Kiwiboomers.com
is written by Kiwi (New Zealand) babyboomers for babyboomers. It features lively
commentaries, news, nostalgia and travel, as well as short stories, book reviews
and poetry. Kiwiboomers isn't about age - it's about living!
As a media columnist I discovered that TV ratings stopped at
55. After that, older people seemed to be written off by the Market despite
research which showed they were strong viewers with considerable disposable
incomes. According to Statistics New Zealand, Boomers are those born between
1946 and 1964. Relatively few countries, Australia, the United States, Canada,
England and New Zealand had baby booms. They also happened to be countries with
a strong emphasis on the concept of children as an asset to the nation at that
time. During those years Statistics calculated that 1.125 million babies were
born in New Zealand – 77% more than in the previous 20 years. We were
the last generation before television, before mass air travel, and the first
to savour rock and roll. There was always lots of potential for content here
but I felt it was being ignored.
Later, after I was appointed a Director to the Board of our
state broadcaster Television New Zealand, I could not interest either Sales
or my Board colleagues in that potential of the 50 plus audience. So we (my
wife and I) decided to do something about it. A year ago kiwiboomers was born.
I'm a journalist, non-fiction author and President of the New
Zealand Society of Authors (PEN). I teach non-fiction each year at Auckland
University and asked my former pupils, friends and news media colleagues if
they wanted to contribute. They did - and continue to do so on a voluntary basis
because they share our vision. There is a demand by boomers for well written,
intelligent copy which reflects their lives.
What kind of services do you propose ?
The only service we offer is good content and a creative outlet
for boomer writers. We try to reflect the mood of our generation - which will
not go easily into retirement. Future services may evolve from Kiwiboomers -
we are considering a number of promising directions.
What are the differences with other web sites for Boomers
?
We think ours is less commercial and more writer driven. That
is what people like about Kiwiboomers and every week we get new writers wanting
to contribute. We do run advertising and that helps, but our main emphasis is
content. From our experience advertisers have come to us because they too, believe
in a strong and focused content mix. Ours is very definitely Kiwi, but having
said that, some of our writers were originally from America, the UK, India,
Iraq, Fiji, Hungary - our mix represents the country's ethnic diversity. We
also have a growing number of expatriate writers.
Who are your writers ?
Some of them were still relative beginners when we began and
are now excellent columnists in their fields. Others include farmers, entertainers,
lawyers, published poets and authors, journalists, children's book authors,
business people and in one case, a cinematographer. They write for us free because
they say they share our vision which is to ensure boomers are not marginalised,
that we maintain a voice in society. Together our writers make the site exciting
and diverse as it continues to grow and evolve.
Visit the website : http://www.kiwiboomers.com
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