Dorothy – 12/12/97
One year old today! It’s NZine’s first birthday and what a happy birthday it is. Here at Plain Communications Ltd we’ve two reasons to be happy – winning a
Soda Award as one of the five best New Zealand sites over the
past year, and a rapidly increasing readership all around the world. We now have 20,000 page views a month.
Anniversaries are times to say thank you and as editor I have many people to thank as NZine is definitely a team effort.
Writers If I look at the way NZine is produced I guess I should start by thanking people who write articles. As I write a number myself I know that it takes a lot of time to produce the final product.
At the beginning of the year we had articles from staff member Kelly, who is now travelling the world. Thank you Kelly, for those film reviews and that entertaining article about the urgency of Christmas. I still laugh as I see myself doing just what you described. Readers if you missed it read
‘Before Christmas’.
Dagny and Conrad who have been on the staff now write great reviews and Conrad’s Rave Heart articles are widely read. The
Wizard of New Zealand and Dwayne Francks have sent us regular articles to make us smile and
lift us out of our computer bound preoccupations. Others have contributed occasional articles to give us welcome variety.
Auckland views Kate Methven has joined us to keep us up to date with what lies beyond the Bombay Hills. Our coverage of New Zealand is set to spread around the country in our next year.
People interviewed Many people have given me precious time for interviews for articles and I thank them for this and on behalf of NZine I thank them for the work they do in the community.
Research assistance Many of the articles I have written have required background research and special thanks must go to the staff of the New Zealand Collection at the Canterbury Public Library, in particular Joanna Bellringer who has been most supportive.
Photographs Peter has accompanied me on many outings and interviews to take photographs to bring the articles to life. Evan Glass contributed photos he took from a Methven balloon ride. We thank you both.
Graphic Design For our graphic design we have to thank James of Actech who has worked with Mark on making this an attractive site to visit.
Technical production Without the work of Mark and Conrad the articles would never reach the readers. On Saturdays they work overtime to bring these articles and illustrations to you on the Internet. They are an essential part of the NZine team. Robert, the manager of Plain Communications, has always been most supportive of all we have done. Thanks again to James of Actech, this time for the technical production behind Backchat, an innovative feature of NZine which gives us interactivity and immediacy, and was one of the factors in winning our award.
The READERS The venture would all be a waste of time without YOU, the readers. We rejoice at the increase in your numbers. We read the Guestbook entries with great interest and we ENJOY the Backchat we receive. A special thank you to you all for your support and for the time you have taken to give us feedback.
Some of you have written to NZine or to me as editor and I have valued your letters. It is great to make new Internet friends. Patti Bradford of Redmond, Washington, donated us an article about her New Zealand experience and by her questions inspired me to write about recent changes in New Zealand.
Sister City contact She also gave us information about the Seattle-Christchurch Sister City Association. We were most interested to read that you were able to visit the Pacific Voices exhibit at the re-opened and re-modelled Burke Museum. What an enjoyable idea for your Annual General Meeting – booking the whole museum complex for tours, dinner and the meeting! It should have meant a bumper attendance. We wish you an enjoyable Christmas party on December 13.
Would any other groups of expatriates like to send us news of your doings?
What were the most popular articles? The interviews with Dr Neil Cherry about the dangers of electromagnetic radiation, the Wizard’s article about Princess Diana, and the
pro-vegetarian article about what goes on at the abattoirs have attracted the most readers world wide. The Don’t Click Here button must have been irresistible for many readers, and more than seventy of them added their views on meat eating in the Backchat. This weeks celebratory issue sees a new piece of provocative journalism lurking under the Don’t Click Here button so be sure to take a look.
Stay with us Do keep visiting our site and inspiring us with your comments and questions.
Season’s Greetings All of us at NZine wish you a very happy Christmas and good health, prosperity and exciting surfing of the Net in 1998.
