Kia ora. You’ve found Public Address, a New Zealand community of blogs and discussion forums that was active from 2002 to 2023 and is no longer being updated.
Public Address was founded and operated by journalist Russell Brown, as an extension of his weekly Hard News radio commentary on 95bFM (a partial archive of Hard News scripts is here), and built and maintained by the Auckland company Cactuslab, who kindly continue to host this archive.
Public Address played a significant role in the national conversation – including through live events such as The Great Blend and Orcon Live, a radio show and a book publishing imprint – and won a number of awards along the way. We also ran a popular Word of the Year poll from 2007 to 2021 and even made The Guardian with it. But all things must end and the site is now officially retired.
Public Address can be searched here or via the National Library’s DigitalNZ portal, which catalogues more than 5000 posts.
Below is an incomplete list of Public Address blogs and their authors. Many more people contributed to the site via its discussions and they were part of it too. Thanks to everyone who came. It was a great party.
Group blogs
Speaker
The Public Address open mic. Authors too numerous to list in full, but they include Nicky Hager, Deborah Russell, Felix Geiringer, Jess Berentson-Shaw, Annabelle Lee, Steven Price, Barnaby Bennett, Gavin White, Tim McKinnel, David Hood, Frank Ritchie, Tracey Barnett, Gareth Shute, Amberleigh Jack, Anke Richter, Greg Jackson, Matthew Dentith, Nicola Gaston, Eric Crampton, Ellinor Chisholm, Diane White, Greg Jackson, Bernard Hickey, Stella Duffy, Gareth Morgan, Giovanni Tiso, Finlay Macdonald, Nat Torkington, John Campbell, Shayne Carter and James Rae Brown.
Capture
The Public Address photoblog. The curators and primary contributors were Jackson Perry and Jonathan Ganley.
Feed
A food and drink-themed blog with several authors.
Access
A disability-themed blog with multiple authors including Shel Walmsley and Hilary Stace.
Great New Zealand Argument
A collection of writings about national identity compiled by Russell Brown. Authors include David Lange, Robin Hyde and Keith Sinclair. It eventually became a book and an electronic music track.