Beginning 2022 with some strong journalism

By Michael Botur, May 19, 2022

Here at KiwiWords, we started 2022 by getting some journalism completed which was harder, better-paid and more-widely-spread than anything we’d done before.

Let’s start that again – it gets a little confusing doing this we/I plural/singular nonsense. We all know KiwiWords is a one-man band, the personal brand of communications professional Michael Botur.

Ahem – >

I started 2022 with some personal and professional achievements.

I managed to research and write an article exploring the fascinating family who run Heritage Expeditions, capturing photographs, and overcoming the hurdle of compression four decades of activity into a 1900-word story. This was sold to Canvas magazine, who I hope will publish the story in 2022.

• In January 2022 I had the privilege of following the Route 501 campaign from Christchurch to Dunedin to Auckland, with many phone interviews in between. This created my first story for NZ Listener magazine, NZ’s only weekly current affairs magazine, which has extremely high standards. In my professional capacity as a journalist with aspirations, getting a story into the Listener was the equivalent of sinking a 3-pointer in basketball. (This powerful story of Filipa Payne and the 501 Class Action Lawsuit https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/fighting-for-the-501s-why-filipa-payne-is-on-a-crusade-for-the-heartbroken-hard-men-deported-from-australia/SQKUKTEMLB7WGLH3UXDD2PB36M/)

• In February 2022 I attended a 501s gathering in Auckland, and followed up with a lot of research. This led to selling a story to major news outlet VICE World News – a publication which I’ve wanted to sell a story to for ten years. I discovered VICE World News had extremely discerning standards, and the story went through many edits with staff in Asia, the US and Australia before successful publication. (This amazing story about the kinship and support network for the 501s as they live in exile and prepare for a class action lawsuit against Australia https://www.vice.com/en/article/v7dng4/deportations-australia-new-zealand-501 )

• In April and May 2022, I was privileged to also write more articles and content for In The Dogbox magazine – who have always been very good to me, very supportive and empowered me to go out and represent the brand while enjoying the freedom to write whatever fit the magazine’s audience and standards. (https://inthedogbox.nz/articles/ )
• Oh – and a funny thing happened to my journalism career as I published a cover story about the Kiwi comedy industry – https://www.nzherald.co.nz/entertainment/a-funny-thing-happened-how-new-zealand-comedy-found-its-voice/5JYJ4D6BK5TN4UFAWYVPUKQ2EU/

-Michael Botur

mike@kiwiwords.co.nz