A New Zealand music magazine has just published its third issue.
Will it make it to No. 4? Newzician's editors aren't so sure...
It’s big, bold and beautiful.
It’s clear, concise and colourful.
Newzician, a magazine curated by three friends in their spare time, is full of clever writing, pristine photographs, big interviews, commissioned art, cartoon spreads and glossy profiles covering major artists and topical events.
It’s a stunning publication, one that’s supposed to be savored. “It’s designed to be there for a long period of time,” agrees the magazine’s co-founder Flynn Robson.
It’s also one hell of a punt. Robson and his friends are trying to do something no one has attempted in a long time: create a print publication dedicated entirely to New Zealand’s music scene.
There’s one clear reason for that lack of competition.
“There's not a lot of people doing this because you just lose money,” says Robson. “The inspiration wasn't a business model because it's not a business model.”
Instead, Robson, and his school and university friends Rosa Nevison and Sam Elliott, pour their energy into Newzician purely for the love of it.
“Media is in such a bad place,” says Robson. “The stuff that's thriving is the passion projects.”
But even they admit passion can only take you so far.
Towards the end of last year, as I covered the death of local music journalism in bleak, depressing, detail, Robson kept popping up in my DMs.
He was, he admits, trying to raise a flag in the face of the ongoing onslaught.
“Since the music media blitzkrieg, we have managed to release our latest music mag,” he wrote to me one day. “Here’s an opportunity to champion work that is being done in spite of it all.”
He had a point, so, over coffee, I asked Robson to tell me his story.
It starts in Dunedin, where Robson and Elliott moved after attending high school in Auckland together.
At the University of Otago, they met Nevison. The trio shared a passion for local music and going to gigs together so decided to turn their shared hobby into a magazine.
“It was people doing it for the love of it, feeling like they need to create something,” says Robson. Newzician – the tagline is, “A music mag for the music-mad” – was born.
The trio released their first issue at the end of 2021. It put the pillars of their publication in place: a small format magazine with a bold layout, colourful photographs and in-depth writing.
It looks incredible. Artists love it and spam them hoping to get into their next issue. Readers love it too. “The reception's always been really good,” says Robson. The 200 copies they printed sold out.
There’s just one problem: Publishing a magazine is expensive. “We lost thousands of dollars on the overall behind-the-scenes costs,” says Robson.
They forged on, spending nine months putting together issue No 2,, then released it at the end of 2022. Thanks to funding from Creative NZ, they were able to pay all of their contributors and break even. “That,” says Robson, “felt really good.”
Released a few months ago, issue No. 3 features interviews with Erny Belle, Pollyhill and Pickle Darling. It is, says Robson, their best effort yet. “We never want to do one that’s worse than the last one,” he says. “It’s got to to be the best one we’ve done.”
He taps the cover of the latest issue and says: “This is the best one we’ve ever done.”
Then he reveals something else. It could also be the last one.
At a different time, in a different world, Robson says he would have wanted to become a music journalist.
“Having started this and found this passion, I would want to do this fulltime if I could find a way to make it work,” he says.
But with the state of things, it’s just not possible. Right now, there are no print journalists working solely on Aotearoa music coverage. Those jobs don’t exist anymore.
So, to make it work, Robson, Nevison and Elliott all have day jobs. Newzician is the thing they do at nights and on weekends. Putting an issue together takes nine months. There’s a website to run, and merch to organise.
It’s a busy hobby. “Every single facet of creating a magazine is done by three people,” says Robson. “The design, the editing, the writing, the co-ordination, setting up interviews, working with contributors, giving feedback, finding a photographer … it’s pretty hectic.”
So they have some questions they need to answer.
Do they keep going?
Is it worth it?
Can Newzician break even without funding help?
Robson isn’t sure.
“We’re taking a break at the moment. We’ve got to,” he says. “We’re not talking about doing anything apart from revamping the website and selling the rest of the [back issues].
“In November or December we’ll have a chat about what we do in the future.”
Will there be a fourth issue?
Robson pauses, then says: “I don’t know.”
For things like Newzician to exist, it needs support. You can find the website here, read through an impression collection of feature stories here, and purchase back issues of the magazine here. Get amongst it – they’re good people doing great things…
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"Cold Chisel, Everclear, Bic Runga and Icehouse" - this is a bonkers lineup. Are the Summer Tour people pulling names out of a hat at random?! PS Seinfeld review at RNZ is great, nice one. PPS buying back issues of Newzician asap.