New Zealand newspaper (1905?2014)
NZ Truth
was a
tabloid
newspaper published weekly in
New Zealand
from 1905 to 2013.
History
[
edit
]
NZ Truth
was founded in 1905 by Australian
John Norton
in
Wellington
, as a New Zealand edition of his Sydney
Truth
, aiming a sensational blend of sex, crime and radical politics at mainly working class readers.
[1]
[2]
According to newspaper historian (and former
NZ Truth
journalist) Redmer Yska, English-born Norton was 'a combustible mix of tycoon, journalist, do-gooder and chronic, falldown pisshead.'
[3]
Norton was on hand on 24 June 1905 when the first copies of the 'Maoriland' edition rolled off the presses in Luke's Lane, an alley that still runs at right angles to Wellington's
Courtenay Place
. Inaugural editor, Australian Robert Merrick, claimed 40,000 readers by 1907, with circulation in 'every Miners', Gum Diggers' and Timber-Getter's camp'.
[4]
Three years later Frederick Dawson, a former editor of Norton's Queensland and West Australia editions of
Truth
took over. He would remain in the job until 1920. Norton meanwhile died of alcoholism, in 1916.
[
citation needed
]
The leader writer (and, briefly, editor) from 1913 to 1922 was
Robert Hogg
, a Scottish-born journalist and socialist.
[5]
According to Yska. Hogg 'turned
NZ Truth
into a fiery and enthusiastic mouthpiece for revolutionary socialism'. That would change in 1922 when John Norton's son Ezra became the Sydney-based owner and proprietor, appointing a string of New Zealand-based editors. Under the populist Norton, the 'worker's paper' became the streamlined family-friendly 'national paper'. Norton's most successful editor was Australian Brian Connolly and over 16 years (1935 to 1951), he would return the paper to its working-class roots, albeit with a conservative streak.
[
citation needed
]
In 1951, Norton sold out to a New Zealand consortium led by the paper's legal representative James Dunn and his former Scots College schoolmate Cliff Plimmer. Over the next few decades, the New Zealand owners would refashion
NZ Truth
into what Yska calls 'a shrill megaphone for a conservative establishment holding back political, social and cultural ties that increasingly threatened to sweep it away.'
[6]
Over the decades,
NZ Truth
variously employed well-known New Zealand authors, including
Robin Hyde
in 1928.
[7]
As in Australia,
NZ Truth
capitalised on unrestricted press coverage of divorce cases during its first half century, with court evidence of adultery cases given lengthy, invariably saucy treatment. In 1958, a Labour government passed a law restricting coverage to the bare bones of proceedings, removing a vital part of
Truth's
editorial 'bread and butter'.
[8]
In 1963, as revelations of a seamy British political scandal unfolded, audited circulation reached a peak of 240,000, and the weekly claimed a readership of a million Kiwis. But the advent of television in 1960, the decriminalisation of Sunday newspapers in 1963 and changing attitudes to sexual morality associated with the '
Swinging Sixties
' were already shaking apart
NZ Truth's
world. By 1980, circulation stood at 150,000, but a move to Auckland headquarters in 1982 and a 'brighter'
Truth and TV Extra
failed. By the mid 1990s, circulation fell to 50,000, and in 2005, as the once proud and powerful weekly approached its centenary, plummeted to a once unthinkable 12,000.
[
citation needed
]
Cameron Slater's involvement
[
edit
]
At the end of October 2012, controversial right-wing blogger
Cameron Slater
was announced as the paper's new editor. He said in his new role he would be "kicking arse and sticking up for the little guy". His first issue was published that November.
[9]
As a result of his appointment, the paper's left-wing columnist
Martyn "Bomber" Bradbury
quit. Within six months of Slater's appointment it was announced the publication would cease production in July 2013, with Slater claiming it was "too far gone".
[10]
Despite ceasing to publish a print version of the website, the publication continued to update its website until May 2014.
[11]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
Yska, Redmer (2010).
Truth: The rise and fall of the people's paper
. Nelson:
Craig Potton Publishing
.
ISBN
9781877517303
.
- ^
"New Zealand and Pacific Newspapers and Magazines (University of Auckland newspaper holdings on microfilm)"
. Archived from
the original
on 14 May 2006.
- ^
Yska, 2010, p. 15
- ^
Yska, 2010, p. 19
- ^
Gustafson, Barry
(1980).
Labour's Path to Political Independence
. Auckland: Auckland University Press. p. 158.
ISBN
0-19-647986-X
.
- ^
Yska, 2010, p. 144
- ^
"Robin Hyde (Iris Wilkinson), 1906?1939"
.
New Zealand Electronic Text Centre
.
Victoria University of Wellington
. 2007.
- ^
Yska, 2010, p. 125
- ^
"Cameron Slater takes helm of Truth"
.
3 News NZ
. 31 October 2012. Archived from
the original
on 16 October 2013
. Retrieved
31 October
2012
.
- ^
"NZ Truth to cease publishing after 125 years ? reports"
.
The New Zealand Herald
. 17 June 2013
. Retrieved
23 February
2024
– via
New Zealand Press Association
.
- ^
"Archive of Truth website"
. 23 December 2014. Archived from
the original
on 23 December 2014.
Further reading
[
edit
]