of Press and Government (1953) and Rachel
Salmond's Government Printing in New Zealand, 1840 to
1843 (1995). A still useful study of these early newspapers is
Patricia Burns's 1957 thesis 'The foundation of the New Zealand press,
1839-50'. More recent is Patrick Day's The Making of
the New Zealand Press (1990) which examines the shift of
newspapers from a primarily political role to become profit-oriented
businesses.
As European settlement
expanded and as land communication links (rail and road) were gradually
developed, more newspapers were established. A newspaper was regarded as
an essential requisite of every progressive town, as this 1875 rhyme
suggests: 'Our printing press, telegraph, and steam, / Proclaim our
town's advance no idle dream' (Hogg 1875).
Newspapers (many of
them short-lived) were established as a response to the sharp increase
in immigration which followed the discovery of gold; the phenomenon of
the goldfields newspaper in New Zealand has been briefly examined by
Harvey (1994) but deserves more serious attention. The arrival of the
telegraph in the mid 1860s caused a major shift in focus from local
opinion to news from a wider catchment area, and the inclusion of
overseas news became feasible when a cable link to Australia was
established in 1876. Day (1986) notes some aspects of this in 'Julius
Vogel and the press'. The 1860s and 1870s saw the founding of the major
dailies, most of which are still publishing today.
Surprisingly little
attention has been paid to the period of consolidation which occurred
from the 1880s. As settlements became more established, their newspapers
became more stable. Chains of newspapers were now feasible in country
areas such as Taranaki and Southland where there was sufficient
population density to support them. They were established by such
'rag-planters' as Joseph Ivess and J.H. Claridge: Ivess is examined by
Harvey (1988), and Claridge's activities are noted by C.J. Claridge
(c.1965), J.C. Claridge (1975), and Stella Jones (1979, 1980). The
consolidation extended also to the main population centres where some
vigorous battles for circulation ensued during this period. The 1890s
saw the introduction of technological innovations, chief among them
mechanical typesetting machinery (primarily Linotypes), which had a
major impact on the personnel of the newspaper trade and on the trade
organisations. Curiously, this appears not to have been studied in the
New Zealand context.
Geographical
conditions in New Zealand were particularly conducive to the
establishment of small-town newspapers. (A study of the relationship
between New Zealand's geography, its settlement patterns and its
newspaper press is well overdue.) A short tongue-in-cheek but
informative introduction to the difficulties which small-town newspaper
operators faced is found in 'New Zealand's country press' (1906). This
attributes the high rate of failure of such enterprises to lack of
capital, especially during the initial period until a new country paper
became firmly established.
The weekly newspapers,
which were usually particularly targeted to rural areas, were
influential—older New Zealanders will recall the pink covers
of the Auckland Weekly News —and
require further study. No serious research has been carried out into the
contents of these or into their influence, for example as a factor
promoting social cohesion. An interesting small study could also be made
of the uses which were made of these weekly papers beyond those
immediately intended: E.H. McCormick, reminiscing about his childhood, noted:
We had long ceased to paper our houses with the illustrated pages of
the Auckland Weekly News , although traces of
this pioneer custom were still to be found in the privies and
occasionally in the kitchens of our rural neighbours . . . We had
passed beyond that unsophisticated stage and now used the
supplements issued with various journals, hanging them, suitably
framed, on a background of floral or oatmeal wallpaper.
(McCormick, 1959a, p.12)
Up to World War II, the
newspaper in New Zealand was essentially of two kinds: a large
metropolitan paper, owned by a company or perhaps still under family
control; or a small or medium-sized country paper, perhaps issued daily
but more likely issued bi-weekly or tri-weekly, and very likely to be
under the control of a working proprietor in the case of the smallest
papers or, in larger towns, family owned and perhaps also family
operated. World War II changed this. Skilled personnel was in short
supply and many newspapers closed, never to reopen. (This, too, has not
been well studied: for instance, a series of case studies to more
closely identify the forces which caused closure could be carried out.)
After 1945 the ownership of newspapers gradually consolidated into the
hands of a small number of companies.
Other factors also
reshaped the face of newspaper publishing in New Zealand, although few
of these, if any, were unique to New Zealand. Overseas ownership of the
media was hotly debated, especially during the early 1980s. Competition
from other mass media was of concern. Technological change, this time
from hot-metal to electronic typesetting, and reskilling caused
considerable anxiety in the newspaper trade, as Hill and Gidlow (1988)
demonstrate. The rise of free community papers ('shoppers') is a
phenomenon which warrants further study. The combination of changing
demographics and changing economics of production have resulted in
casualties, recently the Manawatu Herald , well
over one century old, in May 1997.
Media comment about
newspaper publishing in the 1980s and 1990s is plentiful and is usually
focused on the question of ownership and control, especially in relation
to ownership by overseas companies or by investment houses. Some of the
most informative of this writing is the media comment found in the
monthly magazines North and South and Metro . Examples include Pat Booth's 'Catch a
falling star: Christchurch's newspaper blues' (1991), Carroll du
Chateau's 'Why two old bodgies couldn't save the Star' (1991, about the
Auckland Star ) and Jim Tucker's 'Sunday snooze'
(1994, about Auckland's Sunday newspapers). The indexes to current New
Zealand periodicals can be used to identify similar material.
Sources
Harvey (1991a) summarises the history and current state of the
bibliography of 19th-century newspapers published in New Zealand,
concluding that they are 'bibliographically well controlled but . . .
only to a limited degree'. To locate surviving copies the starting point
is Harvey's Union List of Newspapers (1987).
Still lacking is detailed bibliographical work to provide a full account
of the number of newspapers published, where they were published, and
their impact on New Zealand society, for by no means all newspapers
published in New Zealand have been preserved. Harvey has made a
preliminary beginning on this for 19th-century newspapers (Harvey
1989b). Other listings, compiled for specific reasons, also exist and
are useful to the researcher; for example, the List of
Newspapers Placed on the Register at the General Post Office,
Wellington was first published in about 1883 and notes titles
registered in order to be eligible for cheaper postal rates.
Few New Zealand
newspapers have been indexed. Those indexes to individual titles which
have been compiled are listed in Peacocke's Newspaper
Indexes in New Zealand (1994) and also Harvey (1987). Useful
detailed indexes to a range of titles published in one city or region
also exist in libraries throughout the country; an example is the index
located in the Dunedin Public Library, to references about newspapers
published in Dunedin city.
The major collection
of New Zealand newspapers is at the National Library of New Zealand in
Wellington. Significant collections also exist at Auckland Public
Library and at the Hocken Library, University of Otago (these are
especially strong for local titles) and at the British Library, London.
The National Library of New Zealand's microfilming programme has
provided increased access to many newspapers.
Scholefield's Newspapers in New Zealand (1958) remains the
only general survey, but is not error free and should be used with
caution. Much briefer general accounts are those by Cohen (1922) and
Mills (1940) which incline towards the myth-making approach to newspaper
history often favoured by journalists. Ruth Butterworth (1989) has
provided a more recent, but regrettably short, overview.
No recent studies have
been made of newspapers in particular regions or localities, yet there
is considerable scope for such studies, particularly for the 19th and
early 20th centuries when local and regional interests overrode national
interests, and when communications channels were not fully developed.
Existing studies include F.A. Simpson's 'Survey of the newspapers and
magazines of the Province of Otago' (1948) for Otago, A.A. Smith's Printing in Canterbury (1953) and A.E.J. Arts's
A History of the Canterbury Master Printers'
Association, 1889-1989 (1989) for Canterbury, and R.F.
Johncock's Brief History of the Press (1991) for
Hawkes Bay.
Material about local
newspapers and their history is frequently present in local histories.
Two examples of the many which abound can be found in Tauranga 1882-1982 ('Communications', 1982) and in Bagnall's
Wairarapa (1976).
Newspapers in
Mäori are noted later in this chapter. Newspapers in languages
other than English and Mäori are noted in Chapter 6.
The only detailed
published history of an influential daily newspaper is R.B. O'Neill's
1963 study of the Christchurch Press . Other
newspapers await similar detailed studies. More plentiful are studies
which address specific periods during the life of a newspaper or a
newspaper business. Two works based on work originally submitted as
university theses are Salmond's Government Printing in
New Zealand, 1840-43 (1995) which examines John Moore's role in
the Auckland Newspaper and General Printing Co., and the role of the
newspaper in the governmental process in a fledgling British colony; and
Lishi Kwasitsu's Printing and the Book Trade in Early
Nelson (1996) which notes the Nelson
Examiner from 1842 to 1874. Frances Porter's Born
to New Zealand (1989), a biography of Jane Maria Atkinson,
includes in passing much about the day-to-day editorial concerns of
running the Taranaki Herald during its early
years. Harvey (1994) notes one year of the Inangahua
Herald , Reefton, a case study of the setting up of a
goldfields newspapers. R.C.J. Stone's biographies of the Auckland
businessman Logan Campbell (1982, 1987) include much about the
day-to-day running and financing of the Southern
Cross . Many similar works have been published.
Anniversary
issues—especially centennial issues—of newspapers
may provide useful information, although the user should take into
account their often anecdotal and not always critical approach. Some
which contain useful newspaper history (as distinct from anecdote, or
reproductions of early issues) are:
Taranaki Herald Centennial Issue 1952
Taranaki Daily News Centennial Number, 14 May 1957
The
Otago Daily Times First Hundred Years, 1861-1961 , 15 Nov.
1961
The Ensign 1878-1978 (Gore)
120
Years: The Nelson Evening Mail, 1866-1986 , 11 March 1986
Theses are also an important source of studies of individual newspapers
or of specific periods of their lives. An example of this genre is
Graeme Robinson's 'The Evening Press 1884-94'
(1967).
An unusual, perhaps
unique, source for newspaper history is a film running just over two
minutes which depicts some of the activities involved in producing the
Taranaki Herald in 1912 ( The Production of the Taranaki Herald and Budget , 1912). Its
shot list notes: 'Public Offices and Office Staff; Editorial Room;
Linotypes, setting the evening paper; Stereo room, casting plates for
printing press; Machine room, Foster Rotary single reel press; Premises;
Exterior shot of building, people rushing out with newspapers.'
The only newspaper
company history is Leslie Verry's 1985 study of Wellington based
Independent Newspapers Ltd (INL). This contains histories of the
individual newspapers which eventually combined to form INL, chief among
them the Evening Post , the Dominion , Truth , the Waikato Times , the Manawatu
Evening Standard , the Southland Times
and the Timaru Herald ; and more recent history
of the company and its mergers and takeovers. Verry's final chapter is
titled 'How independent are Independent Newspapers?', the theme of much
of the recent writing about newspapers in New Zealand.
Much has been
published about individual newspaper personnel, although it has not yet
been collected into a directory of printing trade personnel. Starting
points are the entries in biographical compendiums. The biographical
entries in the Cyclopedia of New Zealand have
been extracted and reproduced in Printing, Bookselling
and their Allied Trades in New Zealand c.1900 (1980). The Dictionary of New Zealand Biography (1990-) notes
the biographies of some newspaper personnel, and the earlier Dictionary of New Zealand Biography (ed.
Scholefield, 1940) is still a valuable source. For the late 1870s and
early 1880s useful biographical data about newspaper personnel
(especially those who were itinerant, moving within New Zealand as well
as between New Zealand and other countries, mainly the Australian
colonies and California) is present in the New Zealand
Press News and Typographical Circular and the Colonial Printers' Register .
There are also many
periodical articles and monographs with biographical content. An early
Wellington newspaperman and his role in the New
Zealand Colonist and Port Nicholson Advertiser (Wellington,
1842-43) can be found in Coleridge's 'Edward Catchpool, Master Printer
in London and Wellington' (1993). The newspaper activities of Barzillai
Quaife, the editor of the anti-government newspapers the New Zealand Advertiser and Bay of Islands Gazette
and the Bay of Islands Observer published in
Kororareka (Russell), New Zealand's first seat of government, are noted
in Peter Kennett's biography (1991). From a later period Alexander
McMinn's activities have been documented by Frean (1985). The activities
of J.H. Claridge in establishing numerous newspapers in the early 20th
century can be read about in at least four sources (C.J. Claridge,
c.1965; J.C. Claridge, 1975; Jones, 1979, 1980). Autobiographical
accounts by journalists include Robyn Hyde's Journalese (1934) and William Thomas's The
Inky Way (1960).
Politicians in New
Zealand have often also been newspapermen, not surprising as the
newspaper was, until the advent of other mass media, the primary vehicle
through which politicians could express local needs. They have been well
investigated by New Zealand historians. Some, like Julius Vogel, have
warranted more than one study (Dalziel 1986, Day 1986). McIvor's
biography of John Ballance (1989) includes much about Ballance's
newspaper, the Wanganui Herald . The newspaper
activities of a less successful politician, Joseph Ivess, are noted by
Harvey (1988).
Much unpublished
biographical material still remains to be fully assessed. One example is
the diary of David Burn, an invaluable and probably unique
autobiographical account of the day-to-day activities of an Auckland
newspaper editor and shipping correspondent during the 1840s and 1850s;
a flavour of it can be found in Harvey (1990). Another example is T.S.
Forsaith's 'Autobiographical memoranda' (1846-) which includes material
about the Daily Telegraph (Dunedin).
Press associations
were formed for the purposes of controlling and disseminating news by
regulating access to the telegraph. They played a key role in New
Zealand's newspaper history. The New Zealand Press Association was
established in 1879 as the United Press Association, continuing the
activities of several similar organisations such as the Reuters Telegram
Co. The United Press Association changed its name to the New Zealand
Press Association in 1942. Throughout its 19th-century existence it was
the cause of much contention, particularly because it acted as a cartel
which represented the interest of its powerful members, the major
metropolitan daily newspapers, and in effect ignored all others. It
monopolised the supply of news to New Zealand's newspapers by its
control of the telegraph and consequently was frequently criticised, for
example by politicians—there was a parliamentary enquiry into
its activities in 1880 (Press Telegrams Committee 1880)—and by
newspaper proprietors who were not eligible to become members of the
Association.
The standard history
of the New Zealand Press Association and its predecessors is James
Sanders's Dateline-NZPA (1979). An earlier and
still useful work is George Fenwick's The United Press
Association (1929). The archives of the New Zealand Press
Association archives, held at the Turnbull Library, contain a wealth of
information about the day-to-day operation of the news gathering process, for both overseas news and local
news redistributed to newspapers through the telegraph system leased to
the Association. This material will repay further investigation.
Another relevant
association history is that of the New Zealand Journalists' Association
(1962), covering the period 1912 to 1962.
The day-to-day
activities involved in running a newspaper and the economics of the
newspaper business have been an area of interest to researchers. Harvey
(1993a, 1993b) examines available evidence about profitability,
circulation, income, expenditure, advertising revenue and similar
factors for 19th-century titles. Other publications deal with specific
aspects. Advertising is noted in Roderick Cave's 'Advertising,
circulation and profitability' (1989), Coleridge's Building a Paper Economy (1991) and 'Newspaper advertising in
a pioneer colony' (1995), and by Kwasitsu (1996). Aspects of government
advertising, an important form of patronage for early New Zealand
newspapers, is noted in Harvey (1988-89); there is scope for further
study on this, and the returns of government advertising published in
the AJHR provide a starting point. Circulation
figures for 19th-century newspapers are noted in Harvey (1988-89), and
in Harvey (1996) which examines circulation figures in relation to
population size for a range of titles.
Aspects of the
news-gathering process in the 19th century are covered by Day (1986) for
the role of the telegraph, and by Rollo Arnold, who provides in Chapter
15 of New Zealand's Burning (1994) a study of the
role of the 'own correspondent' (local correspondents) and also of the
weekly newspapers. News gathering in more recent times can be read about
in John Hardingham's The New Zealand Herald Manual of
Journalism (1967).
Harvey's 'Editors and
compositors' (1990) notes, from contemporary accounts, some of the
day-to-day activities involved in running newspapers in 19th-century New
Zealand.
Further research
Despite the considerable number of publications which exist about New
Zealand newspapers, particularly for the 19th century, much research is
still needed. In addition to the lacunae noted above, more needs to be
known about newspapers published in specific regions, and about
news-gathering (including the role of the telegraph). More histories of
individual newspapers are essential, for example to allow better
knowledge of whether New Zealand newspapers differ from colonial papers
published in other countries. This list can be refined and extended
almost indefinitely.
Many sources are
available to further this research. The New Zealand
Parliamentary Debates (Hansard) warrant attention: they
include, for example, information about postage rates and subsidies for
newspapers, about funding of the Mäori language newspaper Te Waka Maori , and about government patronage in
the form of advertising. Significant archival material is available in
libraries: demanding attention in this category are the New Zealand News
archives (Turnbull Library), a major source awaiting further
investigation and analysis. They include, among much else, detailed
business records of the Lyttelton Times Co. Other extant business
records of newspapers are noted in Chapter 2. Government publications,
such as the AJHR, will reward further study. The
registrations of newspapers required under various Acts from 1868,
available at National Archives and some High Court registries, are also
an untouched source.