{"id":661,"date":"2012-10-10T14:38:16","date_gmt":"2012-10-10T01:38:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/?p=661"},"modified":"2012-10-10T14:38:16","modified_gmt":"2012-10-10T01:38:16","slug":"something-to-think-about","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/?p=661","title":{"rendered":"Something to think about"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/?attachment_id=660\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-660\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-660\" title=\"soapbox\" src=\"http:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/soapbox-271x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"271\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/soapbox-271x300.jpg 271w, https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/soapbox.jpg 407w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 271px) 100vw, 271px\" \/><\/a>Longer ago than I care to remember, a friend of a friend tried to launch a monthly magazine that would be supported entirely by its cover price.\u00a0 The idea was that the magazine would accept advertising but it would not rely on advertising for its survival.<\/p>\n<p>The content was to be long journalism and short fiction.\u00a0 And views from the Left and the Right were to be equally welcomed.\u00a0 What the advertisers wanted didn\u2019t matter.<\/p>\n<p>The editor\u2019s guiding philosophy was probably best summed up by the magazine\u2019s strapline: \u2018Something to think about\u2019.\u00a0 You may or may not agree with what this or that writer has to say, but it certainly gives you something to think about.<\/p>\n<p>Unfortunately, after just two issues, the magazine folded.\u00a0 The economics just didn\u2019t stack up.<\/p>\n<p>About five years later, I ran into the friend of a friend in London where she was editing a decidedly tabloid weekend magazine.\u00a0 Over a glass of wine, I asked her if she ever had thoughts of resurrecting <em>Freedom<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018I think the days of quality journalism are almost gone,\u2019 she said.\u00a0 \u2018For many publications the only thing that makes sense commercially is to run a few sensational shocker stories surrounded by what are essentially PR handouts.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>At the time, I thought that she was being overly pessimistic.\u00a0 Now I\u2019m not so sure.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Longer ago than I care to remember, a friend of a friend tried to launch a monthly magazine that would be supported entirely by its cover price.\u00a0 The idea was that the magazine would accept advertising but it would not &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/?p=661\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/661"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=661"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/661\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":662,"href":"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/661\/revisions\/662"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=661"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=661"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=661"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}