Losing Our Voice
Clunky, quirky, and not exactly easy on the eye, but I'm going to miss it.
Long-time editor Jay Bennie announced that he and his business partner Neil Gibb have decided it's time to retire, which looks like it means the end of Gaynz, the only site of genuine journalism and news that focussed on NZ's LGBTTI+ world.
And as a disclaimer, it's only fair to note that I've been published there many times, as well as in Express when Jay owned and ran that so well.
The website was definitely past its best-by date. It would seem to go against every cliche there is about what wonderful flair for design gay men are supposed to have. And Jay was generous in the way he covered so many smaller events and gave free publicity to many smaller community groups and efforts.
And most importantly, underneath the plain front was real journalism, not just empty puffery for advertisers.
Jay is a trained journalist, and he hired trained journalists over the years to edit the site, and this is what set it apart from any other NZ news sites or publications that aimed to cater for our communities. in 2011 the site was even nominated for a Qantas Media Award (now the Canon Media Awards).
I used to blog for the site, and had opinion pieces published at times. But I'm not a journalist and have never claimed to be.
Journalists bring a particular set of tools and standards to their work, or they should do. They investigate without fear or favour, looking for the facts and reporting on them.
And Jay did that over the years, whether he pissed off people from the community or not he wasn't afraid to follow a story all the way. Sometimes he pissed me off with how he did it, but he was honest and always acted with integrity, even when some people from our world expected him to cast a less critical eye over aspects of it.
What are we left with?
Eikon, the latest entry in the market, is a well-designed site but it is hardly a credible news source for New Zealand. It seems to mainly gather articles off the net and republish them, and do occasional op-ed pieces. It does that very well, but there is no actual investigative journalism or real reporting as far as I can see.
And Express, well that was initially set up by Jay and used to be a real newspaper, now it's really not much more than a gay Womens' Weekly or New Idea at best.
It's hard to imagine either one of these putting in Official Information Act requests while researching for for stories, or asking questions of a Minister. They do what they do ok, but they don't have a journalist's perspective.
And of course, this being New Zealand, it's not like there is a huge amount of relevant community news to report on every day anyway.
Part of all this is a reflection of how difficult traditional real journalism is finding survival in today's world. The internet has been great for journalism and also pretty detrimental. The old business model doesn't work so well - but Gaynz never really worked on that model. They were not dependent on advertising to function and I guess that helped them function more as real journalists.
With all its faults, it was a real news outlet. We'll be less well-informed without it, and our communities will lose an important voice.
Long-time editor Jay Bennie announced that he and his business partner Neil Gibb have decided it's time to retire, which looks like it means the end of Gaynz, the only site of genuine journalism and news that focussed on NZ's LGBTTI+ world.
And as a disclaimer, it's only fair to note that I've been published there many times, as well as in Express when Jay owned and ran that so well.
The website was definitely past its best-by date. It would seem to go against every cliche there is about what wonderful flair for design gay men are supposed to have. And Jay was generous in the way he covered so many smaller events and gave free publicity to many smaller community groups and efforts.
And most importantly, underneath the plain front was real journalism, not just empty puffery for advertisers.
Jay is a trained journalist, and he hired trained journalists over the years to edit the site, and this is what set it apart from any other NZ news sites or publications that aimed to cater for our communities. in 2011 the site was even nominated for a Qantas Media Award (now the Canon Media Awards).
I used to blog for the site, and had opinion pieces published at times. But I'm not a journalist and have never claimed to be.
Journalists bring a particular set of tools and standards to their work, or they should do. They investigate without fear or favour, looking for the facts and reporting on them.
And Jay did that over the years, whether he pissed off people from the community or not he wasn't afraid to follow a story all the way. Sometimes he pissed me off with how he did it, but he was honest and always acted with integrity, even when some people from our world expected him to cast a less critical eye over aspects of it.
What are we left with?
Eikon, the latest entry in the market, is a well-designed site but it is hardly a credible news source for New Zealand. It seems to mainly gather articles off the net and republish them, and do occasional op-ed pieces. It does that very well, but there is no actual investigative journalism or real reporting as far as I can see.
And Express, well that was initially set up by Jay and used to be a real newspaper, now it's really not much more than a gay Womens' Weekly or New Idea at best.
It's hard to imagine either one of these putting in Official Information Act requests while researching for for stories, or asking questions of a Minister. They do what they do ok, but they don't have a journalist's perspective.
And of course, this being New Zealand, it's not like there is a huge amount of relevant community news to report on every day anyway.
Part of all this is a reflection of how difficult traditional real journalism is finding survival in today's world. The internet has been great for journalism and also pretty detrimental. The old business model doesn't work so well - but Gaynz never really worked on that model. They were not dependent on advertising to function and I guess that helped them function more as real journalists.
With all its faults, it was a real news outlet. We'll be less well-informed without it, and our communities will lose an important voice.
Comments