New year, new look

Welcome to another year, and a new-look Heritage New Zealand magazine

We’re excited to be able to share with you some changes we’ve made to your magazine after months of work behind the scenes.

Firstly, you may notice the quarterly publication’s size – it’s now slightly taller and narrower than previous issues. We’d been considering changing to this new standard A4 size for a while, as the dimensions allow us to use the photography we commission (from some of the country’s finest photojournalists) to its best advantage. They also allow for more white space around stories, which we think creates a cleaner look.

However, the final decision was made when we discovered there were substantial cost benefits to the size change. Like everyone, we’re facing rising costs, which are affecting many areas of the magazine’s production. We also know members want as much of their support as possible directed to the core work of Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga –protecting and conserving our heritage –so shifting to this new size is a win-win.

We’ve also refreshed the look of the magazine’s title along the top of the cover (the ‘masthead’). This has provided not only a much-needed update but also the chance to better reflect the title of the magazine; we hope placing the ‘New Zealand’ below ‘Heritage’ makes it clearer that we are, in fact, Heritage New Zealand (not New Zealand Heritage) magazine. Inside, you’ll notice further changes. The magazine business is never static, and we’ve introduced changes in recent years – many to support greater and better use of te reo Māori, for example in story titles and kupu Māori glossaries.

The redesign in this issue brings these changes together, alongside some subtle changes to features such as photo captions and video links. Heritage New Zealand magazine Art Director Amanda Trayes always makes the magazine’s pages look beautiful, but I think her redesign takes this to a new level.

Importantly, there are aspects of the magazine we’ve left untouched.

Readers tell us consistently that the readability of our stories is important to them. More than a decade ago we changed the body font of our stories to one that provided optimal readability, and this remains unchanged. In response to readers’ feedback we’ve also limited story text running over photos.

Another piece of feedback we get from readers is about the magazine’s plastic wrap and whether this can be replaced with a paper envelope.

Sourcing sustainable wrapping solutions is such a major issue for the wider magazine industry that it’s the subject of an ongoing body of work for New Zealand’s Magazine Publishers Association. When balancing sustainability with durability and cost, the current advice is to stick with what we have – a soft plastic wrap that can be recycled through the Packaging Forum’s Soft Plastics Recycling Scheme. But rest assured, if a better solution becomes available, we’ll be looking into it.

Also unchanged is the quality and quantity of content in each issue. We love sharing stories of New Zealand’s unique, diverse and precious heritage, and we are excited to bring them to you in a refreshed format. We hope you enjoy the changes too.

Ngā mihi Caitlin

Heritage New Zealand magazine is printed with mineral oil-free, soy-based vegetable inks on Impress paper. This paper is Forestry Stewardship Council® (FSC®) certified, manufactured from pulp from responsible sources under the ISO 14001 Environmental Management System. Please recycle.

MEMBER AND SUPPORTER UPDATE… with Brendon Veale

Inspiring tales

As someone who is passionate about protecting New Zealand’s heritage, one of my favourite times/activities/jobs is when we have an active fundraising campaign underway.

Why? Well, believe it or not, it isn’t all about the money – although meeting a fundraising target is undoubtedly a wonderful thing. No, for me it’s about hearing why a place matters that I find so inspiring.

When sending donations to us to protect Antrim House, many of you have included notes explaining why you chose to support our project. For some, Antrim was the setting for their weddings. For others, it was the site of favourite family adventures many years ago, or the place where they worked.

Included in these communications have been stories from staff of the former Historic Places Trust (HPT), including Jim McKinlay, who walked the halls of Antrim House as a senior archaeologist in the 1980s.

Jim recounted to me: “It was nice to be based in an actual historic house. It was also a time when two different sections of the HPT – archaeology and historic buildings, which had been housed in separate buildings – were together in the same offices.”

Jim recalls moving into Antrim as “a really big thing” and exciting for staff. It was so newly restored they weren’t allowed to hang anything on the walls; instead they had to use the dado rail for hanging pictures, although one proved too heavy and fell, smashing the plug fittings below. Funnily enough, this rule continues at Antrim House today, where hanging things on walls is a strictly managed process!