New Zealand: Where Nothing Happens.
I was unsure of which country to pick when preparing for this paper. I kept away from non-English speaking countries as I didn't want to rely on Google Translate to get me through the webpages. I was talking about the upcoming Breaking Bad movie with my friend Peter when it hit me; "Peter is from New Zealand.... New Zealand!" So here I am, writing about The New Zealand Herald website.
The New Zealand Herald is the largest circulating newspaper in New Zealand, peaking at around 200,000 copies daily in 2006 and slowly declining to about 117,000 copies daily in 2017. The Herald is owned by New Zealand Media and Entertainment, a multimedia business incorporating multiple newspapers, radio stations, and websites across New Zealand and Australia.
The first edition of the New Zealand Herald was published in 1863.
At first glance, the website for The Herald is similar to most every-other major newspaper website: a lot of stories listed on one page, a lot of categories listed on one side, and a premium membership option. I will not be buying the premium membership as I'm not quite sure as to what it gives access to. It says, "premium access to NZ news," but I can already access all of the stories with no apparent limit after clicking around. The prices don't seem that bad though, only $2.50 a week or $200 for a year of news. The Herald also offers premium rugby coverage thorough the website for $40 for 12 weeks, which adds up to about $200 for a year of rugby coverage.
Examining the front page further, I noticed that every story is about New Zealand. There are no world-news stories on the front page of the website, and the page is divided into three sections: top stories, South Island news, and North Island news.
A Google search for, "New Zealand news," will yield you very little of anything not from New Zealand. There are a few articles by The Guardian and CBS News, but everything else is a news source from New Zealand. Besides, you can find the stories The Guardian is covering in The Herald anyway.
Stepping away from the website, I checked New Zealand for it's Press Freedom Index rating, and was not surprised to find it in 7th place, making it one of the safest and open places for reporting in the world. Just for comparisons sake, the United States ranks 48th in the world for press freedom.
I managed to track down the New Zealand Herald official Twitter account, which is very active and tweets 4-5 times per hour. There are multiple 'spinoff' accounts of the New Zealand Herald account, including New Zealand Herald Lifestyle, New Zealand Herald Travel, and New Zealand Herald Business.
The Herald also has a Facebook page, which is updated frequently alongside the Twitter account. There other social media includes Instagram, YouTube, and Google Plus (which is no longer available for brand accounts).
A news talk show can also be found on The Herald website, which you can listen to here through iHeartRadio. When I tuned in to the show at 2:30am (7:30 in New Zealand), they were discussing Rugby teams, especially one in particular that apparently needs a major culture change.
After reading a couple of articles on the website, The Herald is very similar to everything else I've ever gotten my news from, and there are no major differences from what I can tell other than some jargon that I can't decipher every now and again.
The website is a weak-point of The Herald however, as it's very crowded (like most news sites) and difficult to navigate at times. The paywall is also a downside, even though I can't figure out what it's blocking exactly. Check out The Herald for yourself!
